1/21/2021 – This is our first fermentation of Daikon Radishes this year. They were pulled, cleaned, and prepared today in the form of a long spear as opposed to last year when we did them as coins. This ferment also uses a 7% brine as suggested from last year’s limp coins made with a 6% brine. The result was crunchy but a little salty. All in all a success some would say but Mary said they smell really bad and I did not care much for the taste. This post was not deleted to record that 7% brine worked ok and the links below to brine calculators.
A recipe found today to see how someone else did it successfully also used a 7% brine—although she only gave the brine recipe in volume measurements of sea salt and water. Hopefully, last year’s suggestion to increase the salt to 7% was a good one as that is what we did.
Found two great web pages that helped compute the percent by weight showing that 2 tablespoons of sea salt in 2 cups of water created a 7% solution. Those sites were:
Ingredients:
- Very large, end of the season, daikon radishes from our garden prepared by cutting off about 1/8″ of the outer tough surface; then cut them into about 4″ long triangular spears and long square-shaped cubes.
- Placed 4 large cloves of garlic in each quart jar;
- Stood the spears up in the jars and topped off with small “coins”. [perhaps the spears could have been cut longer to reach the top of the jar.]
- Mixed a 7% brine using canning salt and our well water;
- Filled the jars with the brine so the top of glass weight was near the bottom of the threads and the brine covered it.
2/14/2021 – First taste test found them firm with some crunch but a little salty. Not so salty to be inedible. Ok flavor with a hint of the garlic but not worth making more. Mary hated the smell … so that was the final straw.
