Fermented Vegetables, 10th Anniversary Edition: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 72 Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs in Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Kimchis, Krauts, Pastes & Relishes

I wanted to gain the skill of fermentation, but I was nervous about possibly making a mistake and ending up with food poisoning. This book was exactly what I needed. I love this recipe book so much, because it troubleshoots everything that might cause a problem with your ferments. It explains the pros and cons of various options, equipment, techniques, etc. How to make sure that the salinity is in the best range to prevent spoilage without hindering fermentation. How to choose ingredients that will give you the best results. It has saved me a lot of trial and error. The authors have extensive experience with making sauerkraut, pickles, etc. They also have experience in teaching these skills. As a result, the book does a wonderful job of explaining everything you need to know. They address the concerns that weigh on the mind of every new "fermentista"; such as, "how can I be sure that the food I've fermented is safe to eat?" The photographs in the book are excellent. I especially appreciated the "scum gallery" photos that have helped me evaluate what I was seeing in my fermentation jars. SO USEFUL in resolving concerns! The book is designed to encourage every household to harness the benefits of fermenting food for the family table. The instructions emphasize the simplest and most cost-effective techniques, so that anyone can gain these traditional skills. They also provide useful tips on which foods will blend well together, and how to get the results in flavor and texture that you personally prefer. I read Sandor Katz' first book, but found it difficult to picture how to emulate, in my own kitchen, the techniques he described. This book makes the deeply nourishing art of fermentation a very attainable skill.

Love this book. It is exactly what I was looking for out of my first book on the topic. It gives you a full explanation of lacto-fermentation science and history along with sections on salts, troubleshooting and equipment; the basic procedures behind sauerkraut, brine pickling and kimchi; and then a whole bunch of recipes (A-Z) for a multitude of veggies and even a few fruits What I really like is that there is a lot of explanation of techniques and not just simple recipes so that you develop an understanding of what you are doing instead of just blindly following step-by-step. For example, for many of the vegetables there is more than one recipe and it will discuss the various types of that veggie or similar veggies. If you can't ferment almost any vegetable you can think of with this book, then you clearly did not read it! This book only deals with lacto-fermentation which is using the naturally occurring Lactobacillus to ferment your veggies. It does not deal with starter cultures or use of whey or any other inoculation method. It is also strictly tailored for vegetable fermentation. It does not discuss yeast fermentation of beer, wine or sourdough or the aging fermentation of meats.

I am just starting to learn how to ferment. I found this book extremely helpful. It is also funny which makes reading it more enjoyable. Well laid out with high quality pictures. I will be ordering more books from the same authors.

I love this book so far! So many ideas that I've never read or heard of. Many photos and recipes for herbal tinctures, meals with herbs, salves and what each herb does for you. I've been using herbs for years. LOVE LOVE the content!!!!! Con: 1 star removed because pages are becoming loose from the binding with just one quick look at about 50% of the book. For a new book, I should not need to use a rubber band to keep the pages intact. I would expect that from a very old antique book. Very cheap binding. This is a book I would like to pass on to generations (like the books my grandmother passed on to me), but maybe this was bound in another country that I will not mention here, but likely! Very cheap labor happens there. If so, SHAME! It should be made in the USA all the way! Hopefully the Author takes care of this, because the content is a keeper for sure!

I loved this book! It's not just a recipe book/cookbook. It's a complete guide to essentially everything you could want to know about fermenting vegetables. I like the alphabetized lists of foods to ferment, the guides to selecting the best quality ingredients, and the suggestions for creating your own ferments. This book made me feel confident enough to experiment as it shows which parts of the recipe are important to keep the same and which parts can change. Fermenting is a lot more forgiving than I thought it was!

This book is one of the most useful and FUN books I ever owned. I have a serious book fetish, with thousands of books, so saying is not trivial. I have recommended it to many friends now. The directions and background are clear and written in a very readable and approachable way, like talking with family. Oh my God(dess) the recipes are to die for! Reading it makes me so hungry I jump up and run into my kitchen/laboratory and start fermenting something new. I was delightfully surprised for recipes and instructions for pickled vegetable sushi rolls, for example. I could live on sushi. Even the page finishes of the book are tolerant of fingerprints dipped in fermenting fluids and salt brine smudges! :)) Has definitely launched my new career as a devoted Fermentista. I laughed out loud when I read that word Fermentista here. I never knew there was such a wonderful title. And now, not having ever intentionally fermented anything other than accidental "biological experiments" I found growing in my refrigerator, I am one. Thank you to the authors for sharing the gift of these wonderful words and beautiful pictures. Definitely worth every cent of my investment.

Well written, easy to read. Gives multiple options for fermenting process, no pressure to buy lots of stuff.

I have made sauerkraut in the past. My all time favorite recipe was from a hunter’s wife from near Chicago. Pack a quart jar with shredded cabbage, add one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of white vinegar and pour boiling water to one inch of the top. Screw a canning lid on loosely...the secret of this recipe was to do it in the dark of the moon. Uh, yea, I was a skeptic too until after several years of success I processed my garden cabbage in another phase of the moon...it went all over the shelves. My first batch of sauerkraut was from my father-in-law (his wife had died and we were doing it from his memory). After doing several heads of cabbage in the huge crock...I walked out with my first bowl of kraut to find him on the tractor and asked him if his kraut was black. At the same time the neighboring ranch man had tried his own recipe. Weeks into the experiment (mine turning black) he’d brought a beautiful bowl of what looked like freshly shredded cabbage and he insisted that I must taste it...it was so salty that it leached all moisture from my mouth. (All these experiences were 45 years ago. The folks who depended on storing their own food had dwindled and there was no internet or authors of fermenting and advantages of probiotics weren’t known in rural Wyoming). This book is great. The picture descriptions are fantastic. I never imagined being able to ferment so many veggies. I have done the Napa cabbage and I have fermented about 20 cloves of garlic. I bought one of those fermenting lids as I am doing this on a smaller scale in quart jars. I use sandwich bags with water to submerge the produce in the liquid. Oh my gosh..the aroma coming through the pump hole of the lid is so great! I love the ideas for various vegetables, the troubleshooting, and just the whole format of this book. This fermenting idea is still pretty new to the cowboy Wyoming of my heart, but anyone who has sampled my end product of Napa cabbage loved it. I recommend this book, highly.

Love this book! There are so many recipes to look through, and it's well organized. If you're insecure about fermenting, I definitely recommend this book. If you just want some recipe inspiration, this is a great resource. I use this book mostly for inspiration, then do a little research on the side as well regarding fermentation times. Mostly because they recommend fermenting sauerkraut for about a week, but it's actually pretty common to ferment it for a month. There's nothing wrong with doing a shorter ferment, but the different suggestions for time might be a little confusing to those new to fermenting. That aside, I think this is an amazing book for people new to fermenting or those who have an interest in it. Not only does it have detailed recipes, it explains the process, and best of all has images of what's normal in a ferment, and what's not. I gifted this book to someone who was nervous about the process (because nobody wants food poisoning!) and it made them feel so much more confident.

Excelente libro, muy buenas recetas, excelente contenido. Gracias!

Very comprehensive

Fermentation is well explained, easy to follow.

An exhaustive and in depth voyage into the techniques of fermentation