Three years of careful ferments undone in one dumb afternoon

I had this jar of kraut going since 2021 in my basement in Portland. Used the same starter culture, same salt ratio, kept the temp stable. Last Tuesday I was rushing and just dumped the new batch of cabbage in without letting it cool from the blanching. Next morning the whole jar had this weird slime on top. My oldest ferment gone because I got impatient. Anybody else lost a long-term project to one stupid mistake?

2 comments

2 Comments

faitha401mo ago

I once stored sourdough starter next to a space heater and lost ten years of culture overnight.

finleyfox1mo ago

Bro that slime is the worst. It's like the ferment's ghost coming back to haunt you. The temp shock probably killed off the good bacteria and let something else take over. I've lost a batch of hot sauce that way where I got lazy about letting the peppers cool after roasting and it just turned into this weird cloudy mess. If you ever try again with a long-term jar, maybe keep a backup starter in the fridge just in case. That way you're not starting totally from scratch if something dumb happens.