Equipment
Onion and garlic curing rack
A ventilated rack or shelf on which harvested onion and garlic bulbs dry for about two to three weeks, closing the neck and drying the outer skins before dry storage.
Equipment
626 sourced equipment pages: vessels, tools, appliances and built structures.
Vessels and containers
What the food sits in while it changes: jars, barrels, tanks, skins, gourds, baskets and wraps.
Equipment
Passive water tray moisture module
A cleanable open water reservoir with variable exposed surface, used as a passive moisture source for a food chamber, compared with an active humidifier.
Built structures
Raised fish-drying rack with removable trays (Burundi)
A metal-frame rack set on concrete footings, with removable hardwood trays under mesh, raises fish above the ground for air-drying. The design was promoted in Burundi and documented by FAO in 2014.
Equipment
Maie
A French maie is a legged wooden chest for hand-kneading bread dough and, in some Auvergnat forms, storing the baked loaves. Its shape and materials vary by region.
Equipment
Moisture-permeable ageing bag and vacuum pouch
A moisture-permeable ageing membrane lets water vapour escape; a conventional vacuum pouch is designed to remove air and retain purge. Similar appearance cannot identify the film or validate an ageing process.
Equipment
Wide-mouth glass vegetable fermenter
A modern wide-mouth glass jar for vegetable fermentation, often paired with a gas-release lid or airlock and follower weights. This accessory arrangement distinguishes it from general preserving jars and stoneware crocks.
Equipment · Historical object
Dolia from Pompeii’s Garum Shop
Six ceramic dolia at Pompeii’s Garum Shop held fish-processing remains. They are vessels, distinct from masonry fish-salting vats; the evidence does not establish whether these specimens were portable or fixed in place.
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Equipment
Perforated containers for shark maturation
Movable perforated containers hold Greenland-shark cuts during the modern Icelandic maturation of hákarl, letting liquid drain; the best-documented example is a wooden box used in a 2021 study.
Equipment
Lined dehydrator tray (silicone or food-rated liner)
A removable food-contact sheet fitted to a dehydrator shelf holds purée and small sticky foods that would otherwise pass through an open tray. Materials and fit vary; a solid liner changes airflow at the covered surface.
Equipment
Yorkshire square
The Yorkshire square is a slate fermentation vessel and linked process system, documented in continued use at Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery in Tadcaster. Its form and operation vary by brewery.
Equipment
Woven palm sofra mat (saf al-khous)
The Kuwaiti sofra is a broad, round palm-woven mat. Made through saf al-khous, the palm-frond weaving craft, it served at home and was also used as a surface for drying shrimp, locusts and some herbs.
Equipment
Tepen (Bashkir limewood serving tub)
Tepen (тәпән) is a low Bashkir hollowed-linden tub used for serving kumys. A National Museum of Bashkortostan object preserves one carved, lidded example; the taller siläk tub had a different preparation role.
Equipment
Wooden bog-butter container
Irish bog-butter finds include wooden containers in several forms, from kegs and tubs to bowls and a mether. The Rosberry museum example is a carved open vessel; no single design or reason for depositing butter in bogs is established.
Equipment
Wrapped sago leaf bundle
In Papua New Guinea, moist sago starch may be packed tightly inside leaves for storage. Greenhill’s field study records this as a preferred Western Province method and contrasts it with water-covered vessels in East Sepik.
Equipment
Wooden boxes for Santa Luzia marmelada
Handmade wooden boxes package Santa Luzia’s firm quince paste in Goiás. Their exact dimensions, wood species and construction are not documented.
Equipment
Wood barrel and modern tub in a tinacal
Pulque fermentation may use a wooden barrel or a modern plastic or fibreglass tub. The tinacal is the room or place where the vessels stand, not a name for either container.
Equipment
Tina wooden cheese vat
A tina is the open coopered wooden vat used for Ragusano cheesemaking in Sicily’s Hyblean region. Its inner biofilm contributes lactic-acid bacteria to milk, so this particular vat is part of the process rather than a neutral container.
Equipment
Collagen, cellulose and fibrous sausage casings
Three manufactured casing families: collagen from animal protein, regenerated cellulose, and cellulose reinforced with fibrous paper. Edibility and process properties vary by grade.
Equipment
Wooden sake fermenting vat
An upright, open-topped stave vat used for fermenting sake mash. Terada Honke documents a current wooden-vat practice and a new Sanbu-sugi cedar vat completed in 2023.
Equipment
Ugba leaf parcel
A flexible leaf parcel encloses sliced African oil-bean cotyledons during some Ugba preparations in southeastern Nigeria. Leaf species and layers vary by documented method.
Equipment
Terzigno
A terzigno is a small wooden cask used in Cetara’s anchovy colatura tradition. A wooden follower and weights press its contents; the 2024 specification describes withdrawal through a hole in the cask’s bottom.
Equipment
Tinaja
A tinaja is a fired-clay jar used in Spain for wine making and storage, with a particularly well-documented hand-building tradition in La Mancha. Sizes range from domestic vessels to monumental winery jars.
Equipment
Usar
Usar is a traditional Indonesian inoculum carrier: leaves such as waru hold Rhizopus growth for transfer to tempeh beans. It carries starter between stages; it is distinct from the leaf packet used for bulk fermentation.
Equipment
Torsyk
Torsyk is a portable Kazakh leather flask for carrying and keeping drinks such as kumis and shubat. Museum examples have a flattened decorated body, a narrow neck and a stopper; evidence for fermentation inside the travel flask is lacking.
Equipment
Transport amphora
An ancient Mediterranean ceramic shipping container for wine, oil, fish products and other goods. Its handles, restricted mouth and varied bases suited closure, lifting and cargo stowage; it should not be assumed to have been a fermenter.
Equipment
Urpu
Urpu is an Inca ceramic jar with a globular body, high flared neck, carrying handles, shoulder lug and pointed base; museum examples show that size shaped whether a vessel served, carried or held chicha.
Equipment · Historical object
Wallaby-skin water carrier
A surviving Australian Museum wallaby-skin water carrier made from a single hide, with a knotted, resin-tanned base and tied neck. Purchased in 1885; its maker, specific community and making date are not recorded.
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Equipment
Jars for yogurt water-bath incubation
Small glass jars hold inoculated milk during warm-water yogurt incubation. The documented jar sizes and incubation setups vary by method; this is not canning equipment guidance.
Equipment
Vietnamese fish-sauce wooden vat
A large upright stave-built vat used in documented Vietnamese fish-sauce production, with a weighted or covered top and a low outlet for drawing liquid; Phu Quoc examples belong to a living regional craft.
Equipment
ʻUmeke poi bowl
A Hawaiian bowl for holding, storing, and serving poi. ʻUmeke poi include carved wooden and gourd forms; their shape, material, and role vary by object and bowl type.
Equipment
Canning jars
Threaded, heat-processing jars hold food and a fitted lid during a tested canning process; jar size and process belong to the specific recipe.
Equipment
Huad
A woven upper basket used to steam Lao glutinous rice over a separate water pot. It holds the drained rice above the water; a different lidded basket, the katip khao, is used to carry and serve the cooked rice.
Equipment
Stainless wine fermenter with pomace door
A modern stainless wine-fermentation tank whose bottom-level access on red-wine models helps remove grape skins and seeds; door, outlet, cooling and capacity details vary by model.
Equipment
Hermetic grain bag
A hermetic grain bag stores suitably dried grain in an airtight, multilayer package. The PICS design pairs two inner liners with a woven outer sack; it is a storage tool, not a fermenter or dryer.
Equipment
Clean heatproof jar
A clean, heat-tolerant food jar holds hot ingredients or liquor when a method calls for it. Its temperature limits depend on its design and maker; a jar does not make food shelf-stable.
Equipment
Engineered polyethylene maturation tank
Flextank Apollo and Orion are PE vessels for beverage fermentation and maturation, engineered for stated oxygen transmission. Their material, scale and use differ from generic tanks, pressure-rated PET fermenters and coopered barrels.
Equipment
Household metal grain silo
A locally fabricated galvanized-metal vessel for dry-grain storage. Household models sit on raised platforms and seal at inlet and outlet; they are movable containers, not granary buildings or fixed industrial installations.
Equipment
Pressure-rated beverage packaging
Bottles and other packages made and specified to contain carbonated or actively fermenting drinks. A package rating belongs to its exact design and use; it does not make ordinary jars or bottles suitable for pressure.
Equipment
Dough fermentation box
A dough fermentation box is a shallow or deeper food container for holding dough during a rise or proof. Its job is to contain, cover and move dough; it does not provide the controlled heat of a bread proofer.
Equipment
Oval polymer beverage barrel
An oval, broad-shouldered polyethylene vessel sold by Speidel as a beverage barrel. Its 60-litre example has a large closure, molded side grips and a lower outlet cap; it is distinct from an open homebrew pail and a coopered wooden cask.
Equipment
Pressure-rated PET fermenter
A purpose-built PET fermenter is engineered for a specific pressure range, closure and fittings. The FermZilla Tri-Conical is one modern example; its rating does not extend to ordinary PET bottles or other vessels.
Equipment
Closed coffee fermentation drums, tanks and bags
Contemporary vessels used to ferment coffee cherries or pulped coffee with restricted air exchange. Drums, rigid tanks and hermetic bags differ in material and monitoring; “anaerobic” alone does not describe a batch's conditions.
Equipment
Sherry bota and solera array
A Jerez bota is a coopered oak butt used for wine ageing. In a criaderas-and-solera array, butts at successive ages are arranged in scales and partly drawn and replenished; the bota's capacity and fill depend on the documented system.
Equipment
Glass demijohn and carboy
A glass demijohn or carboy is a stout, usually rounded bottle with a narrow neck, used for beverage fermentation, maturation, storage or transport. Its glass body, closure and any protective carrier are distinct parts of the vessel system.
Equipment
Open-surface kombucha fermenter
A wide-mouth jar or broader tank holds sweetened tea beneath a breathable cover as kombucha acidifies at an oxygen-accessible surface. Surface area relative to liquid volume can change oxygen transfer and fermentation.
Equipment
Bottle for secondary fermentation
Champagne’s traditional-method bottle holds wine through its second fermentation and subsequent maturation on lees. At tirage it has a crown cap and internal insert; bottle formats and specifications vary.
Equipment
Muits clay jar for chicha
A muits is a large Shuar clay vessel associated with chicha. The Sucumbíos life-plan gives its size and profile; sources describe both storing and fermenting chicha, but do not establish one uniform form or use across Shuar communities.
Equipment
Palm-wine tapping calabash
A hollowed gourd tied below a palm opening to collect sap. Sierra Leone records a Limba bulle/buli; Nso sources describe a calabash steadied by stick and plant material. These are related local forms, not one standard design.
Equipment
Oxygen absorbers and desiccants
Sachets can remove oxygen or absorb water vapour in a sealed package. They help manage suitable dry foods, but cannot replace adequate drying, a sound seal or a validated preservation method.
Equipment
Water-covered sago pot
In lowland Papua New Guinea, sago starch may be kept beneath water in a pot, saucepan or bucket. The method is documented in East Sepik; moist storage can support spontaneous fermentation but does not guarantee it or safety.