Although fermented foods can be an acquired taste, they are much more common than people think. Beer, cheese, wine (notably Champagne), and vinegar are all fermented foods. What we commonly think of as bread proofing is actually bread fermenting. Even cocoa, coffee, and vanilla beans are fermented to develop the unique flavors that we’ve come to prize. Fermentation used to be the province of households and communities but we have relegated this process to factory production. The techniques developed over thousands of years to make alcohol, preserve food and make it more digestible and delicious are becoming obscure and in danger of being lost to future generations. What is fermentation and why should we care?
Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates by bacteria and yeast that also produces lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and alcohol. Over thousands of years, we have learned to harvest this process to create wine, beer, cheese, yogurt and many other foods. Bread is made by fermenting flour with water and yeast. Beer is made by germinating and pulping grains into a mash that is fermented with yeast to create carbon dioxide and alcohol. Similarly, grapes are crushed to release their juices which are fermented into wine. Milk is fermented into yogurt and crème fraiche and also inoculated with grains to create kefir. Soybeans and chickpeas are also fermented to create miso while vegetables are also packed in vinegar and salt solutions and fermented into pickles, kimchi, and other culinary delicacies.
What does this mean for the pastry chef? Like our savory counterparts, fermentation adds flavor and preserves food. The preservation part should be of interest to us as many fruits—like cherries, peaches, and Concord grapes—are especially delicious but have a short window of harvest. I’ve heard of pastry chefs preserving Meyer lemons for up to a year although I couldn’t restrain my appetite for that long. Pickled and fermented fruit are wonderful and unique accompaniments to ice cream—pickled cherries and brown butter gelato being one of my favorite combinations. Using fermentation to unlock flavor is where desserts can get really interesting. Aside from bread, sourdough starters can also be used in cakes, cookies, and bread puddings where sourdough starter are mixed into to a dough or batter. Until now, I’ve only fermented wheat and rye flours but it would be interesting to create sourdoughs from other flours like spelt, amaranth, teff, or millet. Milk is another area ripe for fermentation experimentation. Traditionally, we culture cow’s milk for yogurt but what about fermenting coconut milk, goat milk, or sheep milk? A panna cotta with fermented coconut milk?
Here are some recipes that I’ve been working with for the past year. The ferments need to ripen at room temperature between 68 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 12 to 48 hours. Hotter temperatures will cause your ferments to spoil. For dairy ferments, raw milk is best although your odds of finding a source are slim. Your next best bet is pasteurized milk from pasture-fed cows. If you only have access to ultra-pasteurized milk (which is what most distributors sell these days), you can still ferment the milk but it will take longer and need to be stored at cooler temperatures. Pasteurization kills bacteria that allow milk to sour naturally so ultra-pasteurized milk tends to putrefy and turn bitter before it ferments. Even commercially fermented foods are pasteurized after they are fermented which destroys the microorganisms that perpetuate the fermentation cycle. So when making cultured dairy products using ultra- or high temperature pasteurized milk, it is especially important to use pure cultures or even yogurt, so long as it contains live cultures.
Sourdough Starter (used in sourdough chocolate cake and sourdough beignets)
Fruit kimchi, fermented bread pudding, sourdough cookies and sweet miso are a few of the projects that I’m working on. Stay tuned for the results!
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 
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