What even is lacto-fermentation?

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I don't know.

Here in Poland we're doing it all year long. Grandma just weighs down the solid stuff with a tiny plate that fits inside the jar (we've got large jars), then another plate on top to cover the opening and I've never seen a spoiled sour pickle on my life. Oh and we also add whole horseradish root and mustard seeds to them, sometimes a tiny bit of chilli. These spices really elevate the taste, especially horseradish (a thumb size or two for like a pound of cucumbers is enough)

I'm polish - the "half-sours" (małosolne), and lactofermented cucumber pickles (kiszone) are a normal, everyday thing for us. My parents have always a pot of "kiszone ogórki" fermenting in the kitchen. And on Christmas we make a soup from lactofermented red beets. Sauerkraut is also very common, as it is in Germany.

In Poland (and other Eastern/Central European countries) we have ogórki małosolne which is virtually the same thing as half-sour pickles, it translates to low-salt cucumbers though. Super fresh and yummy stuff, the taste of spring and summer!

You just solved an old childhood mystery for me! My family comes from Eastern Europe, mostly Belarus and Russia. I remember we would always have pickles as a side for lunch and dinner that my mom and babushka would make. In Russian, we called them "low salt" or малосольные pickles. After my family moved to Canada and tried local pickles, I noticed that the local American variety tasted quite different. Our low salt ones were not as vinegary and tasted kinda fizzy, and I always wondered why that was. When you said that not having enough salt to kill all the bacteria causes lactofermentation, that's when the last piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place.

Almost didn't notice Dr. Schwan was Brazilian (the way she said salmonella gave it away!). How cool she's in this. Thank you Dr. Schwan!

As several people mentioned below 'half sours' are pretty popular in Poland. They used to be avaiable seasonally, i think now you can get them all year. They used to be sold straight from a barrel. All piekles are common sidedishes to vodka and are pretty omnipresent.

I'm Indian, and pickles (Achaar) are a staple with almost every meal. There's too many types, ones in vinegar & brine, some that are spicy in a chilli paste base, oily varieties, sweet sour spicy jams... and there's tons of varieties, lemon, mango, tamrind, carrots, cucumber, chilli, garlic, raddish, beets, all seasoned and spiced for a very flavorful condiment to have with rice & a side dish. :) I recommend trying them if you run into them in the international aisle.

Hey Adam, could you do some research about kefir and kombucha? They supposedly have a lot of lactic acid too - and kefir’s lacto-bacillum is said to withstand gastric digestion to colonize the gut. I’ve been trying both out of curiosity and I’d love to hear your take on those.

Another info to add to the Polish love for fermented cucumbers: the brine is drinkable! It is super tasty, it is a natural isotonic, it is packed with great stuff (vitamin C, and all these great lacto bacteria that is good for your gut), and it is one of the best things to drink when you are hungover.

Lacto fermentation was my new quarantine hobby in 2020! Here's my vote for you taking a deeper dive. Also, consider "dilly beans" which is basically using a dill pickle recipe, but using green beans instead of cucumbers. They fit in a jar much better.

In Poland where pickles and saurkraut are absolutely essential foods, we simply have different words for pickled with vinegar (kwaszone) vs pickled by fermentation (kiszone).

I took a "food facts and fads" class at PSU. What I learned there is how many "traditional foods" came about as a practical means of keeping food from spoiling as long as possible after harvest.

I'm from Poland and currently live in Germany. It's really surprising to hear that people often don't know that fermentation of pickles and other vegetables is a thing at all. Even German sauerkraut is more often pickled (in some sort of vinegar-sugery water mixture) than fermented, which is an absolute crime against your taste buds.

I'm studying cellular biology / microbiology right now. It is really interesting to hear about stories where it is all those little guys, the bacteria that I have gotten to know in this course, where they play the lead role! That graph really felt familiar and that is a good sign since often study material seems so abstract or pointless but nope - We of course have the good bacteria to thank for all our delicious pickles! Yum yum

what I always found funny is that odd pickle craving every Polish person I know experienced at some point in their lives. No matter whether they like pickles or not, there's always that one time a Pole needs that sour lactic fix. And there's actually some logic to that. My gradma always told me it's the sign of your guts needing some microbiota refreshment. I usually get that craving about three times a year and polish shops are actually well-equipped for that, cause a bottled pickle/sourkraut juice is an actual refrigerated drink you can buy here. And oh boy, when your body needs it, absolutely nothing is more refreshing.

These are my favorite pickles!!! My wife's dad ferment them in a glass jars. Plastic jar cap allows exessive CO2 and water escape. After ~2 weeks they are ready. And you can store them 1 year safely. After a year they tends to change taste.

In my family (Polish family) we do canned lacto-fermented cucumbers. We sterilize jars, push cucumbers in with horseradish, mustardseeds, garlic and sometimes oak or grape leaves and other stuff, then we fill jars with ~60C 2,5% brine. It kills surface bacteria and softens cucumbers. We store them in basement for at least 2 months before eating. They're good for couple of years. We also make semifermented cucumbers - half fermented as you said - in open clay pot(only in season though). They're done after around 2 days. Salty, fresh, crunchy and delicious. Oooh... We drink leftover "juice" from the jars as well. Legends say it's a life saver when it comes to hangovers ;)

'How do you pickle safely?' a good question with more than one good answer