51 ferment recipes

Ma-po tofu, silky bean curd and ground pork simmered in a fiery sauce of fermented chili and ginger, thickened glossy and finished with sesame oil and scallion. The Sichuan classic, hot, spicy and tender.

Simple sourdough starter made with unbleached flour and active dry yeast mixed into a thick batter and fermented for 24 hours. The foundation for sourdough breads and pancakes.

Watercress salad with a Chinese-style bean curd cheese and tahini dressing. Blanched watercress tossed in a creamy, savory fermented bean curd dressing with chili flakes and lemon.

Two-ingredient sourdough starter made with just flour and water, left to ferment for 4-5 days. The simplest way to capture wild yeast for homemade sourdough bread.

Plain sourdough starter made from just flour and water. No commercial yeast needed. Mix, wait four to five days, and you have a wild-fermented base for bread.

Milk-based sourdough starter using just flour and warm milk. A two-ingredient pioneer-style starter that ferments into a tangy base for biscuits, pancakes, and rustic loaves.

Garlic half-sour dill pickles: classic New York deli-style fermented cucumbers with garlic, dill, and pickling spice. Just 2 weeks to crisp, lightly sour pickles at home.

Dad's Saxon yeast is a heritage homemade yeast cake recipe from Transylvanian Saxon tradition, made by boiling hops, fermenting with rye flour, then drying into preserved cakes for bread baking. Old-world sourdough-adjacent craft.

Traditional fermented beet kvass, the tangy ruby-red base for authentic borscht. Just beets, water, and a slice of bread create this Old World staple in 4 to 5 days.

Grape starter for sourdough bread uses wild yeast from red grape skins to build a tangy, fruity base with just flour and water. A 6-day fermentation process creates a living starter you can maintain for months.

Homebrew ginger mead with 7 pounds of honey, fresh ginger root, and optional fruit additions. Fermented with champagne yeast and aged 3 to 12 months for a smooth, spiced honey wine.

Just milk, yogurt, and flour. This 3-ingredient sourdough starter uses live yogurt cultures to kickstart fermentation, giving you a bubbly, tangy base for homemade sourdough bread in about 3 days.

Refrigerator pickles in a cold dill-and-garlic brine, ready in three days. The no-canning, no-fermenting method that lets you keep adding cucumbers as you eat from the jar.

A milk-based sourdough starter jump-started with yeast: flour, water and yeast left to ferment, then enriched with milk, sugar and flour. Keep it in the fridge and feed it after each use for ongoing baking.

Stuffed eggplant pickles filled with minced cabbage, red bell pepper, garlic, and dill, tied with softened celery ribs and fermented in vinegar brine. A traditional Middle Eastern style pickle ready in 2 to 3 weeks.

Friendship brandied fruit is a perpetual fermented fruit compote built over months by adding peaches, pineapple, cherries, sugar, and brandy to a starter. Spoon over ice cream, pound cake, or yogurt for an instant dessert.