Marcin Kisielewski is a physicist by education. On a daily basis, he teaches about physical phenomena at the IT School Complex in Słupsk. However, he has an unusual passion - he fell in love with silage. We talk about why it is worth to chew, how it affects health and where they came from on the pages of our website.
Silage - beneficial for health
In Poland, silage is associated primarily with cucumbers and cabbage. As it turns out, you can pickle practically everything - from vegetables to edible flowers. They are also beneficial to our health. They are the source of, among others lactic acid, which cleanses the body and strengthens the immune system of our body.
Photo Honey pickled rhubarb (left) and pickled cucumbers with St. John's wort (right), source: Marcin Kisielewski's Facebook profile.
Silage - properties
In addition to lactic acid, silages also contain vitamins B1, B2 and B3, as well as C, A, E, K. They also contain magnesium, phosphates, lime and potassium. Importantly, ensiling is of great importance in terms of maintaining a proper caloric balance. During fermentation, products lose calories - for example, one medium cucumber or a bowl of sauerkraut contains only 12 kcal. They still contain a lot of fiber, which not only makes you feel full, but also has a positive effect on digestion.
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Find out more from the conversation with the founder - passionate!
Michal Nielub: Did you eat silage in your house? Did the idea of taking up pickling come from the family tradition?
Marcin Kisielewski: There was always sauerkraut in my grandmother's kitchen. Grandma chopped it up, added carrots and kneaded it with salt in a stoneware pot. And I was waiting for the juice. I remember that it was delicious and I always had little of it.
In turn, the parents made pickled cucumbers in cans. Then they were hidden in the cellar and we enjoyed the silage during the winter. During the times of the Polish People's Republic, everyone made some preserves and jars for the winter.
I started experimenting with fermenting other vegetables and fruits after reading that people all over the world ferment - things that philosophers have never even dreamed of. So I thought, why not give it a try? I am a physicist by education, I like experiments very much. I also started experimenting with silage in the kitchen.
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How long have you been doing this?
About 3 years ago I started to prepare my first silage. And to be honest - the effects were good. I started to pickle like that two or three times a week. As the jars, apart from the interesting taste, looked quite nice, I started taking pictures of them. And somehow it went, it pulled me into the pickling completely.
If you were to take your favorite silage to a desert island - what would it be? Can you tell the readers the recipe?
A lot of pickles are delicacies for me, I like them in different varieties - both spicy and more typical ones. When it comes to vegetable silage, celery is, you might say, my silage discovery. The celery itself is very intense in flavor and some people just don't like it, but the pickled celery is amazing, crunchy, sour, and its characteristic flavor is subdued. I don't know anyone who didn't like this silage. It is also relatively easy to do. It is enough to use a typical recipe for pickled cucumbers.
Recipe:
Brine 1 tablespoon of salt per liter of water. Pour cold brine.
Add horseradish, bay leaves and allspice to the jar, garlic and dill, I recommend adding some whole pepper, preferably a piece of chili pepper. And, of course, the washed and diced celery, in a serving for one bite.
Close the jar and leave it on a plate for 4-5 days. Then just lick your fingers and drink the delicious juice.
When it comes to pickled fruit, I would take spicy pickled cherries to a desert island. They are amazing. Slightly sweet (even after 3 weeks), then sour, and finally spicy. Hardly anyone would have thought that cherries could be pickled. I really recommend it.
Recipe:
Bay leaves and allspice, a little garlic and habanero pepper. Pour the usual brine. We put the cherries in the jar together with the stalks, which slow down the pickling process and the sweet taste remains for longer.
What can you pickle?
You can probably anything. I have new ideas all the time and experiment with the contents of the jar. Of course, the most important thing is the taste of the silage, which I change by adding various spices and mixing products. I also pickle edible flowers, medicinal plants, herbs and weeds.
Photo Pickled white turnip with cucumbers (left) and pickled celery with apple blossoms. (right), source: Marcin Kisielewski's Facebook profile.
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What is the most unusual combination in the jar?
For our grandmothers, most of my pickles would be unusual. Although in different parts of Poland there are different additives in the silage. Here and there you pick carrots, mushrooms or apples.
Pickled dried figs with coriander seeds and walnuts were an experiment from a completely different story and, surprisingly, they came out quite good. I can also recommend pickled watermelon peels or pickled onion with chili and buckwheat honey. I have a lot of ideas for combining flavors into jars, sometimes it will turn out good silage, and sometimes worse, but what fun is it!
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Your passion for pickling arouses great popularity even among famous people. Did this result in any inspiring meetings?
Silage is a very grateful topic, it fits everywhere. In addition, they are fashionable because of their beneficial effects on health. Indeed, my passion aroused the interest of the media. It was certainly influenced by the after-school activities that I run at school. The pickles are interesting in themselves, to such an extent that the school kids also started pickling. The press and the Internet were the first media to cover my hobby. Then television became interested in this topic. Various journalists from various stations came and filmed our activities, and we were even invited to the Polish Television to shoot something live in front of the cameras.
It can be safely said that silage is above the divisions. Recently, I organized a pickling workshop for schoolchildren, attended by the invited President of Słupsk, Robert Biedroń. Fruits and vegetables were pickled with almost 200 people. Honestly, it was impossible to detach from the jars. We plan to ferment with the Catholic parish, with social organizations, with the military, with the University of the Third Age and who knows what else is ahead of us.
At school, you run the "Circle for Kisicieli", which is very popular. Is your family not fed up with silage at home? Where do you keep your treasures?
The silage that we make at school at the beginning stays at school, and then the students take the delicacies home and treat them to their families. I have quite a lot of silage jars at home, I think there are about 50-60 of them. The number of jars changes as the silages are eaten. Then new silage is formed. I do not have a cellar, so I keep all the preserves in my apartment. Most are located in the kitchen and kitchen cupboards. Some are in the utility room with a washing machine, and some in the bedroom. My wife sometimes complains, saying "give me back my worktop", but is very understanding about my collection.
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Is it true that the sources of ensiling can be traced back to the early periods of the Slavic region?
The sources of the first silage are far to the east. Probably the first silages come from China or Korea, but in ancient times, this method of preserving food was also very popular among the Slavs. In the culinary traditions of the Slavs, silage has always been present, and even pickling cabbage, cucumbers or beets together was a way to meet entire communities. The elders and the young people sang, played, talked and exchanged experiences of the pickling process.
Is silage a characteristic form of our native country?
Comparing the topic of fermented food in European circles, we are the first country for Westerners where silage appears in such an amount. The Germans have a variety of sauerkraut and cucumbers, but this is not exactly a typical silage. Poles are also known to like to eat "spoiled food". Our pickled cucumbers and cabbage are known all over the world, and the bigos is unique. I think it is such a culinary hallmark of our country. However, it must be said that the further east, the more ideas for pickling vegetables and fruits.
What is the best way to start your silage adventure? What do I need to get started? What simple combinations do you propose for an amateur?
It's incredibly simple. You need a jar with a functional screw cap, vegetable, spices, water and salt.
Book brine is 1 tablespoon of salt per liter of water, then you can try to change the proportions. The harder the vegetables are, the more recommended to start with. It is also worth starting with celery - it's a real hit! Add a few spices, pour cold brine and close the jar. And it's ready. The jar is best placed in a bowl or on a plate as gas is generated during the lactic acid fermentation process. It will create pressure in a closed jar and draw out some of the liquid from it that may dirty in the kitchen. We wait a few days and we can eat. Cucumbers, carrots, beets, parsley and onions are very grateful silages for the first time. And then we have fun and experiment with flavors and additives. Pure relaxation.
Has there ever been any silage that turned out to be not a good idea?
There were a few ideas that I would rather not continue, e.g. pickled mushrooms. They were just inedible. It is possible that they did not come out as they were supposed to be, but I was alienated from them for a long time. A rather tasty idea - but a strange one - were pickled bananas with wild sorrel and plantain flowers. Even the silage to eat, the pickled banana quickly took on water, which turned into a pickled banana mush. Nobody really wanted to eat it because of this consistency. These silage will remain in the circle of curiosities.
Do you have any other unusual passions?
I believe that you have to have your passions and be curious about the world. It is then much easier to work with young people, but also much more pleasant living. In addition to pickling, I like to interest children with physics, i.e. how the world around them works. It is enough to think a little and it turns out that various miracles are happening around us. I also make vinegar, apple vinegar for years and recently strawberry vinegar, which is very tasty. Dill vinegar is also delicious. In turn, tinctures are my passion for evenings. For many years I have been making tinctures of fruit, herbs, spices and honey, which I taste with my family.
Is there one right silage performance or are there different methods?
The silage methods vary. You can pickle like our grandmothers, i.e. in open clay pots, and press the contents with a plate and a stone. However, doing this requires more attention and experience. The silage charge cannot flow above the surface of the pickle, then mold can develop and everything has to be discarded. There is also a completely new method of dry fermentation, in plastic bags with only salt and vegetables. It is also possible to ferment in various types of plastic vessels. You can also pickle without salt or with a minimum amount of it. There is a method of pickling in buttermilk or kefir. Mixed fermentation can be used for fermentation in honey. There is a whole range of ways that you can also experiment with. As I said before - full fun!
I encourage you to pickle, which is fun and very healthy!
