3 ms·

Harold McGee is the author of this article and he is both brilliant and a great writer. Reading the rest of his articles on that site [0] would be time well sp

Harold McGee is the author of this article and he is both brilliant and a great writer. Reading the rest of his articles on that site [0] would be time well spent. This paragraph alone was enough to get me to whip up a batch of salt-rising bread [1], and it was indeed tasty. I have made it several times since. "The engine behind this fermentation method is Clostridium perfringens, a close relative of bacteria that cause botulism, tetanus, and food poisoning. It can eat flesh. It gives gas gangrene its name by causing putrefying flesh wounds that bubble and foam with flammable hydrogen. And it can make something surprisingly delicate and tasty." [0] http://luckypeach.com/author/haroldmcgee/ http://luckypeach.com/author/haroldmcgee/ [1] http://luckypeach.com/infectious-confection/ http://luckypeach.com/infectious-confection/ * edited for formatting

Terribledactyl 10y ago
And if you have even more time to spare, his book is amazing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Food_and_Cooking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Food_and_Cooking
david-given 10y ago
I used to make ginger beer, which is traditionally is cultured from a thing called a ginger beer plant; this is a jamjar full of nasty brown goop consisting of a symbiotic mix of yeast and bacteria (and a lot of slowly decomposing ginger). What you're supposed to do is to leave a jamjar of sugary water out in the open for a few days so that it gets infected with whatever strain of wild yeast happen to be floating around your house. You keep feeding it for a month or so and the desired types of bacteria and yeast are supposed to outcompete the others and you end up with the right stuff to make ginger beer out of. Good ginger beer plants make good beer, and afficionados have been using the same plant for years, occasionally swapping cultures with other people to breed just the right culture to make really good beer. Me, I was squeamish about wild yeast in my 1900 British terrace mostly made out of damp rotting bricks, so I added a tiny amount of beer yeast to mine to get it started. Worked really well. I eventually lost the plant when I had to go on holiday, and so was unable to feed it. Instead I tried freezing it. The results when I thawed it were very weird --- I think the freezing process killed of all the yeast, but not the bacteria, or vice versa. It was certainly quite useless. Edit: Aha, instructions on how to make your own! https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger...

Terribledactyl 10y ago

And if you have even more time to spare, his book is amazing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Food_and_Cooking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Food_and_Cooking

david-given 10y ago

I used to make ginger beer, which is traditionally is cultured from a thing called a ginger beer plant; this is a jamjar full of nasty brown goop consisting of a symbiotic mix of yeast and bacteria (and a lot of slowly decomposing ginger). What you're supposed to do is to leave a jamjar of sugary water out in the open for a few days so that it gets infected with whatever strain of wild yeast happen to be floating around your house. You keep feeding it for a month or so and the desired types of bacteria and yeast are supposed to outcompete the others and you end up with the right stuff to make ginger beer out of. Good ginger beer plants make good beer, and afficionados have been using the same plant for years, occasionally swapping cultures with other people to breed just the right culture to make really good beer. Me, I was squeamish about wild yeast in my 1900 British terrace mostly made out of damp rotting bricks, so I added a tiny amount of beer yeast to mine to get it started. Worked really well. I eventually lost the plant when I had to go on holiday, and so was unable to feed it. Instead I tried freezing it. The results when I thawed it were very weird --- I think the freezing process killed of all the yeast, but not the bacteria, or vice versa. It was certainly quite useless. Edit: Aha, instructions on how to make your own! https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger...