many people ask-- isn't fermentation and
pickling, aren't they the same thing? the
answer is that most fermented foods are
pickled but not all pickles are
fermented so this chart I'm illustrating
two different techniques to preserve or
pickle food let's talk about some of the
differences between fermentation and
pickling the preserving liquid used in
quick pickling or canning is vinegar
which is itself a fermented food however
it's been distilled so none of the
probiotic content of that vinegar when
it was first fermented still exists so
we're just using it strictly as a way to
acidify and keep the food preserved
whereas with fermentation we're actually
starting off with brine which is salt
and water and during the fermentation
process the brine gets transformed into
a more acidic solution and that includes
lactic acid acetic acid lots of
different substances that the various
microbes are created at the environment
when we ferment of course needs to be
hygienic and clean we want to use hot
soapy water to clean all of our utensils
in our fermenting gear but it doesn't
have to go to that step that quick
pickling Canon does which is you really
need to sterilize and sanitize
everything that you're using in order to
keep out any errant microbes because
again the strategy for quick pickling is
we don't want any microbes because we
want to keep the bad ones out another
key difference between the two methods
is that fermented foods are probiotic
because again we are cultivating a
culture of bacteria
whereas with canning or quick pickling
the idea is keep everybody out of the
party
fermentation also adds nutrients because
during that process of these various
bacteria living their lives they create
lots of new things
vitamins digestive enzymes etc routes
with Kenya a quick pickling what you put
in the jar is exactly what you're gonna
get out of it as far as the relative
speed of both methods fermentation is a
little bit slower because fermentation
generally happens at room temperature or
as I like to say at the speed of nature
whereas once you've sealed something up
after you've quit pickled it it's pretty
much ready to go so by and large it's a
faster process I think the flavor of
fermented foods is a lot more complex
due to the fact that over the number of
days or weeks or however long were
fermenting something the microbes are
doing their thing and various new
compounds have been formed the final
difference between the two methods has
to do with how shelf-stable they are
quick pickled or canned foods once
they've been sealed up are very shelf
stable they will be completely preserved
for years and years if you don't open
them whereas fermented foods are not
inherently shelf stable at room
temperature and that's because at room
temperature they're doing their thing
they're actually actively fermenting so
fortunately we have refrigerators and so
once we decide a fermented food has the
right flavor and texture that we like we
simply move it to the refrigerator the
refrigerator acts as a fermentation
super-slow-mo or maybe a fermentation
pause button that is it hasn't killed
the good bacteria that we just
cultivated but it makes them very docile
and very lethargic so things will
continue to develop in the refrigerator
just very very slowly
