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Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
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Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
by Sandor Ellix Katz
from Chelsea Green Publishing Co., September 2003
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, by Sandor Ellix Katz, Published by Chelsea Green Publishing Company, ISBN 1-931498-23-7
Click to see the Table of Contents.
Click to see the Foreword by Sally Fallon, author of the nutrition and cookbook Nourishing Traditions.
Click to see Praise for Wild Fermentation.
Order Wild Fermentation directly from the author for $20 (20% off retail price of $25) plus $4.05 for shipping via Priority Mail, $24.05 total. Online credit card payments are secure through paypal. Please note that this price is for shipping within the U.S. only; see below to order from Canada or Australia; email for shipping rates elsewhere outside the U.S.
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Media may contact Chelsea Green's Publicity Director Alice Blackmer, telephone 703-443-9418 or email blackmer@chelseagreen.com.
Praise for Wild Fermentation from the foreword by Sally Fallon, author of the nutrition and cookbook Nourishing Traditions: "In the spirit of the great reformers and artists, Sandor Katz has labored mightily to deliver this opus magnum to a population hungry for a reconnection to real food, and to the process of life itself." See the full text of the foreword.
Praise from the Washington Post: "A unique cookbook for gardeners...This book will appeal to those interested in world food traditions, the history of human nutrition, and the "whys" of good food and good health."
Praise from Discover: "These riddles festered until the day I stumbled across the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz..."
Praise from Kitchen and Cook, the newsletter of the Culinary Institute of America: "Comprehensive.... delves into the how, when, why, and where of this delicious process with joyfully obsessive abandon."
Praise from Wise Traditions: "Wild Fermentation will serve as a training manual for thousands of culinary Harry Potters, working their magic in the tranquil atmosphere of sacred kitchens."
Praise from Acres USA: "...the avant-garden prophet of fermented foods...."
Praise from In Good Tilth: "...informative, thought-provoking and nothing less than inspiring...Wild Fermentation does not scare off readers with technicalities; it does everything it can to invite readers to begin fermenting on their own. And it succeeds."
Praise from Kitchen Arts and Letters: "You do not need to share Katz's belief in the health-supporting benefits of fermented foods to be impressed by the depth of his research and devotion to the use of live cultures in preparing foods. From tempeh and sauerkraut, through sourdough and cheese, to beers and wines, Katz offers thorough understanding of fermentation processes, as well as the history of their uses. A valuable resource."
Praise from Library Journal: "Katz has obviously done comprehensive research on his subject and is passionate about it ."
Praise from Booklist: "A gold mine for science-fair projects."
Praise from Body and Soul Magazine: “Sandor Ellix Katz delves deep into the magic and meaning of food with Wild Fermentation.”
Praise from Cheftalk.com: “While the recipes are plentiful the author's writing is what pulled me in and captivated me. He is very knowledgeable on the subject of fermented foods and examines them through a historical, scientific, and even a philosophical sense….Wild Fermentation is a book that is well written and interesting to read as well as to cook from. It can inspire a person in life (and the cycle of it), and also in food, to get back to these most basic and nourishing homemade foods that are simple to make but have almost been obliterated from our daily lives. As I type these words there are crocks of sauerkraut and bread starter bubbling away on my kitchen counter, and after reading Wild Fermentation I not only appreciate but also understand the life cycles of each.”
Praise from the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "A ferment-it-yourself bible."
Praise from the Fifth Estate: "In its kooky and non-intimidating way, Sandor's book, Wild Fermentation, takes us on a journey through time, taste, and anthropology, with a unique and refreshing look at the current state of the world....Wild Fermentation will set you spinning through healthy and exciting possibilities developed over the millennia by people and microbes working together in all sorts of wild combinations...I laugh out loud when I think about this book being read by the public. It's full of easily digestible radical analysis and the matter-of-factness of Sandor's fabulous lifestyle among the radical faeries living in the rural widerness of middle Tennessee."
Criticism from an Amazon.com reader review: "Transvestites and other miscreants do not belong in a cookbook."
Praise from Bummers & Gummers (Oregon zine): "Wild Fermentation is packed with fascinating information and historical background. The recipes are easy to follow, well illustrated where needed, and peppered with wit and wisdom from someone who sees what our modern culture has lost in its rush for modernity. Through his writing, you can see him urging you with a broad excited grin to discover just how easy it is to find those lost flavors again: 'Here, taste this! Ahhh....'"
Praise from the Independent Media Center (www.indymedia.com): "Wild Fermentation is about fascination with the natural world, about the inner workings of microbes and bacteria, about the way things happen in the real world where organic matter is in continuous flux, continuous change. Yes, this is a good book for anyone who wants to know how to make kraut or kimchi or goat cheese, but it is also a book for anyone who wants to know about life, about how life works - how to enjoy it, respect it, love it and eat it."
Praise from the Northeast Food System Partnership: "Katz’s desire to help others learn the craft of fermentation shines throughout this book...Katz deals upfront with our fears about food poisoning and “mistakes,” then explains each technique with humor, insight and the experience of a decade fermenting foods, then feeding them to his compatriots at Short Mountain Sanctuary in Tennessee."
Praise from Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation and The Lost Language of Plants: "In our mad rush to adopt newer, more technological food production, we have abandoned the fermenting, healthful wisdom of our forebears. Sandor Katz's book reclaims one of the most important, and ecologically sustainable, processes of preserving and enhancing foods that humankind has discovered. Wild Fermentation is a significant, hands-on, journey through the miracle of fermented foods."
Praise from Susun Weed, wise woman herbalist and author of many excellent books about healing: "This immensely valuable book belongs in the kitchen of anyone interested in health, nutrition and wild cultures. It is a feast of fact, fun, and creativity by a modern wise wo-MAN."
Praise from Saul Zabar, owner of Zabar's, New York City's most famous food market: "Wild Fermentation takes readers on a tour of fermented foods from around the globe -- many of them delicacies available at Zabar's -- and describes techniques for making them at home. For me the book was a nostalgic journey, reminding me of traditional foods I knew in my childhood, which are rarely found today. This is a book that will fascinate and inspire food lovers."
Praise from Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., author of Food and Healing: "This is a very well written book, a pleasure to read, with excellent information and easy recipes for cultured and fermented foods. If you read it carefully, you will even find a recipe for a gentle social activism that will help you feel you can indeed do something to improve the state of the world."
Praise for Sandor Ellix Katz's initial self-published booklet version of Wild Fermentation, from Peter Bane, editor of Permaculture Activist magazine: "Writing in a delightful and sparely intelligent style, Sandor gives us in this small pamphlet, a taste of his larger work to come, and a primer (with recipes) in all the basic ferments...."
Media links:
"Go Forth and Ferment," San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 17-23, 2005
"Fermented Foods Carry Culture and Health," Out in the Mountains, July 7, 2004
"Interview with a Fermentation Fetishist," Nourished.com.au, August 4, 2005
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
Table of Contents
Foreword by Sally Fallon
Acknowledgments
Introduction Cultural Context: The Making of a Fermentation Fetish
Chapter 1. Cultural Rehabilitation: The Health Benefits of Fermented Foods
Chapter 2. Cultural Theory: Human Beings and the Phenomenon of Fermentation
Chapter 3. Cultural Homogenization: Standardization, Uniformity, and Mass Production
Chapter 4. Cultural Manipulation: A Do-It-Yourself Guide
Chapter 5. Vegetable Ferments
Chapter 6. Bean Ferments
Chapter 7. Dairy Ferments (and Vegan Alternatives)
Chapter 8. Breads (and Pancakes)
Chapter 9. Fermented-Grain Porridges and Beverages
Chapter 10. Wines (Including Mead, Cider, and Ginger Beer)
Chapter 11. Beers
Chapter 12. Vinegars
Chapter 13. Cultural Reincarnation: Fermentation in the Cycles of Life, Soil Fertility, and Social Change
Appendix: Cultural Resources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Basic Brining
Technique
Sauerkraut
Salt-free/Low-salt sauerkrauts
Wine Sauerkraut
Savory Seed Sauerkraut
Seaweed Sauerkraut
Sauerrüben
Sour Beets
Borscht
Kimchi
Baechu (Cabbage) Kimchi
Radish and Root Kimchi
Fruit Kimchi xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxx Sour
Pickles
Mixed Vegetable Crock
Brined Garlic
Brine as Digestive Tonic and Soup Stock
Milkweed/Nasturtium Seedpod “Capers”
Japanese Nuka Bran Pickles
Gundru
Making Miso
Sweet Miso
Miso Soup
Miso-Tahini Spread
Miso Pickles and Tamari
Tempeh
Black-eyed Pea Oat Seaweed Tempeh
Sweet and Spicy Glazed Tempeh with Broccoli and Daikon
Tempeh Reubens
Dosas and Idlis
Coconut Chutney
Yogurt
Labneh: Yogurt Cheese
Savory Yogurt Sauces: Raita and Tsatsiki
Kishk
Shurabat al Kishk (Lebanese Kishk Soup)
Tara & Kefir
Drawoe Kura: Tibetan Tara-Buckwheat Pancakes
Buttermilk
Farmer’s Cheese
Rennet Cheese
Fermenting with Whey: Sweet Potato Fly
Vegan Adaptations
Pepita Seed Milk & Kefir
Cultured Soymilk
Sunflower Sour Cream
Basic Sourdough Starter
Maintaining a Sourdough Starter
Recycled Grain Bread
Onion-Caraway Rye Bread
Pumpernickel
Sonnenblumenkernbrot (German sunflower seed bread)
Challah
Afghani Bread
Essene Bread
Injera: Ethiopian Sponge Bread
Sweet Potato Groundnut Stew
Alaskan Frontier Sourdough Hotcakes
Savory Rosemary-Garlic Sourdough Potato Pancakes
Sesame Rice Sourdough Crackers
Corn and Nixtamalization
Gv-No-He-Nv: Cherokee Sour Corn Drink
Sour Corn Bread
Multi-Cultural Polenta
Genetic Engineering of Corn
Porridge
Ogi: African Millet Porridge
Oat Porridge
Amazaké
Amazaké-Coconut Milk Pudding
Kvass
Okroshka (Kvass-based soup)
Rejuvelac
Kombucha
Hooch
Spontaneous Cider
Carboys and Airlocks
T’ej: Ethiopian Honey Wine
Plum T’ej
Lemon Herb T’ej
Coffee-Banana T’ej
Aging Wine: Siphoning and Bottling
Country Wines
Elderberry Wine
Flower Wines
Ginger Champagne
Cider Take Two
Persimmon Cider Mead
Wine Dregs Soup
Ginger Beer
Chapter 11. Beers
Chicha: Andean Chewed Corn Beer
Bouza: Ancient Egyptian Beer
Chang: Nepalese Rice Beer
Beer from Malt Extracts
Bottling Beer
Mashing: Beer from Malted Grains
Beer in Kegs
Wine Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar
Vinagre de Piña (Mexican Pineapple Vinegar)
Fruit Scrap Vinegar
Shrub
Switchel
Horseradish Sauce
Infused Vinegars
Vinegar Pickling: Dilly Beans
Vinaigrette
Foreword to Wild Fermentation, by Sally Fallon, author of the nutrition and cookbook Nourishing Traditions:
The process of fermenting foods—to preserve them and to make them more digestible and more nutritious—is as old as humanity. From the Tropics—where cassava is thrown into a hole in the ground to allow it to soften and sweeten—to the Arctic—where fish are customarily eaten “rotten” to the consistency of ice cream—fermented foods are valued for their health-giving properties and for their complex tastes.
Unfortunately, fermented foods have largely disappeared from the western diet, much to the detriment of our health and economy. For fermented foods are a powerful aid to digestion and a protection against disease; and because fermentation is, by nature, an artisanal process, the disappearance of fermented foods has hastened the centralization and industrialization of our food supply, to the detriment of small farms and local economies.
The taste for fermented foods is usually an acquired taste. Few of us can imagine eating fermented tofu crawling with worms, which is relished in parts of Japan, or bubbly sorghum beer, smelling like the contents of your stomach, which is downed by the gallons in parts of Africa. But then, few Africans or Asians can enjoy the odiferous chunks of rotten milk (called cheese) that are so pleasing to western palates. To those who have grown up with fermented foods, they offer the most sublime of eating experiences—and there are many that will appeal to western tastes even without a long period of accustomization.
In the spirit of the great reformers and artists, Sandor Katz has labored mightily to deliver this opus magnum to a population hungry for a reconnection to real food, and to the process of life itself. For fermented foods are not only satisfying to eat, they are also immensely satisfying to prepare. From the first successful batch of kombucha, to that thrilling bubbly pop when the lid is removed from a jar of homemade sauerkraut, the practice of fermentation is one of partnership with microscopic life. This partnership leads to a reverence for all the processes that contribute to the well being of the human race, from the production of enzymes by invisible bacteria to the gift of milk and meat from the sacred cow.
The science and art of fermentation is, in fact, the basis of human culture—without culturing, there is no culture. Nations that still consume cultured foods, like France with its wine and cheese, and Japan with its pickles and miso, are recognized as nations that have culture. Culture begins at the farm, not in the opera house, and binds a people to a land and its artisans. Many commentators have observed that America is a nation lacking culture—how can we be cultured when we only eat food that has been canned, pasteurized and embalmed? How ironic that the road to culture in our germophobic technological society requires, first and foremost, that we enter into an alchemical relationship with bacteria and fungi, and that we bring to our tables foods and beverages prepared by the magicians, not machines.
Wild Fermentation
represents not only an effort to bring back from oblivion these treasured
processes, but also a road map to a better world, a world of healthy people
and equitable economies, a world that especially values those iconoclastic,
free-thinking individuals—so often labeled misfits—uniquely
qualified to perform the alchemy of fermented foods.
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