Brandon Byers is a bona fide badass. If you don’t already know him from his podcast, FermUp, it’s time to head on over there to take a listen. I wish I could tell you about all of his projects, because they are incredibly impressive, but I’ll leave that to him and merely ask for your trust that this guy knows his business. His approach to fermentation is definitely the kind that leads him way below the surface. He’s the kinda guy who will resolve an issue by gaining the deepest possible understanding of that issue and then building a thing from scratch to solve his problem. Oven temp not right? He builds the equipment! Curiosity brewing about why particular bacteria give this particular texture? He reads food microbiology textbooks while rocking his son to sleep until he finds the answer. See? A badass. His inaugural cookbook, The Everyday Fermentation Handbook, accurately showcases his tendency towards creativity and digging deep. It also makes for an incredibly fun and inventive guide to all things fermented.
If you aren’t already familiar with culture vendors such as Cultures for Health, Yemoos or GEM, you’re about to be. While there’s plenty of excellent wild fermentation in this book, usually my preference, some of my very favorite recipes here are those that had me online with my credit card. There are so many recipes here that creatively use cultures, like the chickpea and wild rice tempeh, the varied, heirloom yogurts and canned-bean natto. You’re gonna go nuts!
In addition to the ferments you’ve heard of, ferments you wish you’d thought of and the ones you immediately want to make, there are recipes for using all those things up. They range from the straightforward and delicious (sauerkraut dumplings, anyone?) to the thing that sounds a bit strange but will end up becoming your go-tos (PB&K, aka Peanut Butter and Kimchi Sandwich. Just trust me. It’s tops.).
In short, this book provides excellent guidance on everything you’ve ever thought you might want to ferment but, even better, it provides inspiration to ferment things you probably never conceived of, and to push the boundaries until you find your perfect thing, be it your favorite flavor combination, your new favorite ferment or the ideal process.
I’ll be sharing one the many awesome wild ferments from this book with you later in the week, but for now, enter below for your chance to make every single one of these fun, interesting and wildly delicious recipes.