Fermentation
Kimchi, kraut and pickles from a jar on your counter.
Learn fermentation as a beginner
Fermenting vegetables needs nothing more than jars, salt and a little patience. This beginner course covers the safety basics first, then sauerkraut, brine-fermented pickles and carrots, quick pickles, kimchi and a fermented hot sauce, ending with a ferment you design yourself. No crocks or airlocks required.
The path
- 1
Level 1Free First Jars
Sauerkraut and quick pickles
14 Steps, about 27 minutes each. Total beginners with a kitchen counter. No special crocks or airlocks needed, just jars and salt.
- Chapter 1: Salt, safety and sauerkraut. Quick pickles in the fridge, the four safety rules learned, and a jar of sauerkraut bubbling on the counter.
- Chapter 2: Brine ferments. Finished sauerkraut, a jar of fermented carrots, deli-style pickles underway, and a pepper mash for hot sauce.
- Chapter 3: Kimchi, hot sauce and your own recipe. Kimchi, a bottle of your own hot sauce, a recipe you designed, and a shelf of ferments to share.
- 1Show your groupMake quick fridge picklesA jar of quick pickles in your fridge, ready to eat in a day or two.
Quick pickles are vegetables soaked in hot vinegar brine and kept in the fridge. They aren't fermented: the sourness comes straight from the vinegar, not from bacteria. That makes them fast, and a good first jar while you learn the slower craft.
Vinegar is acidic enough to flavor and firm the vegetables within a day or two. The salt seasons them, and a little sugar softens the sharpness.
The detail beginners miss is the salt. Use pickling or canning salt, which is pure salt. Table salt has iodine and anti-caking agents that can cloud the brine and darken the vegetables.
Here's an example pint jar. Cucumber spears and a few onion slices packed snugly with a garlic clove and a sprig of dill. Brine of 3/4 cup vinegar, 3/4 cup water, 2 1/4 teaspoons pickling salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, boiled 2 minutes and poured over to cover. Cooled, lidded, refrigerated.
Right is crisp, tangy pickles after 24 to 48 hours. Quick pickles are not shelf-stable: keep them in the fridge and eat them within about a month. Hot brine can scald, so pour carefully with the jar in the sink.
- 2Learn the safety rulesKnow the four rules that keep ferments safe, and have your salt and scale ready.
- 3Practice the 2% salt mathWeigh a head of cabbage and work out exactly how much salt it needs.
See all 14 Steps
- 4Make your sauerkrautA quart jar of cabbage packed tight and fully under its own brine.
- 5Show your groupCheck, burp and skimYour kraut checked: bubbling, under brine, and any white film skimmed off.
- 6Ferment carrot sticks in brineA jar of carrot sticks covered in a 2.5% salt brine.
- 7Show your groupTaste and finish your krautYour sauerkraut tasted, and moved to the fridge once it's sour enough for you.
- 8Start fermented dill picklesA jar of whole or spear cucumbers fermenting in a dill-garlic brine.
- 9Troubleshoot like a proEvery jar checked against the troubleshooting list, with any problem named.
- 10Start a pepper mashA jar of chopped hot peppers and garlic fermenting in brine.
- 11Make a small batch of kimchiA jar of easy cut-cabbage kimchi packed and fermenting.
- 12Blend your hot sauceYour fermented peppers blended into a bottle of hot sauce.
- 13Design your own fermentA jar of your own recipe, with the vegetable and salt ratio chosen and calculated by you, without a video.
- 14Show your groupLine up your fermentation shelfAll your finished ferments lined up together, tasted and labeled.
Level 2Unlocks after Level 1 Kimchi
A full batch of kimchi
Level 3Unlocks after Level 2 Brewing
Your own kombucha
Where it ends: a fridge full of ferments
Questions about learning fermentation
How long does it take to learn fermentation?
Level 1 is 14 Steps of about 27 minutes each, around 6 hours in all, split into 3 chapters. Go at your own speed: one Step a day, or a whole chapter in a sitting.
What do I need to start fermentation?
You'll need digital kitchen scale (grams), canning and pickling salt and wide-mouth quart mason jars with lids (3). Expect to spend about $25 to start Level 1.
Can a complete beginner learn fermentation?
Total beginners with a kitchen counter. No special crocks or airlocks needed, just jars and salt.
What will I have made by the end of Level 1?
Homemade sauerkraut, fermented pickles and carrots, quick pickles and a hot sauce, made safely in jars.
Is this fermentation course free?
Yes. Level 1 of every hobby on Eras is free, and every Step links free lessons from great teachers online. Eras Plus is an optional subscription that opens the levels after it.
Free lessons in First Jars come from Chef Amanda Freitag, NC State Extension, Joshua Weissman, University of Illinois Extension, Yang's Nourishing Kitchen, Fermenting for Foodies, National Center for Home Food Preservation, Clean Food Living, Leelalicious, LifebyMikeG, Homesteading Family, Maangchi, Blooming Bayou, Chili Pepper Madness. We link to their work and never copy it.