There are lots of good reasons to make fermented food. It's become more popular recently because it happens to be very good for you. But people rarely do anything just because "it's good for you"!

The thing about fermented food is:

1. It tastes really, really good. Think about it. Most of the truly yummy food in French or Asian or even American cuisine is either fermented or brined! Salami, pepperoni, cheese, yogurt, wine, beer, olives, corned beef, kraut, kimchi, fish sauce, soy sauce.

2. It's a really easy way to keep food fresh. If you need to store food, fermenting and brining is the way to go.

 

Fermenting vs. Brining

I'm sort of combining two categories here. Fermented food is food that has been altered by bacteria or other microbes. Brined food is food that has been preserved by salt. The two overlap in that "brined" food often does have bacterial action, though maybe not as much because more salt is used.

I'm also included "vinegared" foods here. Vinegar is a bacterial byproduct, but when you pour it over, say, ginger slices, the bacteria don't eat anything in the ginger. Still, it preserves the ginger without cooking it. Cooking the ginger would change the taste, and likely some of it's good properties, which doesn't happen when you just vinegar it without cooking.

This is different from the modern "hot pack" pickles, where boiled vinegar or vinegar/sugar syrups are poured over vegies and they are cooked.

 

---

Page url: http://www.eatingoffthefoodgrid.com/a/index.htm?hm_ferments.htm