People’s Republic of Fermentation

I traveled to China in November-December 2016 in order to learn about fermentation practices there. I travelled there with my friend Mara King, her mother Judy, and another friend, Mattia Sacco Botto, who documented our travels on video. They all speak Mandarin and English, and share my fermentation and broader food interests. These eight videos, made by Mattia Sacco Botto, document some of what we saw and learned on our journey.

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10 thoughts on “People’s Republic of Fermentation

  1. That was interesting! I like the freshness of all the foods and the variety of colors suggest such a depthness of flavors. The videos are well done and do a good job of capturing… life and culture, as it were, on the other side of the globe from where I live. Thank you!

  2. This is so amazing, im part burmeses and my mother used to make her own pickles salted pork and tofu, but I never learnt ther secrets as I married and moved to Africa in 1969 and then to Guelph Canada in 1971.
    I would like to learnt about this and get some lessons, since I am retired now. or MORE IMPORTANTLY JOIN YOU ON A TOUR OF FERMENTED FOODS TO CHINA,

  3. this is what can be accomplished by passing down recipes for generations, something we have lost in our modern world. thank you for starting it again, although we have a long way to go before we reach fermenting at this level.

  4. This series was amazing,I am so impressed with your dedication to discovery and teaching. Wish I had discovered this at the same time Sandor did. I would love to see the whole uncut footage of this trip. I have must ordered Wild Fermentation 2nd edition from Amazon so I could get it here to Ontario in 2 days 🙂
    I continue today to ferment and look forward to the book arriving as I am confused but the vast bad info on YouTube

  5. This was very enjoyable to watch, thank you. I really want to learn how to make that preserved pork shown in episode 4.

    • Re-watching the video today, I finally clicked to see the comments. There Mara King pointed out that the recipes for all the dishes are available by clicking Show More under the video. I was so happy to see this!

  6. Hi was wondering for how long can Mrs Ding add new vegetables to her continuous brine. Does she also have to had salt over time? And wouldn’t the alcohol kill all the good bacteria?
    I

    • She reuses her brine for years, periodically adding salt and seasonings (to compensate for additional water from the veggies, and the fact that they take salt and flavor with them). Alcohol would kill the bacteria at high concentration, but a small amount won’t, and it floats, effectively killing the unwanted aerobes at the surface.

      • I keep my brine. As it ages, the flavour gets better. My fathers brine is the same brine we had when I grow up. I am in my late fifty… people may ask for a piece of pickle from a neighbour to use as starter when they want to start a ferment.

  7. Just watched your Chengdu tour.. amazing you have catched the essence of my home town food. It makes me homesick. Loved it absolutely and it inspires me to do more fermentation from the produce I grow here in Sydney… thank you Sandoz and Mara…

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