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That lady at the farmer's market who smelled my sauerkraut before buying
I was selling jars at the downtown Saturday market about 3 months back. This older woman comes up, picks up a jar of my smoked paprika kraut, and holds it right up to her nose. She takes a long sniff then sets it down without saying a word. I figured she wasn't interested so I started straightening the display. Then she picks up another jar, the plain green cabbage one, and does the same thing. This time she nods and says your batch is clean, no yeast spikes. She bought 4 jars on the spot. Turns out she used to run a commercial fermentation kitchen back in the 90s and she said you can always tell a good ferment by how it smells through the lid seal. That stuck with me because I had been focused on taste tests but never considered the smell as a quality check. Anyone else have a customer who taught them something about their own product?
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adamk953mo ago
Huh, did you ever try sniffing your ferments side by side with the ones that turned out bad to compare? Seems like a useful free skill if you can train your nose.
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reesel503mo ago
Oh man, my buddy tried that and he swore his good batch smelled like a fresh apple orchard while the bad one just reeked like a wet dog that rolled in something dead. He said now he can't un-smell the difference and it saves him from tasting total garbage every time.
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hart.sage3mo ago
Wait, your buddy said wet dog and dead stuff? That's rough, man, I almost feel for the guy. But honestly, I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one who's been burned by a bad batch like that.
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