Description

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Heads (of cabbage) are gonna roll! Learn how to make funky, flavorful ferments + tasty food that incorporates them. Fermenter is perfect for those looking to add some serious culinary wizardry and revolutionary DIY spirit to their vegan kitchen.

Like The Noma Guide to Fermentation but with a punk, DIY aesthetic and a it's-OK-to-fail ethos, Fermenter provides the sought-after secrets and words of wisdom from top fermentation educators, Aaron Adams and Liz Crain.

Based in Portland, Oregon (vegan capital of America), the Fermenter restaurant specializes in culinary fermentation to achieve their unique funky flavors. Learn how to handcraft local bean-and-grain tempehs, fresh and aged vegan cheeses, fizzy probiotic drinks, and koji ferments and revolutionize the flavor profiles in your home kitchen! They empower you to follow them down this highly addictive (and inexpensive) path, resulting in totally DIY food, free from mass-produced or corporate anything.

Whether you're a pickle wizard already or a just want to level up your home-cook vegan cred, there are more than 60 tantalizing recipes, including:

• North Coast Kraut (made with seaweed!) is a great beginner's lacto-ferment, full of probiotic goodness
• Chickpea Miso: a more complex, longer-lead ferment & pantry staple
• Koji Beet Reuben: put those koji skills to work with this umami bomb
• Cheesy Jojo Supreme with Tempeh Bacon: the perfect stoner food, like if stuffed potato skins were a nacho dish

Beware: Vegetables will be slaughtered.

About the Author

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AARON ADAMS is a chef and fermentation educator based in Portland, OR. He opened his first restaurant in 2002, followed by restaurants that all in one way or another featured fermented food and drink. He zeroed in on and grew that love of fermentation at Fermenter, which showcases everything traditional, wildly experimental, and local and global ferments--from koji to kombucha--along with delicious dishes that incorporate them. 

LIZ CRAIN is a longtime writer on Pacific Northwest food and drink. She is the author of Dumplings = Love and coauthor of the cookbooks Toro Bravo, and Hello! My Name is Tasty, as well as 420-friendly Grow Your Own. She is also cofounder of the annual Portland Fermentation Festival.

Praise For…

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WIRED's Best Cookbooks of 2023 (So Far)
"I love showing up at a dinner or barbecue with a big batch of sauerkraut . . . ermenter is for people who have the basics down and want to try something a little more advanced, with a vibe that combines hippie, punk, and the scientific method."
—Wired.com

“Fermenter is a one-of-a-kind fermentation-driven vegan restaurant, with gorgeous and delicious food, and Aaron is a one-of-a-kind chef and human being. I’m so glad he teamed up with Liz Crain to share his adventures in flavor-building via fermentation. This cookbook is full of accessible and down-to- earth ideas for using ferments in a wide range of dishes, complete with recipes and fermentation techniques.”
—Sandor Ellix Katz, New York Times-bestselling author of The Art of Fermentation

“Fermenter proves that cooking vegan need not be bland or boring. It’s a wellspring of instructive and tantalizing recipes for ferments, and refreshingly, also for whole meals made with those ferments. You’re going to love this food no matter your diet.”
—David Zilber, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of The Noma Guide to Fermentation

“Reading Fermenter is like hanging out, nibbling on ferments, and chatting with Aaron and Liz. Its vibe is chill, honest, and rich with story with an easy conversational tone. They’ve knocked it out of the park here with all sorts of approachable and delicious vegan ferments."
—Kirsten K. Shockey, author of Fermenting Vegetables and cofounder of The Fermentation School

"With chapter titles like “eat your salty, sour vegetables” and “mold is gold,” the most bold and adventurous will be called forth to the kitchen to experiment. Recommended for those who are eager to get serious about food."
—Booklist

“This book RULES! Along with Pietramala in Philly and Oakland's Lion Dance Cafe, Fermenter is part of a select new breed of restaurant severely altering and advancing the vegan food landscape in this country. Thrilling.” 
–Brooks Headley, chef and author of Superiority Burger Cookbook

“I am excited for Fermenter to join the kitchens of every ardent vegan, plant-based, and plant-curious food lover. Aaron and Liz’s creative force and understanding of ferments as foundational to deliciousness is amplified by their sense of humor, enthusiasm, and obvious care for how food and community are related.”
—Karen McAthy, author of The Art of Plant-Based Cheesemaking

“With Fermenter, experience the deliciousness of the renowned Portland restaurant but also the down-to-earth, roll-up-your-sleeves, DIY ethos and infectious spirit of the most generous and genuine human beings we’ve ever known.”
—Kevin Farley and Alex Hozven, The Cultured Pickle Shop