v: Our Man in the Field
David Hughes meets Ruth Munro David Hughes The opportunity to visit a fermentarium does not present itself often. Even rarer, surely, to visit one that has scooped as many Taste Awards as the Edinburgh Fermentarium— six, since we’re counting. It was as intriguing as you might imagine. The shelves were lined with glass jars, filled with all manner of delicately sliced vegetable, each maturing in its own carefully formulated and spiced brine. As the fridges hum in the background my host, proprietor Ruth Munro, takes time away from the busy Christmas preparations to guide me round the shelves, pop open a few jars, and give me the gossip on all things fermented… Behind that radio is Kombucha Mustard. It’s mustard, obviously, but made with kombucha vinegar, as opposed to vinegar vinegar. It ferments for at least two months. To the left of that, we've got the Christmas Pickle— a new line this season. That's Oranges, Lemons, Limes, and Christmas spices. That's at least a two-month ferment. It's based on our Indian-style Lemon and Lime Pickle, similar but with Christmas spices. They’re both really long ferments. Under that we've got Kimchi; three of our Cracking Kimchi, and then the paler one is a Christmas Kimchi, which has fresh Cranberries instead of Red Pepper, and Cinnamon sticks, so it tastes a bit like Fireballs. The pink and red one below, that's the Braw Slaw; Beetroot, Apple, Ginger, Star Anise, Clove. I sometimes overlook it but remind myself how yummy it is when there is a bit left, and I take it home. We’ve got Gingerkraut— that’s Ginger, more Ginger, Cabbage, fresh Turmeric. There's some Figs fermenting down there. They started as another Christmas special along, with the Christmaskraut, which is Cabbage, Nutmeg and Orange peel. I just can’t stop myself! The inspirations for the recipes come from all over the place. The Kombucha Thieves’ Vinegar is an interesting one, it has a fascinating history. Ours is a modern version of a legendary Thieves’ Vinegar recipe, which is rumoured to have protected the grave robbers during the bubonic plague in France. Ours has Lavender, Sage, Ginger and Turmeric. It’s important to experiment because in many of the recipe books the quantities are very vague— they’ll say, ‘a head of Cabbage’ and ‘a tablespoon of salt’, for example. Well, the head of Cabbage could be any size and the salt— is that fine, or big heavy chunks? Rock salt or sea salt? So, experimentation isn’t without mishap. A product we recently developed with the Mac Kimchi blended into our Fermented Tomato Ketchup was gyukfjhggg 23
