51 ferment recipes

Easy kimchi for first-timers: salted napa cabbage fermented with green onion, garlic, ginger, and dried chile in a simple brine. No fish sauce, no special paste. Let it bubble on the counter, then chill the funky, sour, crunchy result.

Potato flake sourdough starter: a simple three-ingredient base of water, sugar, and instant potato flakes left to ferment for 3 to 4 days. The sweet, old-fashioned starter used in friendship bread and soft white loaves.

Fermented mincemeat made with venison or beef tongue, suet, apples, dried fruit, red wine, cider, and brandy. A six-to-eight-week crock cure transforms the ingredients into the deep, boozy filling of old hunting cabin Christmas pies.