[Music] so next let's just talk about some fermentation concepts that the title of my first book about fermentation is wild fermentation and I wish I could say that I made up that expression but it's found throughout the literature and wild fermentation describes something specific which is fermentation that is based on organisms that are present on the food the contrasting style of fermentation is when you introduce some sort of a starter and there are basically three forms of starters the first is you know what I would call pure cultures which is you know really a technology
that has existed since Louis Pasteur isolated yeast about 150 years ago and many different organisms have been isolated and propagated and you know the most common example of that would be the packet of yeast that you could find in any supermarket but you know you can buy all these other more specialized starters I mean I make I make tempeh and I use a tint based starter that's a you know particular fungal spore to make the tempeh if you wanted to make you know camembert cheese in Toronto you know you would have to it's may historically
it was made as a wild fermentation and a certain cave system in France but you know you could buy the particular organisms that you need and you know simulate the right temperature and humidity conditions and you know make a camembert like cheese here but starters are available for all kinds of different formats but it's important to understand that you know all of these pure culture starters are you know a very very recent technology in in the history of fermentation the more ancient kind of starters is basically you take a little bit of the last batch
and introduce it into the next batch and this is how people make yogurt and you know you never eat all your yogurt you save a little bit and then you introduce some yogurt into a fresh milk you know you also with some temperature manipulation involved and you make yogurt from that and you keep on doing that and you know there are families that have yogurt starters going back for generations and generations similarly sourdough you know it's easy to start a sourdough is a wild form but once people have a vigorous sourdough that has you know
flavor and other qualities that they like they try to perpetuate it and you just you never bake all of your sourdough you save a little bit of your sourdough and mix it with more flour and water and you continue that the the name for this style of a starter in the English language literature is back slopping a nice vivid expression but you just save a little bit of the last batch into the next batch and this is how you know many different things have been fermented I mean historically breweries have practiced back slopping and say
valley a little bit of the previous batch of beer as the starter for the next batch of beer um the third type of starter which i think is really interesting our starters that have have actually evolved into distinctive macro physical forms that we can hold and see and and and they and they and they typically propagate themselves probably the most common example of this would be kombucha the mother of kombucha looks like a little rubbery pancake that floats on top of sweet tea and and and is the home to a broad community of organisms that
ferment the sweet tea underneath it kefir is made from what are called kefir grains and they look very different they look like little florets of cauliflower and you you know plop them in the milk and and the organisms from the the kefir grain grow into the milk and ferment lactose and and other nutrients in the milk and and transform it into this very different tasting kind of a beverage so so those are three kinds of starters but but today we're really going to focus on on wild fermentation you
