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Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods Paperback – September 1, 2003
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Bread. Cheese. Wine. Beer. Coffee. Chocolate. Most people consume fermented foods and drinks every day. For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed the distinctive flavors 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 flavors 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 the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fermentation cookbook ever published.
- Print length187 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherChelsea Green Publishing
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 2003
- Dimensions7 x 0.5 x 10 inches
- ISBN-101931498237
- ISBN-13978-1931498234
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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).
"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."--Susun Weed, author of Healing Wise
"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
From the Author
"I have been fermenting foods and drinks for a decade. It started with sauerkraut. I found an old crock buried in our barn, harvested cabbage from our garden, chopped it up, salted it, and waited. That first kraut tasted so alive and powerfully nutritious! Its sharp flavor sent my salivary glands into a frenzy and got me hooked on fermentation. I have made sauerkraut ever since, earning the nickname Sandorkraut, even as my repertoire has expanded. I have explored and experimented widely in the realm of fermentation, and I want to share what I have learned."--Sandor Ellix Katz
About the Author
Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, his explorations in fermentation developed out of overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition, and gardening. This book, originally published in 2003, along with his The Art of Fermentation (2012) and the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. Newsweek called Wild Fermentation "the fermenting Bible," and The New York Times calls Sandor “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” For more information, check out his website www.wildfermentation.com.
Product details
- Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing; First Edition (September 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 187 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1931498237
- ISBN-13 : 978-1931498234
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 7 x 0.5 x 10 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #455,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #186 in Beer (Books)
- #487 in Homebrewing, Distilling & Wine Making
- #505 in Canning & Preserving (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. His books Wild Fermentation (2003) and the Art of Fermentation (2012), along with hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, the New York Times calls him “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” The Art of Fermentation received a James Beard award, and in 2014, Sandor was honored with the Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance. For more information, check out his website www.wildfermentation.com.
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Fermented food products are probably much more common in our lives today than they have been since the advent of the processed foods industry. And, this is a fact that even the average foodie may not be conscious. A quick inventory of fermented foods commonly used in modern American homes will show how widespread they have become.
The most obvious fermented product is beer, which has always been with us. Their cousins, wines and meads are also the product of fermentation. Virtually all cheeses are produced by fermentation, and our interest in and consumption of artisinal cheeses is rising fast. Yogurt is a close cousin of cheeses and consumption of yogurt has been rising since the early seventies. Sauerkraut and Choucroute have been with us since the beginning, but Asian fermented cabbage such as Kimchee and other fermented vegetables are becoming more popular. Pickles have also been a part of western cuisine for millennia Another part of the increasing interest in Asian foods is an increase in consumption of miso and tempeh, both from fermented soybeans. Asian fermented fish sauces from Thailand and Vietnam are also much more common today than they were 50 years ago. The granddaddy of fermented foods for Western cultures is yeast bread, especially sourdough breads.
Fermentation has at least four beneficial results, two of which have been known since prehistoric times. The first and most important effect is that fermentation is a method of natural preservation by the creation of acetic acid (acid in vinegar) or lactic acid (acid from milk sugar). The second, represented most clearly by the brewing of beer, is in the action of microorganisms on sugars to produce ethanol (alcohol in beer, wine, and liquor). The third is based on our physiological salivation response to acidic foods, or even the anticipation of acidic foods, thereby making the mouth feel of these foods more succulent by the combination of natural food moisture and our own saliva. Ancients may have sensed the last beneficial result, but it probably has not been fully realized until the 20th century. This is the ability of fermentation to break down foods which were hard to digest into different products which are both easier to digest and more nutritious. The two best examples of this action are the conversion of soy carbohydrates into miso and the conversion of milk into yogurt.
All of this has made fermentation into a darling of vegan advocates, as it broadens the range of useable non-animal protein and makes it all more palatable. It has also made fermentation into a favorite of alternate lifestyle nutritionists such as Sally Fallon, the author of the excellent book `Nourishing Traditions' who supplied a Foreword to this book. Fermentation is also one of the hallmarks of the slow food movement. Aside from the North African method for preserving lemons, I know of no other culinary methods that take as long to complete.
Anyone who has made pickles, sourdough bread, or beer should have a very good idea of the times involved in fermentation. And this doesn't even get into some of the olfactory `delights' that accompany the process of fermentation.
The author covers all of the types of fermentation mentioned above, devoting the greatest amount of space to vegetable, bean, and dairy fermentation. Bakers should not miss the lesser attention paid to breads, as for every book on yogurt, pickles, and kraut, there are ten books which cover artisinal baking with its sourdough sponges, poolishs, and begas.
On the political front, the most active issue regarding fermentation is the issue of unpasteurized cheeses being imported into or made in the United States. It is truly ironic that the home of Louis Pasteur relishes their raw cheeses while the squeaky-clean US won't let it in.
Aside from the thoroughly careful presentation the author gives of his material, the veracity of the book is strengthened by the extensively footnoted research behind his statements and the fact that the fruits of fermentation are essential to the lifestyle of the author and his comrades at their rural homestead. The similarity to both the hippie counterculture doctrines and the Amish lifestyle are unmistakable. One would almost take them for being scions of the Amish except for the names cited in the acknowledgments that I found myself checking against the names of the communities' goats. We owe this book in part to humans who go by the names Echo, Nettles, Leopard, Orchid, Spark, Book Mark, and Ravel Weaver.
I also thank Echo, Nettles, Leopard, et al and author Sandor Ellis Katz for this deeply thought out exposition of a pervasive and growing part of the modern culinary and nutritional environment.
This book may not be for everyone, or even for every foodie, but if anything I said sounds a chord in your psyche, I recommend you get a copy of this book and read it carefully.
This book should be read as a narrative. It's not a traditional 'cookbook' with lists of ingredients measured to the smallest fraction, or a rigid series of steps to be followed. I'm an old woman, and this is exactly how I learned to cook from my grandmothers and great-grandmothers - except Katz takes the basic fermentation that I was taught to a whole new level.
Sandor's knowledge is a gift to us, and it should be received as such. He is sharing what he has learned - it's as simple as that. I, for one, am grateful for his wisdom.
The recipes are clear (although you might have to refer back to another place in the book - thus my suggestion to read it as a narrative), and the few that I've tried have turned out well. The book is packed with information and it is as if he is standing right beside you, encouraging you. I found absolutely nothing offensive about any of the content, but then again, I'm too old and value the time I have left far too much to spend it looking for reasons to judge people.
For those who need exact, linear directions in this most ancient of food preparation methods that existed long before modern measuring tools and equipment, this probably isn't the book for you at this point in your life. Maybe when you gain a little more cooking experience, or the patience necessary to prepare food this way, the time will be right to try it.
For the rest of you, this book is truly a gift and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
before i bought this book, i read many of the other reviews. i especially always read the negative ones. most of the one star reviews i read basically say that he is trying to push his own agenda onto people, and one that i read complains extensively about how much he supposedly refers to the topic of gayness in the book.
so....having now read it for myself....i am a little scared of the people who wrote those reviews. Not once- not ONCE have i read anything about his gayness in the book. honestly, even if he mentioned it- that would not bother me, but to claim such a thing when he does not even bring it up....that weirds me out.
it is really well-written and full of important information, and like the back says "it is a 'cultural manifesto' that explores the history and politics of human nutrition". he does this with an open, informative and nonjudgmental attitude, which is probably why it really ticks me off to read those reviews that claim that he is "pushing an agenda."
This is not a scientific or precise manual. This is great for adventurous and intuitive cooks who like to try things and see what happens. There are recipes, but sometimes you have to use your brain and figure out the best methods for your specific situation.
I've done porridge, dosas, improved my bean cooking methods, and made 2 loaves of bread from my own sourdough starter so far.