In these days of DIY’s, producing something relatively simple in your own kitchen instead of buying it in a market is often preferred by many home cooks. Thus this little booklet, Basic Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz is a welcome additions to kitchens of DIY cooks. Although small in size, the booklet is perfect for anyone attempting home fermentation—and as Katz clearly states it, fermentation is not hard and takes little kitchen skill. In fact anyone can do it and success is to be expected as not much can go wrong if you follow Katz’ instructions carefully.
“In this booklet I explain simple methods for a variety of fermented foods.”
Ingredients for most fermented product in this booklet are easily available though for a few items you will need to search (dried hop flowers, rice koji, tempeh culture, e.g.) but Katz gives a source where these are available. Illustrations are very good, showing steps of the instructions and the fermentation processes. Katz covers many of the popular fermentation products, like sauerkraut, brine pickles, buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt but also many of the less common ones, such as kefir, tara, injera and so on. Katz’s head notes are excellent. There is no index but it’s not needed.