Seaweed Pickling Thread
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Love the header picture for the processing + markets category... it shows exactly what I was coming here to ask about.
Has anyone experience with pickling seaweed? I am particularly interested in herbs and spices that bring out and complement the flavours in seaweed - sugar kelp specifically.
Fermentation, brine, vinegar?
Have you tried using seawater as the brine or to add salt. As part of the fermentation starter?
Please post pictures of your ocean-in-a-jar!
@jeremiah_sand - Hi! Thanks for the question. There are several companies in the U.S. making fermented kelp products (Atlantic Sea Farms (ME), Barnacle Foods (AK), Foraged & Found (AK), etc). GreenWave also led a project with Harvest Kitchen in Rhode Island to develop recipes for kelp farmers to white label or process themselves if they had either a) a cottage industry license or b) access to a commercial kitchen with all the proper licensing and approvals. Of course, these are also great for the home chef with no plans to sell the fruits of their labor
Here is the link to the recipes.
As you start to think about getting busy in the kitchen I'd also recommend reviewing the Hub guidance on New Product Development as you're thinking about recipe development. In this lesson, we link to our e-guide to co-packing with kelp, which breaks out in great detail the process for taking a recipe from the idea phase to a commercial scale product run.
Please chime in with your recipe ideas!
@jeremiah_sand -I pickle stipes every year because the texture is so perfect and crunchy. The flavor is pretty mellow so i tended to use a lot of herbs and garlic. I quick pickle and store it in the refrigerator. The pickled stipes are a big hit in my family - we add it to potato salad, tartar sauce, tuna, bloody marys
I have never used seawater in the pickles because of the extra steps it would add (filtering and boiling the seawater).
There is certainly a market out there for these types of products - more so for shelf stable ones - but a commercial kitchen is needed to scale these beyond farmers markets or to sell them out of state.
Rich Shih (author of the Koji Alchemy) has some great fermented kelp recipes out there as well. He makes an amazing curtido.
@suzie_flores Hello I am making a spicy kelp and dill pickle and a variation on the Gardenalia that is popular. I would love you to try them . 401-447-6729.
@suzie_flores Hello I am making a spicy kelp and dill pickle and a variation on the Gardenalia that is popular. I would love you to try them . 401-447-6729.