This book is a comprehensive tour of the ferments we employ at Noma, but it is by no means an encyclopaedic guide…” Something for the true food nerd (and I mean that in the most complimentary way). . . . The recipes are fascinatingly inventive, and the processes behind those recipes are written in a style that makes a novice like me feel like he could give it a go."

The Noma Guide to Fermentation by David Zilber - Waterstones The Noma Guide to Fermentation by David Zilber - Waterstones

If you use this book to experiment and further your skills, you will be a better fermenter for it. Enjoy! What's particularly nice about the book is that it takes the time to go into in-depth explanations. Many of its recipes have photos that illustrate what your ferment should look like over days, weeks, and even months, which is really helpful if you're worried that what you're making is going sideways. It also gives Redzepi and Zilber room to talk about their more unique creations. When they make vinegar out of celery, or miso out of peas (usually it's soybeans), they understand that we're going to need some suggestions on what to do with them. Celery vinegar, it turns out, makes an intriguing topping for fresh cheese when combined with herbs and olive oil. Miso made with with peas, or "peaso," as they call it, can be folded into butter to adorn mashed potatoes, or it can be combined with garlic oil and used as a beef marinade. One particularly helpful pairing note is to simply use the fermented product with the same foods you'd pair their unfermented versions with. People have always associated our restaurant closely with wild food and foraging, but the truth is that the defining pillar of Noma is fermentation. That’s not to say that our food is especially funky or salty or sour or any of the other tastes that people associate with fermentation. It’s not like that. Try to picture French cooking without wine, or Japanese cuisine without shoyu and miso. It’s the same for us when we think about our own food. My hope is that even if you’ve never eaten at Noma, by the time you’ve finished reading our book and made a few of the recipes, you’ll know what I mean. Fermentation isn’t responsible for one specific taste at Noma—it’s responsible for improving everything . If you’re wanting to learn any of these four fermentations methods, then you’ve got the wrong book. But that doesn’t mean this book is subpar. Noma simply gives these topics the respect they deserve by not including them.

The first two chapters are beginner friendly (lacto-fermentation and kombucha), then there’s a steep nose dive into intermediate (vinegar) and advanced ferments (koji, miso, shoyu, garum). Koji is a huge topic that lays the foundation for the chapters on miso and shoyu (soy sauce), so if you’re interested in koji, you’ll love the majority of content. For lacto fermentation, no! Obviously, make sure they are clean of visible dirt and grime, but since LAB exists naturally on our skin, there is no need to use gloves as that may actually help the LAB population thrive. An indispensable glimpse into how the four-time world's best restaurant approaches fermented foods, all adapted for the home kitchen. . . . Once you've made your first ferment, you'll understand first-hand how intuitive the methods are and how applicable they are to limitless raw ingredients." When noma first set out to define itself as a restaurant almost 15 years ago, René and the team set out to define the foodways of our region. Somehow they knew that limitations were bound to bring focus. Not that it was lazy to call up a vegetable supplier and ask for lemons for that evening’s fish dish, but in a way (creatively at least) it was [lazy]. Can be achieved at home. Honest. . . . A massive amount of thought has been put into the writing and the layout of this book and it is clear that a lot of heart has gone into it, too. To be privy to such an extensive and in-depth knowledge of fermentation from these two is an incredible benefit."

The Noma Guide to Fermentation: Including koji, kombuchas The Noma Guide to Fermentation: Including koji, kombuchas

After reading The Noma Guide to Fermentation, I want to lacto-ferment every single thing in sight! A whole new world of ideas has been opened. As ever, René and his Noma team generously share their knowledge of their initial fermentation 'accidents' and how the alchemy of mold, yeast, and bacteria can completely transform one's cooking." Clostridium botulinum (the bacteria that causes botulism) that thrives in the absence of oxygen. Sounds similar to LAB right? Here is a huge difference though. Clostridium botulinum struggles in the presence of salt or acid, which both exist in our lacto fermentation through salt and the LAB turning sugar to acetic acid. Going deep into human history, we find so much variety in the styles of fermentation from place to place. Ideas, and people, moved much more slowly thousands of years ago. Traditions kept ancient recipes for fermented foods true over the course of centuries and generations, and we still enjoy many of those foods today. Those invaluable traditions worked by keeping variation to a minimum. In the past, fermentation was different because it had to be, while today, it’s different because it can be.

$52

Although the ferments covered in this book can be achieved in a home kitchen, most of them are definitely not suited to beginner home fermenters; hence the book being viewed as “complicated and impractical”. A significant [marker of] culinary culture. . . . A fresh set of transformative cooking fundamentals . . . [that] make ferments something cooks reach for as readily as salt." In most cases, there’s no single “right” way, so the recipes are written with multiple methods and possible pitfalls in mind. We go into quite a bit of detail—more than you may need in some instances—but we want you to feel as comfortable making these ferments as one of our own chefs would be if tasked with making one for the first time. Even though it may require a little patience and commitment, you can and absolutely should produce your own shoyus and misos and garums. Once you taste the rewards of your effort, it’s hard to imagine cooking without them. Plus, it all gets easier the second time around. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. The No. 1 issue with this book, has nothing to do with the book itself, but instead the readers expectations. Whether it’s assumed that “guide to fermentation” means covering all fermentation methods, or that the association with Noma garners a certain standard of prestige; either way, I highly recommend putting aside your assumptions and firstly reading the “About This Book” chapter (yes, that part of the book everyone skips). René Redzepi does a fantastic job outlining exactly that to expect, going into great detail about three important components:

The Noma Guide To Fermentation - MiNDFOOD The Noma Guide To Fermentation - MiNDFOOD

In the detailed, intelligent Noma Guide to Fermentation . . . accessibility is the goal. . . . What's astounding about this book, coming from Noma, is that the recipe for lacto fermented blueberries is simple, easy, well laid out, presented with options (like many of the recipes here) based on your preferences or available equipment. Most recipes are followed by suggestions that seem delicious, and again, astoundingly sane." Maizo is a mash-up of cultures that maybe only noma could have produced. Over the past four years, we’ve travelled the world three times, doing noma pop-ups in Japan, Australia and Mexico – transporting our staff and ideas in each instance in an attempt to exercise and hone our creativity. We learned so much about how miso is made in Japan by touring traditional miso factories. And then in Mexico, seeing how corn was transformed into masa for all sorts of traditional dishes got our wheels turning even more. The mash-up that is Maizo takes the Japanese method of making miso, but trades soybeans for nixtamalized corn. The flavour is out of this world, floral and electric. This was another one of those books that took a subject that I'm passionate about and wanted to learn more about, and convinced me that I probably shouldn't even try. I know that's not the goal, but it really makes it seem absolutely expensive, fiddly and complicated. I highly recommend Sandor Katz's fermentation books if you want to feel inspired and actually do the things you're reading out. This will be a good fit for people who just want to be impressed with the process or for really hard core folks. It wasn't a good fit for me.Techniques for achieving the tangy, deeply savory, overall extraordinary flavor that fermentation can bring to a dish." Run it through a cycle of your dishwasher. Or if that's not possible, you can disinfect and clean with some vinegar and hot water Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown While this was an interesting read (and I'm in awe of NOMA's food), I doubt I'll be venturing into making koji, miso, or garum at home. Most of this book was a bit above my current skill/interest and level of commitment, which sits at "many bottles of kefir, two successful batches of sauerkraut, and a spicy carrot/lime slaw."