The Art of Fermentation: New York Times Bestseller

Sandor Ellix Katz

May 2012 · Chelsea Green Publishing

About this ebook

"The bible for the D.I.Y set: detailed instructions for how to make your own sauerkraut, beer, yogurt and pretty much everything involving microorganisms."--The New York Times

*Named a "Best Gift for Gardeners" by New York Magazine

The original guide to kraut, kombucha, kimchi, kefir, and kvass; mead, wine, and cider; pickles and relishes; tempeh, koji, miso, sourdough and so much more...!

Winner of the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship, and a New York Times bestseller, with more than a quarter million copies sold, The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published. Sandor Katz presents the concepts and processes behind fermentation in ways that are simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners.

While Katz expertly contextualizes fermentation in terms of biological and cultural evolution, health and nutrition, and even economics, this is primarily a compendium of practical information—how the processes work; parameters for safety; techniques for effective preservation; troubleshooting; and more.

With two-color illustrations and extended resources, this book provides essential wisdom for cooks, homesteaders, farmers, gleaners, foragers, and food lovers of any kind who want to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for arguably the oldest form of food preservation, and part of the roots of culture itself.

Readers will find detailed information on fermenting vegetables; sugars into alcohol (meads, wines, and ciders); sour tonic beverages; milk; grains and starchy tubers; beers (and other grain-based alcoholic beverages); beans; seeds; nuts; fish; meat; and eggs, as well as growing mold cultures, using fermentation in agriculture, art, and energy production, and considerations for commercial enterprises. Sandor Katz has introduced what will undoubtedly remain a classic in food literature, and is the first—and only—of its kind.

Ratings and reviews

Excellent read if you are interested at all in fermentation or fermented foods, drinks, breads, heck anything fermented. My only complaint with the book is it seemed to gloss over certain subjects and left me wanting more detail as to the why and hows in these areas. Mr Katz is obviously very passionate regarding the subject and has such an extensive knowledge in the subject that you cannot help but want to try some of these things on your own. I bought this book because I was interested in not only the processes, but in commercial scaling and application of the fermentation process. Even though it is a fairly small chapter, my main questions were addressed and I at least have a direct to proceed now.

I have previously experimented with fermented foods, and I make Mead and beer. This well written book gives me great insight and inspiration for even more fermentations. Love it and highly recommend it.

This is the future of food. Amazing book

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. He is the author of Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation, which was a New York Times bestseller and won a James Beard Foundation award in 2013--as well as the forthcoming Fermentation as Metaphor (October 2020). The hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world have helped catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. 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.