This is a practical and beautiful guide to fermentation. First, there is a tutorial of fermentation of different foods. This is followed by beautifully photographed recipes which sound and look amazing. I cannot wait to try these.

Wow! So in my other life I admin a fermentation group that is very science led due to my background in the subject. I get asked for fermentation book recommendations all the time particularly from beginners and I have such a hard time doing so because so many very popular titles have plain bad information in them as they don’t come from a place of science. When working with microbes the “art” should be in your flavor combos and how you create with them and NOT in your process.

Well this book is pure gold! I give Kenji all the kudos for sticking to proper practices for home fermentation to get the best and safest outcome. This book not only gives you all the information you need, it also has unique recipes written in weight in both Metric and US Standard measurements but also how to use those ferments in tasty recipes. I have already started several of the recipes today and can already imagine how food they will taste.


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary eARC from the Experiment Publishing through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.
Thank you for finally having a book I can recommend with confidence.
My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

This book was fine--as an American that uses the metric system, having the recipes in imperial was a bit challenging. The photos were nice and the recipes seemed unique, but I can't actually see myself using this book.