Day 78

Here's something I've never seen before...

Moldy Instant Coffee

So I was house-sitting/dog-sitting at Robin's house and jonesing (is that an actual word?) for some caffeine because the dogs woke me up so early. I was too lazy to deal with anything but instant, but all she had was about 1/4 cup from a larger jar. I twisted off the lid and got a surprise... the coffee pellets were stuck together and had a light dusting of MOLD on them. This kind of stuff isn't trashable anymore; it's a critical find. I took the jar back to my drunken-scientist lair, and with the help of a knife and some of the condiment/olive/fish sauce mixture, got the coffee clump freed from the bottom of the jar. The resulting liquid made its way back into the bottle and posed for a photo with the other addition for the day: moldy artisan bread.

The Bread and the Coffee Addition

Doesn't that look scrumptious? The bread isn't even that old, and it's already molding in a rainbow of colors. I cut the crusts off and stuffed the pieces into the jar until they fit.

The New Bread Sauna

Look at all that moisture on the inside of the jar. Can you say "Perfect Conditions for Bacterial Growth?" At least now I'll finally be able to post pictures of mold growing all over everything.

Day 76

Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present our new ingredient:

Fish Sauce: A New Level of Bad

Yes. Fish sauce. Salt mixed with the liquid from fish guts. And it smells as good as it sounds. At least we buy quality: Nuoc Mam is THE brand to buy when you're looking to add that indescribable taste to your food. For now, it's going into the refrigerated container on the left, since the crap in the jar isn't over-the-top gross yet.

I feel the need to add one more thing here: The fish sauce actually smells worse than the mix. Taking a whiff of the mix gives you this curious sensation that something might go horribly wrong soon, but I wouldn't describe it as repulsive yet. On the other hand, opening that 5-year-old bottle of Nuoc Mam is horrifying. I'm totally being honest when I say it smells more like infected bunghole than anything that came out of the sea and died. One-half cup of that really brought out the character of the condiment/olive combo. Unreal.

Day 56

So I was just in the kitchen to grab a beer (why else would I be in the kitchen?) and I noticed something interesting in the jar: The liquid layer was cloudy. And any superstar scientist knows what that means...

ACTIVE FERMENTATION

I know I’ve mentioned fermentation before, but this is way more active than anything documented previously. There are two things to note as you look at the above picture. One is the floating sediment, which was not the cause of me moving the jar. The other is the ridges in the lower layer. Both are caused by the bubbles as they rise up to the upper layer and cause a massive disturbance.

The time out in the sun caused some dryness on the sides of the jar.

Before you examine the photo below, you’ll need to know that I poked four more holes into the upper layer. That’s not what you should be looking at. Check out the center.

A brighter-colored substance is crowning.

I’d have to attribute this strange occurrence to the fermentation. That’s the easy deduction. The more difficult question to answer is why fermentation became so active all of a sudden. It was either the heat from the sun, the time outside with the lid off or the result of me poking holes through the upper layer. Or I guess it could be a combination of all of that. More beer required. I mean, more thinking required.