118 ferment recipes

Lon Tao Jiao: a Thai coconut milk and fermented bean sauce dip served with raw cucumber, cabbage, and green beans. A salty-sweet-sour Thai vegetable platter.

Old-time potato sourdough starter made with just four ingredients: unbleached flour, potato water, sugar, and salt. No commercial yeast needed for this traditional wild-fermented starter.

Fiery Sichuan-style wok chicken with chili, fermented bean curd, and fresh ginger, simmered in stock and served over tender pea shoots. A 30-minute wok sensation.

Amish friendship bread starter ferments flour, sugar, and milk for five days to create the sweet, yeasty mother that fuels the famous chain-letter cinnamon quick bread.

Russian malossol pickles are lightly brined cucumbers fermented with dill, garlic, horseradish root, and cherry or currant leaves. Ready in 5-6 days, crisp, garlicky, and mildly salty.

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.

Frozen mocha mousse pie made with cultured cream, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, and brown sugar whipped to stiff peaks, set in pie crusts. A unique fermented chocolate dessert.

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.

Pickled spring garlic in vinegar and sweetened soy sauce, Korean-style. Slow ferment that mellows young garlic into tender, savory cloves perfect for rice bowls and grilled meats.

Chinese clay pot crab stir-fried with fermented black beans, garlic, ginger, and scallions in rice wine and chicken stock. A dramatic, fragrant shellfish dish ready in 25 minutes.

5-minute Asian black bean marinade with fermented bean sauce, sesame oil, dry sherry, and mustard. Bold umami flavor for grilled chicken, lamb, or barbecue that transforms any protein.

Cucumber kimchi fermented at room temperature for 3 days with garlic, scallions, grated carrot, red pepper flakes, and cayenne. A crunchy, spicy Korean pickle you can make at home.