Fermentation Is Culture
THE HISTORY of making fermented food dates back 4,000–5,000 years ago, perhaps even earlier. In the era of Noah, people already knew how to make grape wine, which was recorded in Bible. In ancient China, people brewed beverages from rice and millet, flavored with herbs, flowers, and tree resins (Fermented beverages of pre-and proto-historic China. The National Academy of Sciences, 2004). Each regional area has its own special fermented food. For example, kimchi, miso, natto, and tempeh are from Asia. In Africa, they make injera, togwa, and garri. In European countries, kefir, sauerkraut, crème fraiche, and kvass are typical fermented foods. From vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and dairy, to fish and meat, people make all kinds of fermented foods.
Why do people do it? Fermentation is culture. It is how people interact with their environment, such as climate, soil, plants, and water, in order to preserve their foods. It develops tradition. People in Korea make kimchi, a part of the tradition of Korean cuisine. Korea is located in the Korean Peninsula with hills, mountains, and coastline. Summer is short and humid, and rainfall is heavy. Winters are usually long, cold, and dry. Rice, nappa cabbage, radishes, perrila, Asian pears and apples are their typical produce. In the harvest season, Koreans prepare kimchi and other pickled vegetables for a long and cold winter. This is what they have learned from nature: how to survive in harsh weather using the food they can grow and collect.
Sauerkraut is similar but different from kimchi. This fermented cabbage originates from Germany where it has been a staple in the German dietsince the 1600s. In general, Germany’s climate is temperate with cold, cloudy winters and warm summers. Oats, berries, milk, cheese, and pork are often used in their meals. White and green cabbages are their typical seasonal vegetables. They can be kept in the field for a long time, and are easy to make into sauerkraut. Roasted pork served with sauerkraut is a standard in German cuisine.
Culture is also the interaction between bacteria and their ecosystem. Lactic acid bacteria, the most well-studied bacteria that creates fermentation, can feed on all kinds of vegetables, fruits, grains and meat; they decompose the nutrients, assemble their own DNA, and then produce and release lactic acid, carbon dioxide, acetic acid, enzymes and vitamins into the environment.
In general, there are two types of fermentation: aerobic and anaerobic. The former needs oxygen and the latter can occur without oxygen. Bacteria, fungi, and their produce, such as enzymes, work together to complete the whole fermentation process: aerobic, anaerobic or both. In the bacteria group, two well-known ones are lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which is anaerobic, and acetic acid bacteria (AAB) which is aerobic. LAB works on vegetables, fruits and dairy, but AAB makes vinegar and kombucha. For fungi, there are aerobic and anaerobic ones too, including yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. Fungi can be used to make bread, miso, beer, and wine. What we need to do is to create and maintain the environment, using temperature, humidity and oxygen, to allow a certain group of bacteria and / or fungi to grow and develop into the finished products that we want.