3.5 %

[agoodwinsmith]

Okay.  So, I don't have any more funds for investing right now, so it would be better for my mental health to stop obsessing about it for a while, so I have started to obsess about fermented foods.  Yes, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, yoghurt, blah de blah.

So, I have discovered that when fermenting foods, the ideal salinity of the brine is between 2% and 5%, or often 3.5%:
http://fermentationrecipes.com/using-measuring-salt-fermentations/1014

Which is the most common salinity for the oceans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater

And the salinity for blood:
http://www.seashellsandsuch.com/articles/seawaterlikeblood.php

I detect a conspiracy.

I mean, yes, it makes sense that many forms of life, including fermenting bacteria, are going to tolerate the salinity of the most plentiful ecosystem around.  But (in the face of the textual and residue evidence found so far), I wonder if fermenting began where seawater was plentful.

For those who are wondering: kimchi is very tasty when diced very small.  A whole inch square piece of chili soaked cabbage sets the interior of my ears on fire, but a delicate dice mixed with the rice & veggies is very more-ish

Comments

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

Interesting theories. Something I'd never thought about

Kimchi is something I've heard mentioned occasionally, but never seen. It's one of those foods that I've been meaning to try one day. It sounds very tasty :)

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Spicy pickle! :)

[randombler.livejournal.com]

You probably didn't mean it like this, but fermentation is one of the ways in which cells derived energy before the Earth developed an oxygen rich atmosphere. Therefore it would certainly have preceded multicellular life, and must therefore have begun in the sea.

However, for human uses of intentional fermentation, I would guess that naturally fermenting fruit would have been one of the earliest discoveries of fermentation, and human encouragement of the same the first human application. Just a guess, though.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Aha! I suspected we were making use of an already existing parameter.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

A whole inch square piece of chili soaked cabbage sets the interior of my ears on fire

And so it should. That's what it's there for. None of this delicate dicing, dammit: ears aflame! Step forward! Represent!

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Sir! Yes, sir! :)