Custom Vacuum Packed Salt Lid Set Up

Yes, we have considered using water plus table salt to fill the gaps help improve the density, but it's messier and is difficult with a home vacuum sealer. We didn't go with a sand, metal shot or ceramic powder as we were looking for a low cost solution that is accepted as food grade even though it doesn't come in contact. Those who have dealt with strict food safety inspectors will understand. If these are not limitations to you, feel free to explore these further.

To make your lid, you first need to make the mold for the salt to fill. Measure three inches down from the top of the fermentation vessel and mark in a few locations with kitchen/masking tape. This assumes that you'll have two inches of salt and one inch of head space. Fill the vessel with any grains to the tape mark. Next, determine the length and width of the vacuum bag roll you'll need to cut. Position your vacuum sealer so the the opening is just above the vessel. The closer you get, the less bagging you'll need. Pull the bagging out until you are confident that you can fill salt on top of the grains that is 2" thick and be able to vacuum seal the bag. For really large vessels, you'll have make a two piece lid split at the middle. Cut and seal one side to make the bag. You know what to do from here. In some cases, you may need to use the handle of a wooden spoon to get the salt to fill in the edges. There you have it. Your custom lid that took longer to set up than make and the toughest part was finding the books to get the vacuum sealer to the right level.

As a side note, if you want to use this to weigh down ferments like kraut, kimchi, pickles or other applications you want to get solids below the brine. You just have to increase the gap between the cover and vessel opening. You can do this by cutting a long 2" wide strip of cardboard or whatever is flexible and gives you the gap you want and cutting it length so it can be placed in as a collar inside the vessel above the grains. This strip of material will make the salt lid smaller by the thickness.

As background, we've done a little homework on what's out there for larger weights. The only ones we know of are the split doughnut shaped weights made for lacto-fermentation crocks. There are ceramic and glass versions. For a direct comparison, the custom salt weight we made in the circular vessel here is the size you'd use an off the shelf one gallon split doughnut weight for. Let's do a quick and dirty calculation. The ceramic weight is $20 and weighs 2.5 pounds. That puts us at $8.00/pound. Assuming you have access to a home vacuum sealer, which is reasonable these days, here's the breakdown. The cost of a standard 26 oz container of table salt is just under $1. Two containers coincidentally put us at the size we needed, so that's $2. On top of that, let's say the bag costs $0.50. The salt is $2.50 of materials and weighs 3.25 pounds. That puts the salt solution at $0.77/pound and that's ten times less. Also, as we mentioned before, it's not ideal for keeping all the solids below the brine and not the answer for containing a miso.

In closing, we're here because we ferment a lot and want everyone to have the flexibility of using any fermentation vessel. As part of that, we want proper containment, because it's less work to ensure good results. We think this is a pretty great solution. Yes, there are issues that come along with using a vacuum bagged salt. Concern about the plastic being punctured, then it's game over. Keep in mind that this is not easy to do. Vacuum bags are made to take a beating. Think about all the rough handling of the insane amounts of vacuum packed products that are frozen, piled up and transported everyday. Of course, there are things you can do to ensure it won't break. Bagging it a second time is the first thing that comes to mind. Putting a plate/tougher insulator to take the beating if you want to add weight on top.

If you have access to a commercial vacuum sealer and want to do this with standard square restaurant style containers. Use the shorter containers of the same size opening as the mold to make the salt lid. Follow through the sequence of pictures below.