The carrots were fermented successfully!

The fermentation lasted exactly 72 hours. The brine turned slightly cloudy with a weak sour smell after approx. 24 hours, which was an indication that fermentation started well.

After 72 hours total, the brine was a bit cloudier with a stronger, but pleasantly sour/tangy smell, accompanied by a characteristic “fresh” smell that came from the carrots. Some online resources advised to check the firmness of the carrots after 3 days, which is the minimum amount of time I gave myself to ferment them, and it’s also the minimum amount of time of fermentation as per the paper I mentioned in part 1 of this journey.

The finished product

The carrot sticks remained crunchy, but the outer layer turned a bit rubbery and springy. This springiness would probably take over the entirety of the carrot stick the more it’s left to ferment. I like some crunchiness to be present though, so my carrots were perfect. The color of the carrots remained vibrantly orange.

The taste is very interesting: slightly salty, slightly tangy (indicative of lactic acid), with a very refreshing taste that comes from carrots. Interestingly, the carrots retained most of their sweetness (again, especially the inner parts that also remained crunchy).

If I would have to compare this product with sauerkraut, the carrots are way less intense: one could munch on these as a snack, as they are nowhere near as salty and tangy as sauerkraut; these carrot sticks also could be used as a side dish/salad type of food.

All in all, I think that the 72 hours are a great starting point for fermentation of the carrots. After the 72 hours, one should keep these in the refrigerator, with a lid tightly screwed on; the low temperature of the refrigerator will slow down the fermentation process significantly. The cloudy brine may be a visual concern for some people (it’s perfectly fine to consume, and full of probiotic lactic acid bacteria), and this problem could be solved by pouring out the cloudy brine and adding freshly made 2% NaCl brine back in. The LAB will repopulate the brine slowly, and the carrots are still a probiotic product, but the presentation of the carrot sticks in a jar with a much clearer brine would be achieved, which is an important factor in general food consumption for most people.

My next experiment is to inoculate a batch with sauerkraut juice, and see what I get. I’ll write a post about this in near future.