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Comment by jimnotgym | Hacker News Reader

I read about fermented foods being good, like the old days.

Sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir. None of which sounded like something my celtic ancesters eat. Beer, cider, bread maybe. I see a disconnect.

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More likely the cultural practice was not passed down after the massive change in food preservation about 125 years ago. In the United States, fermentation was a universally practiced method for the pickling of vegetables. This practice has been so reduced that the word "pickle" now only refers to cucumber preservation.

I don’t agree that the word “pickle” has been reduced like you claim. Used as a noun, it is only applied to pickled cucumbers. But it’s used as a verb is still very common and the average person understands that many things can be pickled.

Although if you were to ask them to guess at the etymology, you probably would get a lot of disappointing answers.

I think the big difference is sauerkraut is pickled in brine, resulting in fermentation. Whereas all the pickles I grew up with in the UK were pickled in vinegar, which doesn't produce fermentation. Pickled onions, eggs and beetroot come to mind

>kefir. None of which sounded like something my celtic ancesters eat

celts consumed plenty of dairy. kefir is dairy. clotted cream is fermented and buttermilk and cheeses are fermented.

scandinavians eat fermented fish, and there was plenty of exchange and living side by side between scandinavians and northern celts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming

Pickles veggies are made by just leaving veggies under brine at room temp, I am sure they had some form of that.

Stinging nettle is known to have been eaten by the celts. It can be boiled or picked, which breaks down the stinging nature of the plant.

Also, cook books are a modern invention. You're not going to find a collection of thousand year old recipes by looking at written records.

While cook books are modern, we do actually find thousand year old recipes [1].

[1] https://eatshistory.com/the-5-oldest-recipes-in-the-world/

Kombucha has two origins - Eastern Europe and Korea. So European Celt's may have used it.

Sowans, buttermilk, and bog butter, fermented vegetables and seaweed?

Sowans is a new one for me. That sounds plausible.

Beer, cider and bread (leavened with yeast or sourdough at least) are fermented. What was your point again?

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