How to Use This Guide
This documentation is organized from science → methods → recipes → reference, the same structure as its sister site Frozen. Every page is one of a small set of repeatable types, so once you learn the shape you can read fast.
Conventions you’ll see everywhere
Section titled “Conventions you’ll see everywhere”- Salt % is always by weight. Two bases, always labeled: total-weight % (dry-salt / kraut: salt as a % of vegetable weight) and equilibrium-brine % (submerged: salt as a % of vegetable + water combined). The Brine calculator does both.
- Temperatures are given in °C and °F. Lacto-ferments run 18–22 °C / 64–72 °F; cold storage at 2–4 °C arrests a finished ferment.
- Recipes use 1 Jar / 1 Crock columns plus a Yield, a Readiness Window, and a Done-when line (target pH or “sour, no fizz”, days at temperature, and how to arrest by refrigerating).
- Safety claims are cited. Anything about canning or pH points to NCHFP / USDA / FDA.
Recommended reading order
Section titled “Recommended reading order”Read Safety First
Safety First covers the pH 4.6 line, the salt floor, mold rules, and when we hand off to authoritative sources. It frames everything else.
Design a brine
Use the Brine & Salinity calculator to turn a vegetable and a target salinity into grams of salt.
Pick a method, then a recipe
Method pages teach the technique and its parameters; recipe pages apply it with exact weights and a readiness window.