EDIBLE FERMENTS

Yeast, bacteria and moulds lie behind most food ferments. Here’s where they can be found in your everyday food.

VEGETABLE AND FRUIT PICKLES Virtually every culture has a veg or fruit pickling tradition to preserve seasonal abundance for the lean months. China, Korea, Japan, India, and countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are among the many with deep and diverse repertoires.

SEAFOOD Practically every coastal culture has indigenous seafood ferments, ranging from sauce, slurry and paste to chopped or whole pieces – for example, the fish sauces across the Asean region, belacan, Worcestershire sauce, Korean jeotgal and Iceland’s infamous ammoniascented fermented shark.

LEGUMES Soya beans are the focus of many traditional ferments, such as soya sauce, miso, tempeh, natto and smelly tofu. Other legumes are fermented to make staples and condiments in Africa and Asia. Modern items include soya milk yogurt and vegan cheese analogues made from fermented nuts.

MILK PRODUCTS Dairying cultures around the world ferment milk or whey to obtain a huge array of foods with a gamut of flavours and textures, from French creme fraiche to ropey Swedish viili and lightly fizzy Russian kefir.

CHEESES Most cheeses derive flavour and acidity from initial lactobacillus fermentation. Yeasts and moulds join the party to produce the marbling, rinds or textural particularities of some aged cheeses.

GRAINS These include koji, sourdough starters based on wheat, rice or other cereals; sweet fermented sticky rice eaten across the Asean region; fermented porridges around the world; Thai fermented rice noodles; and beverage ferments such as beer and rice wine.

VINEGAR Acetic acid bacteria have been tamed for millennia to make vinegar out of countless sources: grains such as wheat, rice, millet and sorghum; fruit wines and juices; malted barley; sugarcane juice; coconut water; honey; and molasses.

CURED MEATS These include dry-cured meats such as salami, chorizo, hams and other European charcuterie, and many kinds of Central Asian jerky, as well as wet or semi-dry fermented meats eaten cooked or uncooked, such as Vietnamese and Thai pork sausages and cuts. CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE Before cacao beans can be transformed into chocolate, the fresh pulp that cloaks them must ferment to induce the beans’ full flavour development. Traditionally left to wild yeasts, this is now being driven more precisely by some manufacturers with the help of yeast starter cultures. Similar fermentation occurs in coffee berry processing.