Cortido Taste Test

In my Last Entry I'd just made a huge batch of cortido (Mexican style fermented cabbage). I taste tested on Saturday and was very pleased with the results, although it was still quite mild after only three or four days fermenting. Today, for lunch, I made myself some naked fried tilapia (seasoned, no breading, fried in oil) and served myself some cortido on the side. The fish and the cortido go very well together. Got the idea from reading up on how the French serve sauerkraut (they call it choucroute). In France choucroute is frequently serve alongside fish. Not that that's the only way the serve it, of course.

After a few more days of "aging" on the countertop it got spicier and spicier. Delicious! It is crisp, refreshing, and flavorful. Plain sauerkraut tastes decidedly different from the cortido. I can't explain this very well except to say that plain sauerkraut is yet more cool and definitely more sour. The cortido, to me, tasted lighter, a bit more mild, and more flavorful.

I won't eat canned sauerkraut. The texture is very unappealing to me which is why I always thought that I didn't like sauerkraut. This, however, is so fresh and crisp, it's entirely different than the canned stuff. I am getting quite used to fresh fermented cabbage.

I haven't seen a single speck of mold or anything else suspicious looking on my fermented cabbage. I only blogged about the cortido, but a week before making it I also had a batch of kimchee style cabbage fermenting on the counter (which I have since finished off) as well as some plain sauerkraut in the making. Those two batches spent nearly two weeks on the counter before going into the refrigerator. No sign of spoilage, no mold. After leaving them alone for the first three days I tasted them daily until they seemed about right and have put them in the fridge to keep them that way.