Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods [Paperback]

Sandor Ellix Katz (Author), Sally Fallon (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavors and nutrition resulting from the transformative power of microscopic bacteria and fungi. Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods is the first cookbook to widely explore the culinary magic of fermentation."Fermentation has been an important journey of discovery for me," writes author Sandor Ellix Katz. "I invite you to join me along this effervescent path, well trodden for thousands of years yet largely forgotten in our time and place, bypassed by the superhighway of industrial food production." The flavours of fermentation are compelling and complex, quite literally alive. This book takes readers on a whirlwind trip through the wide world of fermentation, providing readers with basic and delicious recipes-some familiar, others exotic-that are easy to make at home.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fermentation is one of the earliest natural processes involving food and its preservation that humans sought to control. The earliest puffed-up breads, wines, and cheeses likely occurred by chance, and results were scarcely uniform or predictable. Disconcerted by off-flavors and spoilage in beer, wine, and baked goods, early peoples learned to control microorganisms whose existence would not be demonstrated for centuries. But in that process of control, people lost some of the benefits of wild fermentation. Sandor Ellix Katz has experimented with Wild Fermentation, and his book explains to others how to take advantage of natural fermentation processes to produce bread, yogurt, cheese, beer, wine, miso, sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented foods. A gold mine for science-fair projects, Katz's work presents properly supervised young people ample opportunity to explore both the science and the art of fermented foods (alcoholic beverages excepted). Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A nostalgic journey... this is a book that will fascinate and inspire food lovers. -- Saul Zabar, owner of Zabar's, New York City's Most famous food market.

Sandor Katz has labored mightily to deliver this opus magnum to a population hungry for a reconnection to real food. -- Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931498237
• ISBN-13: 978-1931498234
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (142 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Beer
  • #2 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Spirits
  • #5 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Canning & Preserving

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

255 of 259 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild Fermentation, September 15, 2003

By 

noemi barabas (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Paperback)

This is the only cookbook that I know of that you will read from cover to cover. It is not the dry "do this in this order" kind of book, it walks with you on your culinary endevors like your mom or grandma would, telling you stories along the way, including the secrets that make not just sourdough bread, but unforgettable sourdough bread.

Sandor doesn't just tell us, he shows us, how to be self-sufficient about making and storing food (with little need for a stove or a refrigerator): making sourdough, cheese, miso, making tempeh, making wine, beer and, it seems, almost every other fermented food made the world over. And he gives you a list of resources where you can order the most mundane and exotic of starter cultures and even seaweed from our own Atlantic coast.

And your concept of "self" will never be the same again. He shows us how to reclaim and restore a part of ourselves that has protected us like the ozone layer protects the earth: the world of microbes in and around us, the protective cloak of the microecology that is meant to be a part of us like our skin.

Fermented foods restore a health balance like no probiotics and vitamins can. Happy reading, happy fermenting, happy eating!

119 of 124 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OH So Good!!!, December 2, 2005

By 

R. Haeckler (West Chester, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Paperback)

I love this book! I've tried a few of the recipes and just love the results! I can't believe none of the "back to nature" type books and publications I read talk about the simple and healthful ways of preserving food through fermentation!

Sandor does a fantastic job of taking the mystery and careful measuring out of fermentation. Most of the recipes I've read for fermentation say you must follow the recipe exactly or risk food poisoning. I'd rather play around with the recipes, so this is just perfect for me! I'm also impressed with his research into traditional recipes.

I just read that kimchi may cure Avian Flu, and the recipe in this book is a fantastic hit here! We use it as salad dressing with some sesame oil!

129 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars viva fermented foods!, October 29, 2003

By 

Rob Sherlock (Salinas, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Paperback)

To refer to this as a 'cookbook' is disingenuous; it's a book about life and living foods! Having first read through a 20-ish page xeroxed copy of Katz' guide to fermented foods, I welcomed the increased breadth and volume covered in this published edition. I especially appreciate the cited references, although some works are relied on too heavily and there is a relative dearth of scientific citations. That said, there are some and the critique is balanced by the realization that Western science and nutrition have not been overly interested in such topics. A friend with Krohn's disease is hopeful it will help him to find foods he can more easily digest. Katz' book is an unconventional guide to storing foods with methods proven useful over centuries of preservation....and years in his own kitchen. It's detailed, thought provoking and contains a host of colorful characters worth reading about all on their own. It gets four stars because I look forward to a 2nd edition - thanks for a fine book!