Real-world Virtuous Cycles (Lacto-fermentation - kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s pickling time for me and I am currently starting off a batch of lacto-fermented wild garlic, and I was pondering the process of lacto-fermentation this morning, as an example of a real-world virtuous cycle - where a thing does more than just ‘work’ - it works because it works - in a sort of positive feedback loop.

In the case of lacto-fermentation:
Many of the micro-organisms that make us sick, or spoil our food, happen to hate acidity and/or salt.
A subset of the micro-organisms (Lactobacilli) that are actually gut-friendly, are salt tolerant, love acidity, and make acid.

So you just put a bunch of vegetables in salt or salt water - the salinity favours the reproduction of the (naturally present) Lactobacilli, and stifles the reproduction and/or survival of the bad bugs; the Lactobacilli love this salty soup and reproduce like crazy; excreting lactic acid as a waste product; the acidity is the final nail for the bad bugs, so the Lactobacilli now don’t even have any competition, and also, love this salty, acidic soup, so carry on doing their thing; thriving, reproducing, excreting acid, increasing the overall acidity; the acidity prevents any new, incoming bad bugs from gaining a foothold, plus the salt, and especially the acidity, chemically preserve the crispy aesthetic qualities of the vegetable pieces in the mix.

Now some of this probably comes about because of co-evolution between Lactobacillus and ourselves, but it still seems almost magically convenient that this not only works, but works in a mode that is sort of runaway positive self-reinforcement.

2

In the brewing of sour beer (which I love) some brewers purposefully expose their brew to the naturally occurring Lactobacilli in the air. The brewer then gives significance to where the exposure happened. When the beer turns out especially well, they’ll tell you that the place they “collected” their bacteria is a secret.

Interesting stuff. Do you make pickles, and do they remain crispy without addition of calcium chloride?

3

I bake sourdough, make beer, and make pickles.

The latter never need calcium chloride to remain crispy. I don’t even know where I would buy some.

4

Commercially pickled pickles often use it.

5

Amazon, for one. Brewing supply, cheese making, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Tractor Supply.

6

I was more interested in whether fermented pickles needed “help” to stay crispy.

7

I live several thousand kilometers from those stores, and while Amazon does (eventually) deliver here, I’ve not felt the need to pay US$ for a product that I could probably synthesize in my own kitchen.

In any case, my pickles are crunchy enough without CaCl2.

8

In Lacto pickles, the salt keeps the items crisp. I’ve never pickled cucumbers that way, but people do.
If you add less salt, the fermentation is fast but the pickle is softer. More salt and the fermentation is slower, but the result is more crisp.