🛒 Shopping List — Block 41–42: Fermentation & Preservation

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Fermentation shopping is cheap. Cabbage, salt, chilies, vinegar — this is one of the most affordable blocks in the program. The equipment is mostly jars. The investment is time.

⚠️ Equipment Check

[ ] Wide-mouth mason jars — 1 quart × 4–6 (sauerkraut, pickles, hot sauce, shrubs)
[ ] Fermentation weights — glass or ceramic weights that fit inside jar mouths (keeps vegetables submerged)
[ ] Fermentation lids or cheesecloth + rubber bands — to allow CO₂ escape without air entry
[ ] Kitchen scale — salt-by-weight is mandatory for safe fermentation
[ ] Fine-mesh strainer — for blending hot sauce and straining shrubs
[ ] Blender or food processor — for hot sauce
[ ] Small saucepan — for brine-making and jam
[ ] Jam jars with lids — 8 oz × 4 (for preserves)

🥬 Produce — Fermentation

[ ] Green cabbage — 1 large head (sauerkraut)
[ ] Fresh chili peppers — 1 lb mixed (Fresno, serrano, habanero — whatever's available; hot sauce)
[ ] Garlic — 3 heads (hot sauce, confit garlic, compound butter)
[ ] Carrots — 1 lb (quick pickles)
[ ] Red onions — 3 (quick pickles)
[ ] Jalapeños — 6 (quick pickles)
[ ] Radishes — 1 bunch (quick pickles)
[ ] Daikon — 1 (quick pickles, bánh mì)
[ ] Cucumbers (Kirby/pickling) — 1 lb (quick pickles; optional)

🐟 Protein

[ ] Salmon fillet — 1 lb, skin-on, center-cut, sushi-grade preferred (gravlax)
[ ] Bratwurst or quality sausage — for sauerkraut dinner

🥚 Eggs and Dairy

[ ] Eggs — 6 (cured egg yolks; you'll use just the yolks)
[ ] Unsalted butter — 1 lb (compound butters)
[ ] Crème fraîche — 1 small container (gravlax accompaniment)

🍓 Produce — Preserves and Shrubs

[ ] Strawberries — 2 lbs (jam; or use whatever fruit is in season)
[ ] Seasonal fruit — 2 lbs (second jam batch; stone fruit, berries, or citrus)
[ ] Berries or stone fruit — 1 lb (shrubs)
[ ] Fresh dill — 2 bunches (gravlax)
[ ] Fresh parsley and chives — 1 bunch each (compound butter)
[ ] Lemons — 4 (compound butter, shrubs, various)

🧂 Pantry

[ ] Kosher salt — Diamond Crystal; 1 lb minimum (fermentation, curing, pickling)
[ ] Granulated sugar — 2 lbs (jam, shrubs, gravlax cure, quick pickle brine)
[ ] White distilled vinegar — 1 quart (quick pickles)
[ ] Apple cider vinegar — 1 pint (shrubs, pickles)
[ ] White wine vinegar — 1 pint (shrubs variation)
[ ] Rice vinegar — if not already stocked from Block 39–40
[ ] Olive oil — 1 bottle (confit garlic; use a mild one)
[ ] Whole black peppercorns — for pickle brine
[ ] Mustard seeds — for pickle brine
[ ] Bay leaves — for pickle brine
[ ] Capers — 1 small jar (gravlax accompaniment)
[ ] White miso paste — for garlic-miso compound butter (if not stocked from Block 29–30)
[ ] Honey — for sweet compound butter
[ ] Ground cinnamon — for sweet compound butter
[ ] Pectin — 1 box (if your fruit is low-pectin; strawberries usually need it)

🥖 Bread and Accompaniments

[ ] Rye bread — for gravlax and sauerkraut dinner
[ ] Crackers — for preservation showcase tasting
[ ] Good cheese — 2–3 varieties (Service 54 tasting board)
[ ] Tortillas — for hot sauce taco dinner