corn fermented Nourishing Traditions pickle real food

Corn relish - lactofermented and "normal"

Jul 06, 2012by Farmer Liz

We bought 8 corn cobs for $2 at the farmers market and knew we couldn't eat all of it and I really really wanted to try making relish (was hoping to grow corn, but that didn't work out), so it was a perfect opportunity to try a fermented relish and a vinegar relish based on these recipes:

Fermented corn relish recipe and general fermenting advice
Vinegar based corn relish recipe

They both started the same way, cut the corn from the cob, chop some capsicum, cucumber, tomato and blend.

For the vinegar relish I then cooked about half the corn/vege mixture with salt, sugar, vinegar, tumeric, cumin, mustard and pepper.

The other half of the mixture was mixed cold with whey, salt and coriander (by the way, I freeze the whey, so it hasn't been sitting the fridge since January!)

These are the finished products, lactofermented relish on the left, vinegar relish on the right.

Comparison:

I like the taste of both relishes, the lactofermented relish is "fresher" tasting, especially with the coriander.
The lactofermented relish is quicker to make, has less ingredients, and doesn't have to be cooked. It will also last longer as I don't have a pressure canner to preserve the vinegar pickle for longer (and that's a bit pointless for one jar anyway!).
Lactofermenting results can be variable (in my experience so far) and don't always get eaten before they go off, but then neither does the vinegar pickle.

Just in case you think I'm a fermenting genius, below are two fermenting fails. There are still some pickles that are ok, but this jar went mouldy and we never finished the sauerkraut, I think we just don't like it that much. It has been fun to experiment though and to try new foods and preserving methods.

Do you ferment anything?

More from: corn fermented Nourishing Traditions pickle real food

Back to Eight Acres - the blog

eBooks By Eight Acres

View all

eBook - Make Your Own Natural Soap

eBook - Our Experience with House Cows

eBook - A Beginner's Guide to Backyard Chickens and Chicken Tractors

eBook - Advanced Natural Soapmaking Techniques

eBook - Grow Your Own Vegetables

Eat what you grow, or grow what you eat?
Most conventional vegetable garden planning advice says to "grow what you eat", to look in your fridge for ideas of w...
Book review: Modern Slow Cooker
I first bought a slow cooker after our first experience butchering a steer at home. Unfortunately, we didn't know tha...
Prickly Pear - weed or useful plant?
The Prickly Pear cactus (Opuntia genus) is native to southern USA, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and tropica...
Butchering Poultry
Last weekend we got up early and prepared for a morning of killing poultry, not my ideal Saturday morning, but the ti...
Cooking with the sun!
I can't remember when I first came across the idea of using a solar cooker. Maybe in Grass Roots magazine or a prepp...