If you're looking for a new project (or three!) to tackle this year, fermented foods are where it's at. We're talking things like homemade kimchi, creamy Greek yogurt, and maybe even a bottle of mead or two. Why not?! With Real Food Fermentation by Alex Lewin as our guide for all things fermented, brined, and funky-fied, projects like these become totally doable.
Quick Facts
• Who wrote it: Alex Lewin
• Who published it: Quarry Books
• Number of recipes: About 25 different fermented foods projects
• Recipes for right now: Sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, preserved lemons, mead, vinegar, and corned beef
• Other highlights: The whole endeavor of making fermented foods is wrapped up in a lot of mystery. Is it safe? Will it taste good? Why do it in the first place? Alex Lewin takes each question, each concern, each doubt and addresses them individually. He explains methods thoroughly and in easy to understand language. For someone like me who likes clearly-written instructions when tackling a big new project, this kind of detail and consideration is fantastic.
The recipes he provides serve as base templates. Within the recipe itself, he gives the simplest and most straight-forward procedure for creating each fermented food, and saves all the extraneous details, optional steps, and ingredient variations for side-bars and boxes. I particularly like his "Lab Notes" sections, which give handy tips, explain new concepts, and tell you what to watch out for during fermentation.
The other real strength of this book is all the step-by-step photos. Lewin shows how ingredients are prepped, how equipment is assembled, and how foods should look from one stage to the next. When working with unfamiliar foods with a lot of funky flavors and aromas, these kinds of visual sign posts are invaluable.
• Who would enjoy this book? Anyone curious about making their own fermented foods
Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen by Alex Lewin
• Visit Alex Lewin's website: Feed Me Like You Mean It
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.
(Images: Emma Christensen)
On Saying No to Paleo: Why Eating Isn't One Size Fits All
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I asked for a fermentation book for Christmas and didn't get it, so now I'm shopping around. Only 25 recipes doesn't sound like a lot. . . hmmmm. Do you highly recommend this one, or is another one better? I've already made sauerkraut, but I don't really know what I'm doing.
@Thrift at Home - I definitely recommend this one. These aren't so much "recipes" as they are very detailed projects. By this I mean that the book gives you the base techniques to make a large variety of fermented foods, which you can then apply toward making your own variations. Making fermented foods isn't tricky, but it is unfamiliar to most of us -- it's incredibly helpful to have a step-by-step guide like this one.
@Thrift at Home- check out The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. It's a great book with good techniques and recipes.
Putting in another bump for Sandor Katz. I have his first book, which covers many basic fermentation techniques and recipes, the history of the foods and his own journey with fermentation. It's one of the best food books I've read in the past few years and a personal favorite. I read it like a novel the week I got it.
I like that this appears to have good photos of different steps and stages. Looking at the "materials" page pictured here though I can tell you I don't have half that stuff - Katz's book usually offers improvised options if you don't have things like weights or an airlock.
Hullo--Alex Lewin speaking! (author of Real Food Fermentation)
Sandor's books are all awesome.
Whether you get his or my books really depends who you are and what you're looking for.
If you like the idea of step-by-step recipes with pictures, if you are newer to fermentation, if you are a little nervous about the idea of letting things sit out on your counter, if you want easy recipes that you can follow in your home kitchen: Real Food Fermentation is a great choice. It also doubles as a coffee table book, and can check some boxes in the "food porn" department because of all the great photos.
If you want far greater breadth and historical context, if you want to read about ferments you may make and others that you definitely won't, if you want to have a bigger-picture view of how fermentation fits into the world beyond culinary things, if you want a book that will keep you engaged for a long time rather than being short and sweet (and, um, sour): The Art of Fermentation is your book.
Wild Fermentation is also excellent. And although its focus is not fermentation, Sandor's second book, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, is awesome. Reading it changed my life and inspired my work.
Of course, ideally, you'll get his books AND my books. :-)
Hi MaryWynn et. al,
Alex Lewin, author, here!
Most of the recipes in my book can be made knife, cutting board, jar. I do point out when additional equipment MAY be used, like food processors for instance, because I figure that many of my readers will be happy to put some of their gadgets to use. But if you flip through the recipes themselves, I think you'll find that I always provide "low-tech" alternatives.
Best
Alex
@Lactoferment, your comparison of your book and Sandor Katz's Art of Fermentation is very useful. I bought and read Art of Fermentation when it first came out, and I'm using it now to do some vegetable ferments. In my opinion, it's not for beginners, particularly those who are anxious about "messing up" a ferment. I have a biology background, specifically microbial biology, so I'm not scared of "bugs" that do chemical reactions in my food, but I would be very afraid if I didn't already have an understanding of what's going on AND I only had Art of Fermentation to go on. I felt like a lot of Katz's advice is "try a bunch of stuff and taste as you go." This kind of vagueness works for some, not for others.
I think your book seems much more accessible to those who want a detailed instruction manual. I am considering buying it based on your description and what I can see on Amazon. Thanks for contributing this important information so more people will get into making their own fermented foods.
@itsakitty, I'm glad you found my comparison helpful! And I'm happy to spread the word about fermentation. I believe that's part of my calling.
(I hope my book doesn't seem too basic to you after reading Art of Fermentation...)