Fearless Fermenting: How to Boldly Craft Fermented Foods Which Nourish Your Body, Heal Your Gut, and Feed Your Soul
By Austin Durant
Author Academy Elite
Austin Durant’s Fearless Fermenting is equal parts practical, educational, humorous and enlightening. His folksy style is reminiscent of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, the story of a woefully unprepared man who hikes the Appalachian Trail. Like Bryson, Durant educates and entertains as he covers all things fermented and fermenting. He leaves no stone unturned, and, if you’re like me, you’ll leave no page unturned.
Right out of the gate, Durant charms us with the story of his grandfather spoon-feeding him “jet fuel” (some kind of salt and vinegar tonic) as a kid. Durant loved it, and evidently it primed his palate for the intoxicating flavors found in most ferments. He explains why we should fearlessly ferment and eat more fermented foods—in brief, because fermentation is a natural, healthy and ancient practice.
After getting introduced to sauerkraut as a young man, Durant was off to the races. He started making kraut and seeking out experts to teach him. This led him to ask, “Am I the Forrest Gump of fermentation?” presumably because he ended up popping up all over the place, influenced by his great love for the art of fermentation. (Yes, among other notable fermenters, he learned from Sandor Katz.)
Durant’s book bubbles over with word play and levity. There is a graphic that looks like the Pac-Man video game to illustrate the role of probiotics, prebiotics, psychobiotics and postbiotics. But humor and wit do not make this a lightweight tome, because Durant also gets into the science of fermentation. One section focuses on the distinction between wild and cultured ferments. Wild ferments like pickles get their microbes from the food or the air. Cultured ferments like yogurt “didn’t get their name because they went to finishing school.” Rather, “they’re ferments that need a little help to get started.” Durant also gets specific about how fermentation works, likening it to a “bacterial relay race” where salt serves as a microbial inhibitor, regulating which microbes thrive and which stay away. (Salt also has preservative and drying effects.)
After Durant equips us to start fermenting, we are invited to enter the “FerMatrix,” a helpful (and fun) way to rate the complexity of making particular ferments. Durant applies his unique rating system to all of the book’s recipes. The FerMatrix considers variables such as wild versus cultured, number of ingredients, brine, climate control, average number of days required for fermentation, number of fermentation phases, total prep time, equipment needed, starter maintenance requirements and a hazard factor. The FerMatrix score included with each recipe lets readers know what the ferment requires in terms of time and effort. Whether you want to make water kefir (rated 12), roasted French fries (7), mustard (10) or pumpkin kimchi (13), it’s laid out for you with a colorful graphic indicating how “spicy” of a challenge you will face.
Durant offers encouragement and tips throughout. For kombucha, these include evaluating the best container for building up carbonation and troubleshooting problems (e.g., moldy SCOBY, too sour, never fermenting). Other suggestions focus on the best kind of milk for cultured dairy and best practices for storing and maintaining sourdough starter. He also discusses water filtration options and how to set up a fermentation-friendly kitchen.
This book is clearly designed for novices (who need encouragement to be “fearless”) but also provides depth for experienced fermenters who may want to try a new ferment or learn some of the science. I am inspired to enter the FerMatrix and journey on, fearlessly. That’s one reason this book deserves a hearty thumbs up.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2024
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