How to Make Sumac Apple Sauerkraut

Video and Notes

Hello Friends

These notes are intended to prove the health benefits of your newly made sauerkraut product. Its perfectly acceptable to infer health potentials from research alone. even without testing we can make true statements on the fitness potential of our new product because of known and established facts.

So lets look at the evidence so we can have faith that our product will improve our microbiome fitness and thusly improve our overall experience in the world.

In this recipe we added sumac, which is a known source that is safe, to obtain our primary target molecule known as malic acid. From Wikipedia we learn:

“Malic acid is the main acid in many fruits, including apricots, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, mirabelles, peaches, pears, plums, and quince, and is present in lower concentrations in other fruits, such as citrus. It contributes to the sourness of unripe apples. Sour apples contain high proportions of the acid. It is present in grapes and in most wines with concentrations sometimes as high as 5 g/L. It confers a tart taste to wine; the amount decreases with increasing fruit ripeness. The taste of malic acid is very clear and pure in rhubarb, a plant for which it is the primary flavor. It is also the compound responsible for the tart flavor of sumac spice.” [1]

By adding volatile dicarboxylic acid [2] we are promoting two growth parameters that will excrete the post metabolites that we want to target. “The dicarboxylic acid malic acid is decarboxylated into the monocarboxylic acid lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme MLE (malolactic enzyme)” [3] Unlike wine/cider making we are mixing the fruit with vegetables as the larger ingredient which affects the wild bacteria promotion curve during quorum consensuses. By slowing down the malolactic fermentation profiles we can reliably insert them into a plain sauerkraut at a rate of 25% fruit to cabbage. By adding sumac we promote that larger cabbage portion to manufacture an additional amount of freely convertible malic acid.

Overlapping two wild symbiotic consortia that haven’t seen extensive industrial application we can see the opportunities for developing stabilized “probiotic” consortia that work together maximizing metabolite production for organic precision fermentation manufactures. Again we turn to Wikipedia for a quick explanation of the process:

“Lactic acid bacteria convert malic acid into lactic acid as an indirect means of creating energy for the bacteria by chemiosmosis which uses the difference in pH gradient between inside the cell and outside in the wine to produce ATP. One model on how this is accomplished notes that the form of L-malate most present at the low pH of wine is its negatively charged monoanionic form. When the bacteria move this anion from the wine into higher pH level of its cellular plasma membrane, it causes a net-negative charge that creates electrical potential. The decarboxylation of malate into L-lactic acid releases not only carbon dioxide but also consumes a proton, which generates the pH gradient which can produce ATP.^”[4]

That last part about consuming a proton during the process should be of interest to anyone concerned about microplastics. That’s just one of many uses for this product beyond being a delicious food that you can make today!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malic_acid

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicarboxylic_acid

[3] https://www.brewingschool.org/wp-content/uploads/Maturation-of-cider.pdf

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malolactic_fermentation