A master class by Kevin Farley of The Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, California on using sake kasu, or the microbe rich remains after a sake is pressed, to make pickles.
Although there is a tradition of using something like this to ferment or preserve vegetables, fish, meat or even to make condiments throughout Asia, over at least the last 500 years the Japanese have developed an extensive array of pickles (tseukemono) and food preparation techniques that are acclaimed throughout the world.
In a sense, the Japanese have codified the ways in which they make pickles, each type it’s own class. Of course, a specific locality might have a way they make their pickles. What is available after the harvest, or sometimes what can be foraged, often dictates what gets pickled.
But the technique pretty much remains constant. As with all fermentations getting to the appropriate water content of what is being pickled or , usually by using salt or some drying technique, is the paramount concern.
As Kevin explains in this video, if water from a vegetable crashes out into the pickling medium it can change the entire fermentation process. One of the more brilliant techniques used by The Cultured Pickle Shop is to create a type of mirin, a traditional Japanese cooking seasoning, from the kasuzuke brine.
How that is then aged or immediately utilized is discussed, as well as the characteristics of aged kasu itself. This very little known technique of aging sake kasu to be used in a year or two to make pickles based on the taste of the kasu is also explained.
This video was originally created to celebrate the release of Sandor Katz’ Fermentation Journeys, one of Sandor’s many amazing books. In fact, you can pick up a copy when you visit The Cultured Pickle Shop.
Available from Independent Bookstores and other online sources. Coming May 2022
Maeshraej Cheese or Kalari is a cheese from the Indian Himalayans. In this video by Anita Tikoo, a longtime friend and contributor to Cultures.Group, she explains the wonders of this cheese. Sometimes they are sun dried and a very tasty fungus grows on them. Most people have no idea of the amazing cheeses made throughout India for thousands of years.
Anita is a practicing Landscape Architect who enjoys cooking with seasonal ingredients. In her terrace garden she grows some of the foods that fuel the ferments in her kitchen. She conducts online Food Workshops where like-minded people join her in the kitchen on weekends to cook with locally sourced seasonal ingredients, and has recently started pop-ups with some great Indian Chefs, Bakers and Brewers.
Anita has been baking sourdough breads at home for years using her lively wild yeast starter and local flours. Anita blogs about food matters at A Mad Tea Party Her Instagram handle is a_madteaparty
According to Kashmiri Life: “Kalari cheese is one of the favorite snacks of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Kalari is a dense cheese and is also called the mozzarella of Kashmir. Like mozzarella, it melts on heating and hardens on cooling. The flavor and taste of Kashmiri cheese are just fingers licking well.
Folklore says Kalari is an authentic traditional cheese of the Dogra dynasty of Jammu and Kashmir. Kalari is indigenous to Ramnagar, a town in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. As shepherds the Gujjar and Bakarwals are highly dependable on Milk, it is popular among the Gujjar and Bakarwal community of Jammu and Kashmir. This cheese is also called “milk chapatti” or “maish krej” in Kashmiri.
Traditionally Kalari cheese is made from Cow’s or Buffalo’s milk but nowadays people also made Kalaris from Goat’s milk, which is whitish in color. Preparation of Kalaris takes hard labor and the nomadic women of Jammu and Kashmir have proved to be the best in this Task.
Preparation of kalari cheese of Jammu and Kashmir is women power:
Yes, the women play the most important role in Kalari preparation. It is more like a skill that has been passed on among every Gujjar and Bakarwal women folk in Jammu and Kashmir from generation to generation.
December 19 - Fruit From the Sands 11AM to 1 PM EDT
With Dr. Robert Spengler III, author of Fruit from the Sands . Co-hosted by Zizinia de Les Flors’ Caspar Hall. The last Zoom event is free, as they all have been over the last 11 years.
Available from Independent Bookstores and other online sources.
The North and Rye - November 7, 2021, 1 to 3:00 PM Eastern Time (Live Event), then all November.
Rye Spoons by Katrina Kollegaeva
Dr. Darra Goldstein, Gabriella Gershenson, Zuza Zak, Laura Valli, and Katrina Kollegaeva of Rosehip and Rye will discuss the history and current state of food and drink in Russia, The Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and The Caucasus, especially the love of things fermented, sour, and rye. Zuza Zak has recently published her book, Amber and Rye (Kitchen Arts and Letters). Darra’s most recent cookbook is Beyond the North Wind, and she will also give us a preview of her upcoming book, The Kingdom of Rye(pre-order, Amazon). Videos on kama, hemp seed butter, fermented walnuts, walnut shio-koji, kvass, Serbian fermented stuffed peppers, fermented foods for kids, pumpkin-fermented pickles, brined tomatoes, and rye!
Chetvergovaya rye black salt (Четверговаясоль) by Katrina Kollegaeva
Katrina Kollegaeva Katrina Kollegaeva is a food anthropologist, cook and writer in the UK. She is the co-founder of Rosehip and Rye @rosehipandrye (www.RosehipAndRye.co.uk)
Sprats, Dill Pickles and Russian Borodinsky Dark Rye Bread
December 19, 2021, 1 to 3 PM EST Fruit From the Sands
The Silk Road Origins of the Foods we eat. Dr. Robert Spengler III, the author of the book, Fruit from the Sands will discuss the book and field questions. The most fascinating archeobotanical history of the dissemination of food and culture and civilization from Central Asia to the rest of the world through The Silk Road and it’s predecessor.
All Zoom events are free. A subscribers ticket to any event allows you to watch videos until 12/31/21. An InRetrospect ticket provides access to all events (live or prerecorded, although we don’t make actual replay event recordings available), 200+ food, fermentation and culture videos. Includes videos from the last 5 years including never before screened archive interviews and full length videos. Until 3/31/2022. Gets rolled out over a four month period.
Videos by Sandor Katz (author of the newly released book, Fermentation Journeys), Mara Jane King, Dr. Johnny Drain, Dr. Darra Goldstein, Dr. Robert Spengler III, Dr. Maya Hey, Dr. Esther Miller, Dr.Tejas Sameer, Dr. Julia Skinner, Dr. Maria Jimena Ricatti, Dr. Peiman Khosravi, Dr. Ann Yonetani, Zuza Zak, Jelena Belgrave, Terri Ann Fox, Anne-Marie Bonneau, Zoe Mitchell, Chef Greg Dunmore of The Japanese Pantry, Esteban Yepes Montoya, Danny Berke, Misti Norris, Ann-Marie Bonneau, Alexis Nikole Nelson, Katrina Kollegaeva, Laura Valli, Andrea Billar, Ed Delteil, Cortney Burns, Alan Callaham, Nancy Matsumoto, Kristine Krauss, Jessica Alonzo, Meredith Leigh, Mallory O’Donnell, Sonoko Sakai, Llewelyn Maire, Mika and Nicholas Repenning of Go-en Fermented Foods, Shinobu Kato of Kato Sake Works, Markus Shimuzu, Pao Yu Liu, Rich Shih, Priyanka Bhuyan, William Rubel, Soirée-Leone, Heidi Nestler, Naomi Duguid, Danny Berke, Will Moffat, Holly Davis, Maria Mantilla, Chef Sean Doherty, Umair Khakoo, Anna Drozdova, Sònia Dguez, Maya Seetharaman, Kirsten Shockey, Zoe Christiansen, Margaret Sevenjhazi, Jae-Sang Choi, Eve Jazmati, Ma!Condimentos, Jennifer Solow, Haruko Uchishiba, Connie Chew, Leda Meredith, Yoko Lamn, Andrea Billar, Kimiko Ito, Christine Krauss, Ellie Markovitch, Jo Webster, Pratap Chahal, Harry Rosenblum, Pascal Baudar, Priya Mani, Melanie McIntosh, Ekta Maheshwari, Laurent Serin, Pork Rhyne, Javier Gutiérrez Carcache, Kartik Sinha, Zizinia de les Flors, Alex Hozven and Kevin Farley of The Cultured Pickle Shop, Sharon Flynn, Riley Henderson, Eiko Takahashi, Jeremy Umansky, Nina Mong, Gabriella Gershenson, Anton Nicola, Eleana Hsu, Kevin Gondo, Amy Kalafa of Cultured and Cured, Taylor Erkkinen, Jenny Bardwell, Joel Orsini, Mark Tan (in formation)
