A deep, practical guide to fermenting vegetables, grains, milk, beans, drinks and more, from around the world
Everything about living foods
Sandor Ellix Katz, a self-taught fermentation enthusiast who lives in rural Tennessee, explores how people around the world have used microbes to transform food for thousands of years. Rather than strict recipes, he explains the concepts and processes behind sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, cheese, sourdough, miso, kombucha, wine, cured meats and much more, so readers can experiment with confidence. Michael Pollan wrote the foreword.
Who will enjoy it
Home cooks, gardeners and food lovers who want to understand and practice fermentation at home.
What you will get
The definitive guide to home fermentation, curious and encouraging, that teaches the principles behind dozens of traditions so you can make your own pickles, breads and drinks.
The Art of Fermentation Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Nonfiction · Fermentation · Food science · Preserving
Length
528 pages · ≈ 16 h
More about this book
Sandor Ellix Katz became known as a fermentation revivalist after his first book, Wild Fermentation, taught a generation of home cooks to make sauerkraut and sourdough. The Art of Fermentation, published nearly a decade later, is his big, comprehensive work, based on years of teaching workshops and learning from fermenters around the world. It won a James Beard Foundation Award.
Katz begins with what fermentation is, why it has been central to human life and how microbes make food safer, tastier and more nutritious. Then he works through categories: vegetables, such as sauerkraut and kimchi; sugary drinks such as mead, wine and cider; sour tonics like kombucha and kvass; grains and breads; milk products from yogurt and kefir to simple cheeses; beans and seeds, including miso, tempeh and soy sauce; and fermented meats and fish. Each chapter explains principles, variations and common problems rather than giving rigid recipes. Final chapters cover troubleshooting, the use of fermentation beyond food and running a small fermentation business.
Encyclopedic and inspiring, best kept close to the kitchen and dipped into whenever a new jar is started. About 528 pages in hardcover.
Fermented Vegetables
Nourishing Traditions
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Wild Fermentation
Home Cheese Making
Food in Jars
BakeWise
Modernist Cuisine
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Bread
The Professional Chef
Tartine Bread