About Preserve & Pickle

Maya

About Preserve & Pickle

Preserve & Pickle is a practical resource for anyone in the UK who wants to start fermenting vegetables at home. No overblown promises, no pseudo-science — just straightforward guides covering the things beginners actually need to know.

The guides here focus on UK contexts, UK suppliers, and real British kitchen conditions. Most fermentation content online is written for a US audience with different ingredients, different climates, and different equipment availability. That creates real problems when you are trying to follow a recipe that calls for “pickling salt” or assumes your kitchen sits at 25°C year-round. These guides are written to fill that gap.

Topics covered include:

  • Beginner fermentation — lacto-fermentation basics, salt ratios, and your first successful batch
  • Recipes — sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, fermented ketchup, relish, and dips
  • Equipment — jars, crocks, weights, and what is worth spending money on
  • Troubleshooting — mould, slime, off-flavours, and the other problems that catch beginners out
  • Seasonal guides — what to ferment when, using UK vegetable seasons
  • Safety — how to know when something is wrong and when it is just part of the process

About Maya

I am Maya, a UK home cook who got into fermenting after a neighbour dropped round a jar of homemade kimchi about five years ago. I had no idea what I was doing. My first batch of sauerkraut was so salty it was basically a salt lick. I have forgotten jars at the back of cupboards, sprayed brine across the kitchen when a lid popped, and spent more time than I care to admit staring at white films wondering if they were mould.

I write these guides so you do not have to repeat all of that.

All guides are written from hands-on experience or thoroughly researched from authoritative UK sources. If I have not tried something in British conditions, I will tell you. If there is a catch you will not read about in the glossy recipe books, I will mention it.

Get Started

New to fermenting? Start with the complete beginner’s guide — it covers everything from choosing your first jar to understanding salt ratios, avoiding the common mistakes, and knowing when your ferment is ready to eat.