Octoberfest: let us extol the virtues of sauerkraut and cider
Fun fermentation for all!
October has arrived! The most beautiful month here in the Berkshires. Brilliant colored mountain slopes, framed by sapphire skies. Stunning.
It is also post harvest, time to fete with festivals - Octoberfests! And two crops to feature for fermenting are apple and cabbage.
Several fermented fruits and vegetables products have a long history in human nutrition, dating back to ancient centuries. Fruits and vegetables are perishable commodities due to their high water activity and nutritive values. Lactic acid fermentation increases their shelf life and also enhances several beneficial properties — nutritive value, flavor, and reduced toxicity. They can be a source of probiotics for several lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus plantarum, L. pentosus, L. brevis, L. acidophilus, L. fermentum, Leuconostoc fallax, and L. mesenteroides.
Sauerkraut and its super hot Korean cousin, kimchi.
Sauerkraut, a term which is made up of the German words sauer (sour) and kraut (cabbage), actually is a Chinese invention (like kimchi). The Chinese first fermented cabbage in rice wine over two millenial years ago. By the 16th century, the Europeans adopted the habit of fermenting cabbage in its own juices.
Sauerkraut benefits come from the probiotics which are derived from the fermentation process with lactic acid bacteria that is side product of the sauerkraut pickling process. Sauerkraut is a source of various strains of lactic acid bacteria —over 114 types! — and they can survive the low acid content of the stomach. Research from Functional Foods in Health and Disease determined that a very small dose of raw sauerkraut, 2 tablespoons, contains over 1 million colony-forming units (CFUs) of healthy probiotics. The probiotic effects of sauerkraut include the ability to fight Listeria monocytogenes, some strains of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, possibly even E. coli and salmonella.
Sauerkraut also includes beneficial fungal species. These little fungi produce enzymes to aid our bodies in digestion: amylase, amyloglucosidase, maltase, invertase, pectinase, ß-galactosidase, cellulase, hemicellulase, lipases, acid and alkaline proteases. It has antioxidants and anti-aging compounds like polyamines (putrescine, spermine, and spermidine). These amines help with cell growth and repair. They reduce allergic lung and intestinal responses which is reflected in reduced incidence of food allergy rates in children who have high polyamine intake in their diet in their first year of life.
Sauerkraut the ‘superfood: a low-calorie food loaded with folate, vitamin B6, riboflavin, thiamin, and vitamin K. It provides vitamin C [saved sailors from scurvy!] and minerals such as iron, potassium, and magnesium. Fermenting the cabbage releases nutritional benefits, making it more digestible and effective as a probiotic in the gut. A study of the consumption of sauerkraut on breast cancer risk indicating 74% reduction, provides more good news.
Reuben sandwich and apple cider. Mmmmm …. yum!
Apple Cider - sweet, hard or vinegar - all good!
Apple picking local orchards are very busy this month. Now, what to do with all those leftover delicious juicy crunchy ones, after all the pies are baked? Make cider!
Fermented beverages and especially non-dairy probiotic beverages are believed to be the next functional foods for probiotic delivery. Likely candidates are chilled fruit juices or fermented vegetable juices. For the consumer, they present the advantages of lacking dairy allergens such as lactose, containing low cholesterol and having a vegan-friendly status. The health benefits of fermented beverages have been described. The improvement of gastrointestinal health associated with the microbial content of fermented beverage is thought to be responsible for perceived health outcomes. Evidence of the direct or indirect action of the beverage microbiota on gastrointestinal health have been given over the years, even if the mechanisms involved are still unclear for the most part. The health benefits of apple beverages have been the subject of much scrutiny, for many years. For example, apple beverages, including cider, have been shown to have anti-viral properties. Some apple juices are already used as vectors of probiotic lactobacilli strains. Several traditional cereal and vegetal fermented beverages are the source of probiotic bacteria. Apple fermented beverages can therefore be sources and vectors of probiotics. Spent cider yeast, a by-product of the fermentation process, was used as a dietary supplementation in a piglet model. This supplementation proved to enhance gut functions and to reduce Salmonella and Escherichia carriage in porcine gut. Some probiotic potential has also been demonstrated for lactobacilli or pediococci. A probiotic beverage from apple fermented with L. casei has recently been developed for human consumption. FJ. Cousin et al
Production of fermented apple beverages is all the rage worldwide. ‘French ciders’ refer to fermented apple juice mainly produced in the northwest of France.
Cider is one of the oldest known beverages with apple trees known to exist along the Nile River Delta as early as 1300 BC. By the beginning of the ninth century, cider drinking was well established in Europe. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, cider consumption became widespread in England, and orchards were established specifically to produce cider apples.
In French traditional cider-making, alcoholic and malolactic fermentations come from indigenous flora naturally present on apples. At temps above 10◦C spontaneous fermentation begins within a few hours. This process is usually slow, requiring at least 2–3 weeks for the main fermentation and several months for the maturation. The varietal choice and maturity of the fruits influence the sugar content of the starting must and, thus, the final ethanol level. It is the malolactic fermentation that converts malic acid into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Different behaviors of the lactic acid bacteria flora depend on the kind of apples used. Lactobacillus sp. and Oenococcus sp. are the most common. Higher alcohols are directly derived from the metabolism of yeasts. They are synthesized during fermentation from oxo-acids originating in amino acids and sugar metabolism.
Benefits of apple cider and its vinegar are well known. I can point you to all the popular wellness blogs but this one lists 50 benefits: https://allremedies.com/benefits-of-apple-cider-vinegar/. I can personally attest to number 18: rinsing your hair with it really does make it shine!
And don’t forget the brewskis and brats for your Octoberfest fete … for they are very Germanic fare food for festivals, too!
REFERENCES
T Touret, et al (2018) Putative probiotic lactic acid bacteria
isolated from sauerkraut fermentations. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0203501. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203501
JP. Tamang et al. Functional Properties of Microorganisms in Fermented Foods. Front. Microbiol., 26 April 2016 Sec. Food Microbiology
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00578/full
MR Swain, Fermented Fruits and Vegetables of Asia: A Potential Source of Probiotics. Biotechnol Res Int. 2014; 2014: 250424. doi: 10.1155/2014/250424
https://thehealthyrd.com/22-raw-sauerkraut-benefits-that-may-change-your-life/
https://gardendrum.com/2012/11/11/how-to-make-cider-and-sauerkraut-german-style/
https://germanfoods.org/german-food-facts/sauerkraut-superfood/
FJ Cousin, et al. Microorganisms in Fermented Apple Beverages:
Current Knowledge and Future Directions Microorganisms 2017, 5(3), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms5030039
https://www.livestrong.com/article/377670-apple-cider-benefits/
https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/makingapplecider_uga.pdf