pickel

[Elizabeth]

Originally Posted by andypdx

How did you discover that Bubbies were raw? I scoured their website, but couldn't find the word "raw". I'd like to add them to my diet, but...

Here is the lovely and thorough response I received from the Bubbies site... (Thank You, Bubbies!!)


Hello Elizabeth;

Thank you very much for writing in we are always
pleased to hear from
someone else who is in the raw and naturally
fermented food community.

Bubbies Pure Kosher Dills, Dill Relish, Pickled
Green Tomatoes are all 100%
raw and our Old Fashioned Sauerkraut has been
heated, but not pasteurized.
Our Beet & Prepared Horseradishes are raw but
pickled in vinegar and the
same goes for our Herring Fillets in Wine.
Bubbies Bread & Butter Pickle
Chips are pickled in vinegar and are pasteurized.

We were forced to begin heating our jarred
Sauerkraut to calm the cultures
inside because they were causing the kraut to
continue to ferment too much
causing a buildup of gas that then causes the
brine to leak all over
distributor's and retailer's equipment and
shelving.

When we heat our Sauerkraut, it is quickly raised
to about 140 degrees and
then allowed to cool as it is being jarred. The
goal here is not to
eliminate all the beneficial cultures, but rather
to stifle them so they
won't cause the jars to leak. When our Bread and
Butter Chips are
pasteurized the pickle chips are heated to about
175 degrees and the brine
solution is just beginning to simmer (near 212).
This process is designed
at eliminating any potential cultures while the
heating we do for our
Sauerkraut is intended to calm them with the
specific goal in mind not to
eliminate them all.

We recently had all our naturally fermented
products tested for their
biological activity, including an additional
sample of our sauerkraut, but a
100% raw variety we are only able to distribute
in large buckets at this
time. Bubbies Raw Sauerkraut showed a minimal
increase in activity over the
heated, jarred Sauerkraut. The jarred Sauerkraut
definitely responded to
their biological activity tests and showed that
it has living beneficial
bacteria within; and, since the product continues
to change over time
because of continued fermentation (even when
refrigerated -- but most
definitely if left at room temperature); those
same enzymes produced in the
original fermentation are still being produced.
On a slightly different
note, the Sauerkrauts, raw and heated, tested a
much distant third on the
charts for biological activity than our second
and first place winners: The
Pure Kosher Dills and Pickled Green Tomatoes.
The tomatoes actually tested
the highest for biological activity and we
believe that has to do with the
fact that tomatoes have more residual sugars for
these beneficial bacteria
to live on after the fermentation process has
essentially stopped.

It is important to note that our Sauerkraut is
very crisp. It is crunchier
and able to maintain its crunch for far longer
than other brands of
Sauerkraut I have tried. This is because there
are still some vegetable
fibers left intact in the cabbage which are the
complex carbohydrates that
break down into the simpler food that the lacto
bacillus and bulgaricus
bacteria feed on during the fermentation process.
Our Sauerkraut maintains
its fibers better than others for several reasons
-- one, because we pay
close attention at when to pull and pack our
Sauerkraut; and two, because of
the method of preparation on the cabbages: they
are shredded coarsely, and
as a result the Kraut is not reduced to a near
relish consistency at the
end. This is one of the key reasons our
Sauerkraut is so active and why we
were forced to begin doing the heating process.
The fermentation process
must be carefully watched to ensure that the
product is packed and cooled at
a time prior to when the bacteria use up the bulk
of the food supply -- i.e.
when all the fibers in the kraut have been broken
down and those simple
carbohydrates have been consumed. If your
fermentation process is too long,
or at too hot of an ambient temperature, the
process will happen faster and
eventually you can over ferment your product. If
this happens the bacteria
have run out of viable food sources and begin to
die off. You can see that
in creating the optimal Sauerkraut there is quite
a bit more to it than just
throwing it together waiting until it is not
giving off anymore gas to throw
it in the jar.

The two gallon buckets of Sauerkraut we make and
distribute to local
restaurants and The Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
in San Francisco are 100%
raw. The distributors we deal with will not
carry this product because the
Sauerkraut is so active that it continues to
build up gas inside the buckets
causing brine leakage. These companies will not
risk having other products
in their trucks and warehouses be damaged by the
proliferation of our lacto
bacillus bacteria and the enzymes which naturally
follow from such an
extremely active Sauerkraut. We are currently
working on a smaller
container than two gallons for distribution to
the end line consumer. We
have made several attempts at this but cannot
seem to get our Sauerkraut to
stop building up that gas and leaking in any sort
of typical container. Our
next plan is to attempt to implement a snap lid
mason jar, with the big
metal clamp on the outside of the jar. While we
anticipate that this
product will only end up in select natural food
stores throughout the
country because of its extravagant packaging, but
if we can pull it off we
feel it is simply the best Kraut in the world.
If you would like to know
more about this product, check back in with us in
a few months and I'll be
glad to give you an update.

We hope this email answers your questions and
that you are well.

Kind regards,

Jeffrey R. Wilson
Bubbies of San Francisco, Inc.
Ph: (209) 951-6071
Fax: (209) 951-6290

[Gittel]

Thanks, Elizabeth!
Gittel