Feifer - Ferment your vegetables : a fun and flavorful guide to making your own pickles, kimchi, kraut, and more

This book is for you whether youre a well-seasoned pickle pro or a kitchen novice ready to dip a toe into the briny waters of fermentation at home. With clear, concise information and a healthy dose of geeky science, Amanda Feifer brings new ideas to ignite your pickle passion. Fermented nuts? Sauerkraut eggs? Fizzy corn on the cob? Yes, please!

KAREN SOLOMON, AUTHOR OF ASIAN PICKLES AND JAM IT, PICKLE IT, CURE IT

Amandas constant enthusiasm and thoughtfulness has inspired the team at High Street on Market to become more confident and understanding of fermentation. Now that same enthusiasm and thoughtfulness is available to everyone in Ferment Your Vegetables. Microbes have never had a better ambassador.

ELI KULP, EXECUTIVE CHEF, HIGH STREET ON MARKET, FORK RESTAURANT, AND A.KITCHEN + BAR

Full of enticing photos and solid techniques, Ferment Your Vegetables removes any fear about fermentation and replaces it with fun! Brimming with practical advice and creative flavor combinations, Feifers book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys fermented foods.

ALLYSON KRAMER, AUTHOR OF GREAT GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN EATS

With Ferment Your Vegetables, Amanda Feifer demystifies the trickier aspects of fermenting at home and gives us all the tools we need to confidently go forth with our own fermentation experiments. Her small-batch pickling recipes are perfect for using up an overly abundant CSA share, and they show us that pickling can be a part of our everyday cooking.

EMMA CHRISTENSEN, RECIPE EDITOR FOR THE KITCHN AND AUTHOR OF TRUE BREWS AND BREW BETTER BEER

Devour every page of Ferment Your Vegetables and you will be rewarded with ideas and recipes to keep you fermenting for years. Everything you need to know is covered, even if your microbial adventures have only just begun.

BRANDEN BYERS, AUTHOR OF THE EVERYDAY FERMENTATION HANDBOOK

Ferment Your Vegetables offers clear, concise instructions for making your own pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, and more. The books small-batch approach makes the practice of vegetable preservation accessible to everyone, with wildly creative, playful recipes!

LEDA SCHEINTAUB, AUTHOR OF CULTURED FOODS FOR YOUR KITCHEN

Amanda Feifer

2015 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2015 Amanda Feifer

Photography 2015 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

First published in the United States of America in 2014 by

Fair Winds Press, an imprint of

Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

100 Cummings Center

Suite 406-L

Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-6101

Telephone: (978) 282-9590

Fax: (978) 283-2742

www.QuartoKnows.com

Visit our blogs at www.QuartoKnows.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

Digital edition published in 2015

Digital edition: 978-1-62788-755-7
Hardcover edition: 978-1-59233-682-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feifer, Amanda.

Ferment your vegetables : a fun and flavorful guide to making your own pickles, kimchi, kraut, and more / Amanda Feifer.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-59233-682-1

1. Fermented foods. 2. Pickled foods. I. Title.

TP371.44.F44 2015

664.024--dc23

2015024235

Cover and book design by Laura McFadden Design

Photography by Courtney Apple

Prop and food styling by Barbara Botting

The information in this book is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace the advice of a physician or medical practitioner. Please see your health care provider before beginning any new health program.

To Jake, in gratitude for his fermenty and real life love and support. And for Ava, may she grow up in a world full of bubbly, probiotic acceptance.

The act of vegetable fermentation is often as easy as chopping a vegetable, putting it in a jar, pouring in some salt brine, and waiting.

Yet for all its practical simplicity, fermentation is also amazingly meaningful and complex when considered from a political, social, or philosophical perspective. Fermentation is empowerment. The act of deciding to ferment ones food can be political. It says no to fast food and yes to the idea that good things come to those who wait. It says no to raging, baseless bacteria-phobia and yes to appreciating that we may not yet understand all that the microbial world has to offer. It accepts that innovation and exploration are important in a progressive society, but also that there are lessons to be learned from the past. It says no to ingredient lists that require a chemistry degree to understand and yes to foods with knockout flavors and simple ingredients.

Just salt and vegetables, when fermented, give us so much more than the sum of their parts. They give us sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, and more. They give us higher vitamin output than there was input. They give us abundant probiotics and specialized enzymes that, researchers continue to find, do all sorts of unimaginably good things for our bodies, and even fight specific diseases. Undeniably, they give us flavors that taste like nothing else, flavors that cant be replicated by chemical additives or the addition of vinegar and spices.

This book is intended as a road map to fermenting your own vegetables at home. I hope that it calms any fears you might have about the safety of this extraordinarily safe process. I hope it shows you that, by being flexible and exploratory, you can experience both increased health and pleasure from your food. I hope, too, that it will inspire you to try not only these recipes but also to introduce your own favorite flavors into future batches of kraut and kimchi. I hope that it excites you and incites you to explore food through the world of ferments. Most of all, I hope that it shows you that fermentation is fun!