I just returned from the incredible experience of spending several days fermenting with Sandor Katz (read his books if you haven't). I lucked out and am so grateful. I learned so much about fermentation and food in general, but also from his kindness and generosity to strive to be a better person myself. "I feel like blueberry wine," I told him. "I've all this sugar/information to process and ferment through, and then I'll need to come back for racking."
So, I'm putting my notes here for easy referring back. And I do hope that I have the privilege of meeting him again someday.
Koji - this was interesting but I didn't pay too much attention because it's mostly for sake and that's not something I'm very interested in. Also it's good for other things such as miso and shiyo koji, but I'm at a basic fermentation level and that will be a later stage.
Kimchi - we made this with daikon radishes and napa cabbage. Use the core of that cabbage, and the daikon are really great. Just the vegetables get brined - spices are added later, not brined. I was out of the room when he talked about the flour mix, so I'll need to look up the process on his blog. The Korean chili powder makes it great.
Sandor made an amazing kimchi soup and the flavor that really struck me was gochujang. I need to get some of that myself.
Another really big hit with the class was pao cai, Chinese style fermented vegetables. They were awesome! Mala Market was suggested as a source for Szechuan peppercorns (red and green). Other things added were ginger, bay, cinnamon sick, malt sugar, slat, galangal. Really it's worth trying. Sandor added licorice root and he and others really liked that but I would probably do it without. The first batch in the crock will take awhile to ferment (a week or so), but then you can remove those and add new vegetables (again the daikon and other radishes were awesome) and get new tasty ones in just 24 hours or so. This is not included in his books but he thinks he has a blog post about it.
I picked his brain about okra and collards. HE said why not just ferment okra whole like a sauerkraut and can be with other vegetables. He suggested that collards not be fermented alone as they will give a very strong flavor, but may be better in a 1:2 ratio with cabbage. He also gave me some collards cooking tips because he is also a really good cook.
We put a lot of grains to ferment, such as rice and lentils for dhosa and teff for injera and black-eyed peas for acaraje' (soak 8-24 hours, drain, blend into batter in blender, let set again in a big jar to ferment overnight, then fry up - a common Brazilian dish). These are in his books and they were all super tasty.
Something that blew my mind was a buckwheat bread which is in his books but is ... mindblowing. 3 cups of raw buckwheat to soak, with salt, and it gets really mucilaginous. After soaking overnight drain and then grind it up. Heavily grease the pans and with seeds; let it rise again about 2 hours in warm place. Bake about an hour at 350 degrees, leave in pans 10 minutes to cool. kind of
He used a wet stone grinder - Ultra Perfect - but kept telling us that it's not really that necessary to buy an additional device and that he used a blender and a food processor for years.
Another bread was the Sonnenblumenkernbrot in his book. It was super tasty but the regular folding seemed a lot to me. My usual method of heavy kneading and flour adding would make it drier, Sandor says, but I might be ok with trying that because it's my nature. He added a bunch of fermented millet porridge and other such things and it was very good.
Tempeh kind of blew all of our minds because fresh is completely different from the frozen you buy in the store AND it doesn't have to be soybeans! Who knew?! We made ours from soybeans and black rice and it was incredible, especially fried up in coconut oil. Soybeans need to be cracked (hulls removed), and there are some different methods in his books. Grain can be added, he did cooked rice at 1:1 ratio. Airflow and humidity are important and he has an old refrigerator converted into an incubator that makes it easily controlled, but it's not necessary. Sandwich bags with holes punched in them work to process them, and we also used some banana leaves. Starter can be bought on-line. I think his is from The Farm, or he used to get it from there. I will probably get it from Short Mountain Cultures because they are delightful there and really love their tempeh ("my babies," said Simmer).
Yogurt - yes, you do need to denature the proteins, so heat it up about 180 degrees and then let it cool to about 115 degrees. Again, less is more, so he just uses 1 tsp per quart of milk. Pull some of the milk out and mix the starter in, then pour into the jars and put into an incubation chamber, which in his case was a small cooler with hot water (best at 115 degrees). Oven with pilot light, crockpot, etc. - they all work. Check the water and add more hot if it dips below 110. "Yog" for 4-8 hours (or I do overnight). Some suggest leaving it out for a few hours before refrigerating, as well. I forget all the story of his starter but he got it abroad and brought it back dried on a handkerchief, which he had read of immigrants doing. It's really good, super tangy, and as a heritage starter won't lose efficacy like using a supermarket yogurt as starter does. I'm excited to have that regularly for breakfast.
Sourdough - he taught us how to make it from scratch and throughout the time together we also used his starter that he had first made 25 or so years ago (and which I took some of). The key notes are: fresh milled rye starts a starter off strong. Less is more - use less starter when mixing up for refreshing - minimum of 5% and max of 40%. If stored in the fridge, take out a couple of days before and give it a few high proportion feedings (little starter, much flour and water). Sandor seemed to always use whole grain flour for feeding, though I don't think that's necessary. Feed the starter every day or two.
He discussed lightly fermented beverages such as kombucha and sweet potato fly (don't really need whey to make, unlike he says in his books). I like the idea of sweet potato fly and I enjoy drinking it, but I don't make or drink many sweet drinks (though I do keep water kefir going).
Chevre - Sandor's boyfriend, Shopping Spree, one evening brought a gallon of fresh goat milk that we made into chevre. It was heated to 90 degrees then cooled to room temperature; kefir grains were used and rennet (see book). It was mixed in a big pan and left overnight; then the cheese was removed and the whey became the subject of endless puns. Chopped up chives and salt/pepper complete it. It was super tasty to have on bread on my way out the door the final morning.
We didn't talk a lot about sauerkraut because everyone knows how to make that. He has an enormous vat in his cellar where he makes it each November (lots of daikon, which is something I want to plant for sure) and distributes it until May, when it starts to heat up and will turn bad. He said it is possible to ferment with meat, but suggests fermenting just vegetables for a few days first, before adding any meat. He puts whole vegetables in the big vat and they are very tasty!
We talked about alcoholic beverages which isn't something I plan to do right away. Something that did catch my attention was coffee tejj which I may need to try. We spent time with country wine and tried some blueberry wine from last year and two years ago and they were very good - the 2-year-old ready to be bottled, and we racked the other one. For the blueberry wine, the sugar: water ratio is usually around 1:4 but if the fruit is sweet then can be 1:6 or 1:8. He fills the crock about 2/3 full of fruit. It was pretty tasty.
He mentioned "stuck fermentation" which is something I need to look up if things just aren't progressing properly.
For vinegar, one that caught my attention was banana vinegar. Take an overripe banana, peel, mash (add nothing) - it will turn into vinegar. Stir it around every day as it liquefies then strain out solids, and put in bowl with cloth over the top (not metal).
An article he mentioned that I want to read is "From Kefir to Death" by Lynn Margulis.
The main things I learned from my days with Sandor Katz: label everything, always. Stir a lot and especially with alcohol, think of it like a vortex (stir around edges). Eat a lot of leafy greens. Farting is natural and nothing to be ashamed of (that was just about the only time I heard him correct somebody and give a speech). Appreciate things. Be kind and patient.
If you want more of Sandor:
So, I'm putting my notes here for easy referring back. And I do hope that I have the privilege of meeting him again someday.
Koji - this was interesting but I didn't pay too much attention because it's mostly for sake and that's not something I'm very interested in. Also it's good for other things such as miso and shiyo koji, but I'm at a basic fermentation level and that will be a later stage.
Kimchi - we made this with daikon radishes and napa cabbage. Use the core of that cabbage, and the daikon are really great. Just the vegetables get brined - spices are added later, not brined. I was out of the room when he talked about the flour mix, so I'll need to look up the process on his blog. The Korean chili powder makes it great.
Sandor made an amazing kimchi soup and the flavor that really struck me was gochujang. I need to get some of that myself.
Another really big hit with the class was pao cai, Chinese style fermented vegetables. They were awesome! Mala Market was suggested as a source for Szechuan peppercorns (red and green). Other things added were ginger, bay, cinnamon sick, malt sugar, slat, galangal. Really it's worth trying. Sandor added licorice root and he and others really liked that but I would probably do it without. The first batch in the crock will take awhile to ferment (a week or so), but then you can remove those and add new vegetables (again the daikon and other radishes were awesome) and get new tasty ones in just 24 hours or so. This is not included in his books but he thinks he has a blog post about it.
I picked his brain about okra and collards. HE said why not just ferment okra whole like a sauerkraut and can be with other vegetables. He suggested that collards not be fermented alone as they will give a very strong flavor, but may be better in a 1:2 ratio with cabbage. He also gave me some collards cooking tips because he is also a really good cook.
We put a lot of grains to ferment, such as rice and lentils for dhosa and teff for injera and black-eyed peas for acaraje' (soak 8-24 hours, drain, blend into batter in blender, let set again in a big jar to ferment overnight, then fry up - a common Brazilian dish). These are in his books and they were all super tasty.
Something that blew my mind was a buckwheat bread which is in his books but is ... mindblowing. 3 cups of raw buckwheat to soak, with salt, and it gets really mucilaginous. After soaking overnight drain and then grind it up. Heavily grease the pans and with seeds; let it rise again about 2 hours in warm place. Bake about an hour at 350 degrees, leave in pans 10 minutes to cool. kind of
He used a wet stone grinder - Ultra Perfect - but kept telling us that it's not really that necessary to buy an additional device and that he used a blender and a food processor for years.
Another bread was the Sonnenblumenkernbrot in his book. It was super tasty but the regular folding seemed a lot to me. My usual method of heavy kneading and flour adding would make it drier, Sandor says, but I might be ok with trying that because it's my nature. He added a bunch of fermented millet porridge and other such things and it was very good.
Tempeh kind of blew all of our minds because fresh is completely different from the frozen you buy in the store AND it doesn't have to be soybeans! Who knew?! We made ours from soybeans and black rice and it was incredible, especially fried up in coconut oil. Soybeans need to be cracked (hulls removed), and there are some different methods in his books. Grain can be added, he did cooked rice at 1:1 ratio. Airflow and humidity are important and he has an old refrigerator converted into an incubator that makes it easily controlled, but it's not necessary. Sandwich bags with holes punched in them work to process them, and we also used some banana leaves. Starter can be bought on-line. I think his is from The Farm, or he used to get it from there. I will probably get it from Short Mountain Cultures because they are delightful there and really love their tempeh ("my babies," said Simmer).
Yogurt - yes, you do need to denature the proteins, so heat it up about 180 degrees and then let it cool to about 115 degrees. Again, less is more, so he just uses 1 tsp per quart of milk. Pull some of the milk out and mix the starter in, then pour into the jars and put into an incubation chamber, which in his case was a small cooler with hot water (best at 115 degrees). Oven with pilot light, crockpot, etc. - they all work. Check the water and add more hot if it dips below 110. "Yog" for 4-8 hours (or I do overnight). Some suggest leaving it out for a few hours before refrigerating, as well. I forget all the story of his starter but he got it abroad and brought it back dried on a handkerchief, which he had read of immigrants doing. It's really good, super tangy, and as a heritage starter won't lose efficacy like using a supermarket yogurt as starter does. I'm excited to have that regularly for breakfast.
Sourdough - he taught us how to make it from scratch and throughout the time together we also used his starter that he had first made 25 or so years ago (and which I took some of). The key notes are: fresh milled rye starts a starter off strong. Less is more - use less starter when mixing up for refreshing - minimum of 5% and max of 40%. If stored in the fridge, take out a couple of days before and give it a few high proportion feedings (little starter, much flour and water). Sandor seemed to always use whole grain flour for feeding, though I don't think that's necessary. Feed the starter every day or two.
He discussed lightly fermented beverages such as kombucha and sweet potato fly (don't really need whey to make, unlike he says in his books). I like the idea of sweet potato fly and I enjoy drinking it, but I don't make or drink many sweet drinks (though I do keep water kefir going).
Chevre - Sandor's boyfriend, Shopping Spree, one evening brought a gallon of fresh goat milk that we made into chevre. It was heated to 90 degrees then cooled to room temperature; kefir grains were used and rennet (see book). It was mixed in a big pan and left overnight; then the cheese was removed and the whey became the subject of endless puns. Chopped up chives and salt/pepper complete it. It was super tasty to have on bread on my way out the door the final morning.
We didn't talk a lot about sauerkraut because everyone knows how to make that. He has an enormous vat in his cellar where he makes it each November (lots of daikon, which is something I want to plant for sure) and distributes it until May, when it starts to heat up and will turn bad. He said it is possible to ferment with meat, but suggests fermenting just vegetables for a few days first, before adding any meat. He puts whole vegetables in the big vat and they are very tasty!
We talked about alcoholic beverages which isn't something I plan to do right away. Something that did catch my attention was coffee tejj which I may need to try. We spent time with country wine and tried some blueberry wine from last year and two years ago and they were very good - the 2-year-old ready to be bottled, and we racked the other one. For the blueberry wine, the sugar: water ratio is usually around 1:4 but if the fruit is sweet then can be 1:6 or 1:8. He fills the crock about 2/3 full of fruit. It was pretty tasty.
He mentioned "stuck fermentation" which is something I need to look up if things just aren't progressing properly.
For vinegar, one that caught my attention was banana vinegar. Take an overripe banana, peel, mash (add nothing) - it will turn into vinegar. Stir it around every day as it liquefies then strain out solids, and put in bowl with cloth over the top (not metal).
An article he mentioned that I want to read is "From Kefir to Death" by Lynn Margulis.
The main things I learned from my days with Sandor Katz: label everything, always. Stir a lot and especially with alcohol, think of it like a vortex (stir around edges). Eat a lot of leafy greens. Farting is natural and nothing to be ashamed of (that was just about the only time I heard him correct somebody and give a speech). Appreciate things. Be kind and patient.
If you want more of Sandor:
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