Let Them Eat Kimchi

By Greg Gonzales

Fermenting foods adds a year or two of life to otherwise wasted abundance, gives home cooks a chance to try new and forgotten flavors and save grocery money, and play with food in entirely new ways. With the rise of local food movements and increasing interest in food preservation, along with developments in microbiology, the Western world is learning day by day that making fermented foods at home can help support the microbiome in the human gut. On top of all that, retailers can be the go-to place for people to learn about fermentation and pick up basic supplies to start their own umami-packing journeys. At its most basic scientific definition, fermentation is anaerobic metabolism, or microbes consuming sugars and starches without a need for oxygen.

Sandor Katz, Author of “The Art of Fermentation” and Fermented Foods Revivalist, explains that fermented foods require a bit broader of a definition. “Most of the foods we would describe as fermented meet the scientific definition,” he said. “When we ferment cabbage into sauerkraut, that’s an anaerobic process that does not require oxygen; when we ferment milk into yogurt, that’s an anaerobic process that does not require oxygen; when we ferment grape juice into wine, that’s an anaerobic process that does not require oxygen. The problem is that a large handful of foods that are microbially transformed, that are fermented, do require oxygen, so they’re aerobic processes. For instance, to make vinegar out of wine, it requires oxygen; to make kombucha requires oxygen; to make soybeans into tempeh requires oxygen; certain kinds of molded cheese also require oxygen. So I prefer to work with the broader definition that fermentation is the transformative action of microorganisms.”

One reason consumers are finding more interest in fermented foods lately, and making them at home, is that these beneficial bacteria help break foods down before we even eat it, giving food even more nutritional potential than eaten raw. “Fermentation has been an essential part of how people everywhere have made effective use of the food resources available to them, but the fact that a food has been fermented does not automatically imply anything about its nutritional quality or values,” said Katz. “But when I say that fermented food has been essential part of how people make effective use of the food resources everywhere, that’s because fermentation unlocks nutrients. You take rice and lentils, and you ferment them into a batter to make dosas and idlis, just to take an example of something I like – it’s a south Indian crepe or steam bread of fermented lentils and rice – you get much more of the calcium and the iron and other minerals embedded in the grains when you ferment them.”

The fermentation predigests the lentils and rice, according to Katz. It breaks down chemical bonds that our bodies cannot, enabling us to access nutrients. Soybeans are another example of a source of plant protein that’s not readily available to the human body, so Asian cultures that pioneered soy agriculture recognized thousands of years ago the indigestibility of soybeans, and they developed a variety of fermentation processes that predigest the beans to make foods including tofu and tempeh.

Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi contain probiotics – healthy microbes – and are thought to repopulate the guts of their consumers with these healthy microbes and possibly to help stave off illnesses, since there’s evidence that our gut bacteria has a role in a healthy immune system. “Our greatest protection from bacteria is, guess what, bacteria!” said Katz. “Healthy microbial communities in our bodies, on and around our bodies, are the main thing that protect us from the relatively small range of bacteria that can create problems for us or make us sick.” This makes sense looking back on a much longer timeline, too, he explained. “If you look at it in terms of evolution, there’s a broad consensus that all life is descended from bacteria. The corollary to this is that no form of life has ever lived without bacteria, so human beings, with our trillion-cell microbiome in our guts – we’re not so unique. The same is true of carrots and cabbages; they all have their microbial symbionts that evolved with them that they rely upon for many different functional reasons, and the same with every kind of animal and every kind of fungus. We’re all descended from bacteria and we all interact constantly with bacteria, and all the forms of life are connected to each other via bacteria.”

Along with health benefits, fermented foods come with financial and environmental benefits, as fermentation was largely adopted by ancient cultures as a way of preserving food. The more foods people can preserve, and the more flavors they can create out of them, the less they have to spend on an annual basis for foods they don’t use.

No one needs to be a microbiologist to ferment their own foods or get customers started. “You don’t need to know anything about bacteria to be a great fermenter,” said Katz. “Certainly, the science of microbiology has illuminated the process of fermentation in important ways, but the daily practitioners of fermentation in China or India or Mexico or anywhere, they don’t know about bacteria and there’s no need to know about bacteria. You just need to understand the conditions you’re trying to create, and then the bacteria take care of themselves.”

For a retail store, stocking some basic fermentation supplies, like mason jars, is a good idea, according to Kirsten K. Shockey, Author of “Fermented Vegetables” and “Fiery Ferments. “We have a local kitchen retailer and they were on it pretty early, so they have a pretty incredible fermentation section. They have crocks, and there are some really nice crocks coming out of Poland and Germany. I think some of the U.S. crocks are starting to do this, where they have a water trough in the lid, and what that does is, it has that water trap on it where it lets the CO2 out and no oxygen in. Having a few crocks in manageable sizes would be a good thing, and also some lids, and weights that go with mason jars,” she said. “A couple of books to help people get started is a good idea. And people are super interested in doing this right now, so if somebody on the staff can just learn up a little bit to help someone get started, that’s huge for kitchen stores.”

“Have somebody on staff who gets it, isn’t afraid of fermented food, who can help the customer come away with the few products they need,” she suggested. “They don’t need a lot, but they should come away with the idea that they can do this, that fermenting isn’t hard…. Folks are nervous. That’s the difference between fermentation and a pie; people have a basic sense of what pie is supposed to be, even if they haven’t baked a pie before and they’re getting all the stuff to bake one, they know what it looks like on the back end of things. Whereas with fermentation, they don’t know what it’s supposed to be on that end because it’s not been a part of their life growing up. There’s just a little more of that understanding that’s needed. If you’re a retailer, you have a chance to help folks understand what they’re aiming for.”

“What I’d say for people who are providing kitchenware for home cooks, it’s that fermentation has always been part of people’s kitchens. The 20th century is a departure from history in that regard,” said Katz. “In restaurant kitchens, in home kitchens, more and more people are reclaiming this part of our culinary legacy ― some people for health, some for the extraordinary flavors, some for preservation ― people’s motivations can be different, but this is part of the culinary landscape that is back in our kitchens, hopefully to stay.”