Cookbooks for fermented foods?

[Rachel Ernst]

I'd like to know what your favorite fermented foods cookbooks are. I am not ready to experiment with lacto-ferment YET, so books for both lacto and other ways would be great. I've heard of Wild Fermentation. Is that one of your favorites? Thanks.

[Jessica Oakley]

Nourishing Traditions is probably my favorite, but some of her recipes need to be modified (too much salt, not enough time fermenting at room temperature).

I do like Wild Fermentation. His book definitely helps you get beyond a recipe and get more of a feel for fermenting so that you can do it with whatever foods you like.

[TanyaL]

Lacto-fermentation means that lactic-acid producing bacteria are involved. They were first found in dairy, thus the lacto, it was only later that it was realized that the bacteria that ferment veggies also make lactic acid. So a dairy-less sour dill pickle recipe, like Sandor Katz's, is just as much a lactofermented veggie as an NT recipe that uses whey as a starter. I don't think there's another kind of fermentation--maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's all lactofermentation.

Though I must say, the NT recipes work just fine without the whey, and the extra salt isn't needed. Wild Fermentation is great at showing the flexibility of the fermentation process.

I personally love Katz's sour pickle recipe, available online on his website, and the NT kimchee recipe without whey and without extra salt. We really, really love the kimchee, it's hard to keep enough on-hand, we keep running out.