PSA: I was a brine-only snob for 2 years until my buddy from Austin threw some whey in his hot sauce

Last month I watched him pour leftover whey from his yogurt into a pepper mash and it fermented way smoother than my salt brines ever did. Now I'm mixing whey with my sauerkraut brine and the texture is totally different. Has anyone else tried blending different starters?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan1931mo ago

Man is just out here turning his hot sauce into a science experiment with leftover yogurt juice. You really think you're the first person to discover whey since some grandma in Eastern Europe has been doing this for 300 years? Next thing you know people are going to be tossing their pickle brine into everything and claiming they invented fermentation. Granted, I tried a whey ferment once and it did give a nice creamy tang, but my kitchen smelled like a dairy farm for a week. What's next, kombucha mother in the salsa?

robinson.leo7d ago

Wait, your grandmother kept it in a mason jar by the sink? Like, just sitting out at room temperature all the time? That is unhinged to me in the best possible way. I'm trying to picture my own grandma doing that with something and she was a stickler for putting everything in the fridge even if it didn't need it. The sour sock chicken story has me dying, I can only imagine trying to explain that smell to a roommate who probably thought you were trying to start a science fair project gone wrong.

julia_jones7229d ago

Nathan193 you cracked me up with that grandma comment because my own grandmother used to keep whey in a mason jar by the sink and I never knew what she was doing with it until I got older. One time I tried using leftover whey to marinate chicken and the whole house smelled like a sour sock for two days, my roommate was not impressed. I get that some folks get all excited about rediscovering old tricks but people have been fermenting stuff since before we had refrigerators, it's not exactly a new invention. The pickle brine thing is real though, I know a guy who puts it in his bloody marys and swears it's the best thing ever. At the end of the day we're all just copying our great grandparents and pretending we're geniuses.