An excellent lesson by Annie Levy talked about living food, especially ‘wild fermentation’. She blogs at kitchencounterculture121.wordpress.com
Living foods often contain beneficial microbes, enzymes and nutrients – often these are lost during cooking. Annie also made some interesting comments about different ‘tastes’ that have been “taken from us”, and noted that sours and bitters were more often ones which were not so present in the modern ‘western’ diet – instead being hidden by over use of ‘sweet’. There may be a good reason for this, as some bitter plants are in fact poisonous (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_(taste)#Bitterness).
I must confess that I do use too much sugar and other condiments to make my food sweet. I am going to try to extend my palate (and try to reduce my habit of adding sugar to food).
Of course, fermenting and preserving your own food also cuts down packaging and waste – and can be done to keep seasonal food for other times of the year.
Food preservation
There are many traditional methods of food preservation in the ages before refrigeration. These often prevent the growth of unwanted bacteria, and funghi (such as yeasts) and may include adding beneficial bacteria and yeasts instead (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_preservation). Some methods include drying, curing (with salt), smoking and pickling. Modern methods include adding artificial preservatives to food.
In the UK we tend to use vinegar (pickling) or sugar (eg. jams) to preserve food, but other cultures have used different methods.
Annie introduced a number of processes.
1) Lacto-fementation
Despite its name, this is not related to being lactose intolerant, but is Lactic Acid Fermentation. “Lactic acid fermentation is used in many areas of the world to produce foods that cannot be produced through other methods.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_fermentation). Four main food items use this method: Kimchi, a korean dish; Sauerkraut; Yoghurt and Sour Beer. It is an anaerobic method. We studied about making Sauerkraut in the class.
2) Vinegars
Vinegars contain acetic acid (CH3COOH) and are produced through fermentation. They have reported (but unproved) medical and dietary benefits but also some side-effects if too strong or left exposed to air. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar). We looked at producing home-made scrap vinegars.
3) Cultures
Producing bacteria (eg Lacto-fermenttion above), yeasts (brewing and baking) and molds (cheeses) has been around for a long time, as a way of helping to preserve foods but also increase nutritional value. We found out particularly about sour-dough, kambucha and kefir. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_food_cultures
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