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I'm very excited to be hosting a retreat next year

I'm very excited to be hosting a retreat next year with @reverieforever. It will be held at Château de Labusquière in Toulouse, France, June 2-7, 2025. We will all stay at the château, and each day will feature a fermentation workshop (in English) or a field trip to a local cheesemaker or winemaker. We'll also enjoy meals together, fine French ferments including wine, cheese, and bread, and opportunities to explore the area. You can find all the details by following the link in my bio, or @reverieforever. Please share this with anyone you think might be interested! Thanks for helping to spread the word, and I hope to see some of you there.....

My friend and fellow fermentation revivalist @mara

My friend and fellow fermentation revivalist @marajaneking brought me to China 8 years ago to learn about fermentation practices there, then last winter we traveled together to Taiwan to continue our fermentation education, along with @paohereandthere, @sacco_botto, and @ourcookquest. We traveled all over the country, and @sacco_botto shot video of our fermentation adventures (as he did in China).

In two weeks, on August 1, I’ll be in Denver with @marajaneking at the Holiday Theater. We’ll be showing the first sneak preview of “Republic of Culture,” our video series from Taiwan that is currently in production, as well as a few episodes of our award winning series 2017 series “People’s Republic of Fermentation.” Then Mara and I will be discussing our travels together, and answering your questions.

This event is a collaboration with @slowfooddenver and @idest_hg, and will feature a delicious intermission with local restaurants, farmers, and artisans presenting fun bites, sips, and interactive displays.

Come if you can, and please help spread the word to interested Colorado friends!

Tickets are $25, link in bio. A portion of proceeds will go toward the costs of completing production of “Republic of Culture.”

I'll be teaching Saturday, October 26 at @cumberl

I'll be teaching Saturday, October 26 at @cumberlandfolkschool, which is located at gorgeous @sequatchiecovefarm, about 45 minutes from Chattanooga. It's a full day (10:00-4:00 Central), touching on many different fermentation-related topics but focused on vegetable fermentation, with everyone chopping farm veggies to bring home to ferment. As always this class will aim to demystify fermentation, and teach you simple techniques to make your own fermented delicacies, as well as draw attention to their illustrious history, their integral role in human cultural evolution, and the incredible range of fermented foods and beverages enjoyed around the world. Please help spread the word to potentially interested friends.

While I was in Seoul I had the good fortune to mee

While I was in Seoul I had the good fortune to meet chef Mingoo Kang @mingleseoul. I had just heard of him the night before, in reference to his new English-language book, "Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking" from @artisan_books. The book is due out in the U.S. mid-March, and I immediately pre-ordered a copy. Only to have Mingoo show up at an event I was part of at another restaurant @restaurantevett, with a copy of his book for me!

I've been reading Jang and highly recommend this book. Until my recent trip to Korea, I barely understood anything about these jangs: doenjang, ganjang, and gochujang. Now I can see and taste the degree to which they constitute foundations of Korean cuisine. This book is a celebration of the funky fermented jangs of Korean cuisine, full of recipes for Korean classics, as well as ideas for incorporating jangs into familiar Western dishes. If you are interested in the flavors of fermentation, check out this great new book.

Another Korean starter I'm excited to be learning

Another Korean starter I'm excited to be learning about here in Korea is nuruk, used primarily to ferment rice alcohol. I've purchased nuruk in the U.S. and on the internet but had no idea how it was made until now, with a visit to Young Suk Han of Han's Fermentation Lab @hanslab_kor in Jeongeup.

Nuruk is typically made from wheat. Mr. Han makes also makes it from barley, rice, mung beans, and combinations of these. As the fungus grows, each different substrate or combination promotes a different balance of enzymes. According to Mr. Han, in addition to its primary application in making rice alcohol such as makgeolli, cheong myeong ju, and soju, nuruk is also used in the fermentation of fish and sometimes in the production of doenjang (in addition to meju, in "a supportive role").

Mr. Han has learned primarily by experimentation. He told us that under Japanese colonization traditional alcohol production was outlawed, and between that and subsequent rice shortages, a gap occurred in the transmission of traditional knowledge of nuruk production.

One aspect of the process stood out to me that makes it radically different from koji production: the substrate for nuruk is not cooked. The grains and/or mung beans are coarsely ground, mixed with cold water into a dough, and pressed into cakes. The amount of water depends on which substrate(s) and the coarseness of the grind.

No starter is added, nor does he backslop from previous nuruk. But he does make nuruk in the same rooms, so probably the fungus has established itself in the space. When he started, he placed lotus leaves in the room, and now, if he has a batch go bad, he sanitizes the room and then places lotus leaves and other water plants in the room with the next batch.

The cakes are placed on slatted shelves to ferment for about 45 days. The fermentation takes place in special rooms where temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels can be monitored and controlled. The early stage of the fermentation generates a lot of heat, so ventilation is important to remove heat, and nuruk cakes cannot be spaced too closely together. Mr. Han aims for a warm temperature no higher than 38°C/100°F.

I'm traveling in Korea, and visited meju, ganjang,

I'm traveling in Korea, and visited meju, ganjang, and doenjang maker Woori Kong ("our bean") in Damyang. Meju is the fungal starter that is the basis of ganjang (soy sauce) and doenjang (soy bean paste), as well as gochujang. Bong Rok Oh, the owner, walked us through their processes.

Meju is made after the autumn soybean harvest. Beans are soaked, boiled until soft (about 7 hours), then mashed and pressed into forms to create big blocks. The blocks are then placed on rice straw in a room heated by a wood stove to partially dry. Over four days of drying the blocks are turned so that all the edges have contact with rice straw. Once they are dry enough to hold their shape and be hung (but the interiors are still wet), the blocks are tied with rice straw and hung in a hoop house structure to keep them dry and a little warm. They are hung for about 3 months for fungi to develop. Woori Kong starts using and selling their meju after the lunar new year.

Ganjang and doenjang start as a single process. At Woori Kong, they mix brine by adding salt until an egg can float in it, about 10% salt. Mr Oh noted with with rising temperatures they are making their brine a little saltier. They wash the mature meju blocks and fill ceramic vessels about two-thirds full with them, then cover with brine so the blocks are floating. The filled vessels are covered with glass tops and left to ferment outdoors.

After about 45 days, the brined meju is strained, separating the liquid from the solids. The liquid and solids are then transfered to separate vessels and covered with ceramic tops to protect them from the sun, and fermented for varying lengths of time, into ganjang (liquids) and doenjang (solids).

Mr. Oh reports that the Korean government has recently started promoting the use of a single strain starter, but he thinks the biodiversity of the traditional wild fermentation method makes for superior flavor and adds that Koreans are comfortable with chaos.

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Books for Cooks

Sandor Katz at Books for Cooks
4 Blenheim Cres, London
June 29, 4:30 p.m. (Note time change)
Free Event

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