Chamblee54

Boing Boing has an entertaining yarn today about an exploding can of sauerkraut. A food science class in Prince George, British Columbia let a can of “the popular German sausage topping” sit on a shelf for a few years. The students were quarantined after the incident. ( Is the Quran involved in a quarantine?) “Teachers didn’t know what was inside the can when it blew up, and called the local fire department and police to prevent an outbreak of botulism, a potentially fatal disease caused by bacteria sometimes found in canned food. “
The only problem with the panic is that sauerkraut is way too acidic for botulism, which cannot survive in an environment of less than ph4.6. “Liberty cabbage” is about 10 times too sour.
The embedded video features Sandor Ellix Katz , a “fermentation fetishist” and author. Mr. Katz lives at Short Mountain Sanctuary, described by Boing Boing as a “queer intentional community”. SMS is in Cannon County, Tennessee. The opening to the video was shot on the back porch of the kitchen.
In the video, Mr. Katz talks about the difference between canning and fermentation. In canning, the factory tries to kill the bugs. Botulism is a tough critter, and will often survive the canning process. In fermentation, the microbes are encouraged to grow, and the acids produced will kill botulism.
Of course, sauerkraut is never going to be popular with everyone. In the comments at Boing Boing is this item, from “ugly Canuck”. “I once saw an interview with a hundred-year-old British guy who had fought in the First World War; and when he was asked what the secret to his long life was, he answered, with a twinkle in his eye, “I never ate sauerkraut.””
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.