Homemade Sausage Making

A recent harvest by my wife brought up these organic dandies from our garden...


What to do with so many turnips?
I turned once again to the Marianski book ("Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles & Relishes") and found the answer: Fermented Turnips!

The weigh-in.
Just a bit over 4 pounds,; once trimmed a bit, they'll weigh pretty much 4 pounds on the nose.


I used my food processor to slice these turnips. Hard, wet turnips are difficult to hold & slice thinly with a knife-and I didn't want to spend all morning slicing-so I went with the processor. Added kosher salt (2.5%) and gave them a good toss. Then let them sit for about 30 minutes. They sure smell STRONG! Some are rather hot...


Packed tightly in a jar. I continued to press the turnip slices down with a potato masher to help them release juices. Soon, like the sauerkraut, the vegetables are covered in brine. I filled & sealed a food saver bag with brine & used that to weigh the turnips down.


The Sauerruben now joins the fermenting beets on my upstairs landing. They'll need a bout 2 weeks to do their thing. Temps hover around 65-73° for the most part.

Kevin

Interested in how both turn out.

Kevin
Do you ever take a break You sure are a busy feller!

Wally

Great start!

I love me some sauerruben.

Excellent! I'm starting to believe that if you put your mind to it, you could ferment a brick and make it look and taste great! Nice work pal.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Time to try the fermented turnips!

Once I opened the jar, a sharp turnip/horseradish aroma greeted me. This was what I was expecting after having been slowly fermenting or about 3 weeks with temps 65-74°...

One taste... Wow.....NOT good. BITTER, hot and pretty awful.
Now granted, I'm not the biggest turnip fan to begin with, but this process brought out some of the worst things I don't like about them: strong dirt taste and bitter. Blehhhhh!

My wife got a big kick out of watching my facial expressions as I tired several bites of the sauerruben. I did have others (my brave sons) try the batch. Thumbs down all around.

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I will make sauerkraut and fermented beets again. 2 thumbs up there!
The fermented turnips I'll leave for the turnip fans.

Kevin

Mine turned out tasting a lot like sauerkraut but their was a strong mustardy hotness that came in after a while. Not a big fan either but I guess I'd eat em if I was starving.