Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavours 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. The book covers vegetable ferments such as sauerkraut, kimchi and sour pickles; bean ferments including miso, tempeh, dosas, and idli; dairy ferments including yogurt, kefir and basic cheesemaking (as well as vegan alternatives); sourdough bread-making; other grain fermentations from Cherokee, African, Japanese and Russian traditions; extremely simple wine- and beer-making (as well as cider-, mead-, and champagne-making) techniques; and vinegar-making. With nearly 100 recipes, this is a comprehensive and extremely wide-ranging fermentation cookbook.
Wild Fermentation
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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
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
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
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More About the Author
Sandor Ellix Katz is a self-taught fermentation experimentalist. He wrote Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green, 2003)--which Newsweek called "the fermenting bible"--in order to share the fermentation wisdom he had learned, and demystify home fermentation. Since the book's publication, Katz has taught hundreds of fermentation workshops across North America and beyond, taking on a role he describes as a "fermentation revivalist." Now, in The Art of Fermentation, with a decade more experience behind him, the unique opportunity to hear countless stories about fermentation practices, and answering thousands of troubleshooting questions, he's sharing a more in-depth exploration of the topic. Katz is also the author of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements (Chelsea Green, 2006).
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
357 of 363 people found the following review helpful
Format: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!
205 of 213 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
While the introductions to the chapters and the recipes definitely catch my interest and make me want to prepare these recipes, I am finding over and over again that the recipes are not written in a way where you could flip to the page and go.
Frequently, the instructions refer in an unclear manner to a different recipe that you need to follow in part, but make some changes.
Other times one of the ingredients is a recipe in itself, but no page number is given for where to find these extra instructions. For instance, many recipes call for "honey water," but give no information about how to prepare "honey water" or where in the book to find this concoction, leaving you to page through and search for it. Once you find honey water, you find that it is in a recipe for honey wine. Are the the recipes that call for "honey water" intending for you to use the ingredients from this honey wine recipe or use the final product? No answer is apparent.
I feel like I will have to re-write each of these recipes to include their FULL INSTRUCTIONS to make them user friendly. I don't know whether this was a choice made to save space, a sign of a disorganized mind, or simple laziness on the part of the author.
Frequently, the instructions refer in an unclear manner to a different recipe that you need to follow in part, but make some changes.
Other times one of the ingredients is a recipe in itself, but no page number is given for where to find these extra instructions. For instance, many recipes call for "honey water," but give no information about how to prepare "honey water" or where in the book to find this concoction, leaving you to page through and search for it. Once you find honey water, you find that it is in a recipe for honey wine. Are the the recipes that call for "honey water" intending for you to use the ingredients from this honey wine recipe or use the final product? No answer is apparent.
I feel like I will have to re-write each of these recipes to include their FULL INSTRUCTIONS to make them user friendly. I don't know whether this was a choice made to save space, a sign of a disorganized mind, or simple laziness on the part of the author.
158 of 164 people found the following review helpful
By R. Haeckler
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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!
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!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irreplaceable!!
I only have one problem with this book, and that's that friends keep borrowing it and I have to chase them down to get it back- seriously! Read more
Published 2 days ago by Michael J. Edelman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Full of information
Using this as a textbook for a culinary class and it's full of information that is useful for any home cook or chef wanting to preserve their own foods.
Published 8 days ago by Chttrbx
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love to cook.
wild fermentation is the most valuable cook book in my library. this book is for anyone who is interested in the science of food preparation.
Published 13 days ago by gary ross
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
This book is a wealth of knowledge. I have really enjoyed the education it gives you. This is the way we used to eat that kept our gut in balance to ward off illness. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Janice G. Horne
5.0 out of 5 stars
A true rebel and inspirator...!!
Sandor - thanks to you I'm going full steam with making kraut ---
Sandor has a very light writing style and totally demystifies the process completely. Read more
Sandor has a very light writing style and totally demystifies the process completely. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Transportation Marvel
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Info - But some of it's unnecessary
I did like the info in this book, but some of it seems political. The writer has AIDs and he talks about it a lot which I feel is unnecessary for a cookbook. Read more
Published 16 days ago by MeJessie7979
4.0 out of 5 stars
I've been making the most amazing fermented pickles
And everyone who has tried them now wants a jar, but I usually just tell people.. "make them yourself" its so easy it a bit ridiculous. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Kevin P. Rosinbum
1.0 out of 5 stars
Heavy on the left of center agenda, rehashes often in the recipes
Not much to say that isn't in the title. I wish I had not bought this book. If the author would have put as much effort into the subject that I thought I was buying a book on,... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Jeff
5.0 out of 5 stars
fermented foods always good to eat
I made fermented foods in the 1970's and got into them again after getting this book. love all the goodies I've made
Published 1 month ago by patricia j. carter
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
I can't wait to start making the stuff myself. Healthy and easy too. Thanks to Living in Japan I knew some already
Published 1 month ago by Tiger
