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Fermented Salsa — 21 Comments

  1. I live in FL and we have abundant nopale cactus to forage, so whenever it comes time to make salsa, I always add a bunch for their economy, health benefits (great for blood sugar) and amazing thickening capacity. I know some people think they are slimy (like okra) but in salsa they can compensate even for watery tomatoes by giving the ferment more body and blend great with the other ingredients flavor wise. I used to use tomatillos but have just replaced them with the nopales. The price is right!

    • Ferments will keep for a very long time as long as you refrigerate them. The refrigeration process cools the ferment and significantly slows the fermentation activity. Fermentation, among many other things, is used as a method of preservation, as the increased lactic acid in the ferment helps to preserve the underlying ingredients. Unless your ferment gets moldy, it’s probably good. It will continue to sour over time, so in many respects the length of viability of a ferment is more of a question of taste. Good luck!

  2. My friend ferments the Sally Fallon way, putting her ferments in a mason jar with a lid on and leaves it without opening in her storage room until she is ready to use it, sometimes years later. She has had only a couple go bad. I am more hesitant and would like to use an airlock or crock to ferment but how would I move it and store long term in my storage instead of my fridge? Wouldn’t it introduce air when I remove he airlock and place a lid on it?
    Do you always keep your ferments in the fridge?

    • I always refrigerate my ferments once they are ready for consumption so I don’t have much advice for you. I’ll try to learn more about the Sally Fallon Nourishing Traditions method you are referring to.

    • The lime juice helps to lower the pH which supports food safety. As it ferments, the pH drops yet lower. The salt helps prevent some unwanted microorganism growth and the airlock helps prevent unwanted microbes from entering the ferment. The fermentation process lowers the pH as well. As I always say though, your senses need to be your best guide, so if something looks, smells, tastes “off,” best to use precaution.

  3. I’ve made this once and it was delicious. I used my fermentation crock and let it go about 5-days. One addition I made was to add some roasted peppers.

      • I’ve been making this non-stop! Gets eaten quickly every time. Also tried your pepper sauce ferment, which was wonderful. New addition to the salsa recipe (still using roasted peppers) is some fresh peaches. Added an interesting flavor. The other thing I’ve been doing is once the fermentation seems right, I like to put it in the food processor to get it a little less chunky. One last note – I’ve made in both my fermentation crock and a mason jar with an airlock device. It’s really cool to see the bubbles in the mason jar!

  4. The top picture has a smoother consistency than the other recipe pictures. Did you use a blender or just finely chop the ingredients? If a blender was used, when was it applied? Before fermentation or just for presentation?

  5. hello Ted, thanks for the simple and healthy recipe and well-done too. Something else has also caught my attention and fancy in the 6th frame in your above write-up. Its the brownish-grey and thin cracker -like edibles pasetries i see scattered round the plate of the salsa. Am quite interested in knowing the recipe for those too to complete my knowledge about this recipe. thanks

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