The invisible army of fermentation
Kimchi and the Korean art of kimjang
Miso and the enzymatic mastery of koji
Yogurt and the global dairy revolution
alicecooks For 10,000 years, humans have preserved milk and vegetables without refrigeration by letting microbes consume sugars to create safe foods.
What acid is primarily responsible for lowering pH and preserving foods like pickles and kimchi?
Approximately how many years ago did early humans begin using fermentation to preserve food before refrigeration?
alicecooks Sort ingredients into jars to discover how microbes ferment kimchi, miso, and yogurt.
alicecooks Trapped gas bubbles create the refreshing fizz found in freshly fermented young kimchi
What type of environment, meaning 'without oxygen', is required for most classic fermentation processes to occur?
Which gas is released by fermenting microbes to make bread rise and young kimchi fizzy?
What is the general term for beneficial, live microorganisms that support human gut health when consumed?
Why does adding salt to a ferment help beneficial lactic acid bacteria dominate?
Sourdough space: In 2020, scientists successfully baked sourdough bread on Earth using a yeast strain that had been sent into space to study cosmic radiation.
Which genus of bacteria typically starts the early, bubbly phase of vegetable fermentation before acid-tolerant species take over?
What term describes the natural transition where different microbial communities take turns dominating a ferment over time?
A microscopic organism, such as a bacterium or fungus, that is invisible to the naked eye. In 1905, Stamen Grigorov identified the Bulgarian yogurt bacterium, a key organism in home dairy fermentation.