What is a Ginger Bug? A Ginger Bug is a naturally fermented culture that is used to carbonate probiotic beverages at home. You can make your own homebrewed ginger ale with a little patience and a little simple science. No, there are no bugs involved. Well, not insects, anyway.
How to Make Lacto-Fermented Pickles The cucumbers are in season! What to do with so many cucumbers? Planting that extra hill of cukes seemed like a good idea last May. Here’s an idea: make pickles! Or, better yet, make lacto-fermented pickles! Cucumbers USED TO be fermented to preserve them. The pickles…
Believe it or not, pickled onions are actually quite delicious. During fermentation, they lose their sharp, acidic character and mellow quite nicely. Make these for use as a salad topping or to stick in sandwiches, or just to nibble on. Check out the video, above.
I don’t eat a lot of ketchup but when I do it seems way sweeter than it needs to be. Hmm. Nutritional Label: Serving size: 1 tablespoon. 3.7g of sugar per serving. uh-oh. I usually eat a couple of ounces of the stuff at a time. 2 T / oz…
In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth— to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan…
Recipes for Making and Cooking with Fermented Foods by Mary Karlin Please don’t buy this book or at least don’t follow the guidance in this book. This is great for a coffee table book with lots of big pretty pictures. If you want to buy a book about how to…
Wild Fermentation Book Review 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…
The wild raspberries are ripe! We found them first at Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park and then in the woods, across the street from my daughter’s house in Sandy Spring! I couldn’t resist. I do not like picking berries in the fields — too many relapses of childhood memories growing up working…
Time for a Kombucha Reload. I’ve got a pretty good routine for keeping myself in kombucha. I managed to generate a gallon-sized SCOBY and I’ve worked up to a good mash to make to feed the SCOBY. Here’s my recipe for kombucha. 1 gallon water 1 cup cane sugar 8…
Here’s my recipe for a naturally fermented, traditional ginger beer that has beneficial probiotics and enzymes. The recipe makes use of a ginger bug instead of dumping a bunch of bread yeast into your soda. I think the bread yeast flavor really comes through in the finished product and overwhelms the ginger….