Fermented Foods

WagsTowson

Pickling uses heat, bad for the good cultures, kills them off. No heat in fermentation, so the cultures get to live.

nooshi713

I second Kimchi and Kombucha.

nighthawk584

I've only tried Kimchi cold...I wonder how it is cooked? Sometimes it's a little too fishy for me but I still like it and I have a sensitive gut. If I eat too much of it , like sauerkraut, it gives me a lot of gas!

AnnPT77

Wikipedia has a good article about fermented foods, listing many of them, including bunches I'd never heard of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fermented_foods

I haven't seen a kombucha without non-caloric (or low-calorie) sweeteners, though I'm sure they must exist. I don't like the taste of any non-caloric sweeteners I've tried, and can taste it in the small number of kombuchas I've tried. I'm the rare person - I guess - who thinks that vinegar tastes good, and various types are available raw/with "the mother", which is what you want if you're looking for probiotic ones. ("The mother" is just vinegar culture, needed in traditional cultured vinegars, not a woo concept.)

There are lots of ways to "pickle", fermenting is one, so is salt-brining (which may not develop probiotic cultures) or putting into vinegar. Some fermented things are not "pickled"; not all "pickles" have probiotics.

I frequently eat live-culture yogurt, kefir, vinegars, miso, tempeh, kim chi (there are some vegan ones available, though not really traditional). It would be a rare day without at least 2-3 types of fermented foods: So yummy!

Homemade sauerkraut will not need added water if one follows the traditional process. Just slice cabbage super thinly (one recipe I used to use said "thinner than a dime"), and layer with pickling or kosher salt in a ceramic/glass or other suitable crock, smash it down layer by layer with something (wooden spoon will work) so that the salt & mashing make the cabbage release juice. The juice should be sufficient to cover the sliced cabbage soon after your container is full. Weight down the surface with a suitably-sized plate to hold the cabbage below the liquid (put a container of water on top if extra weight is needed), and cover with a cloth. Daily, skim off any scum, wash the plate (and weight, if used), and put it back together.

Note that heating (such as canning) the kraut will kill the potentially-beneficial microbes.