FermenteaWhere food goes to change

Ingredients

1086 articles on substrates, cultures and additives.

All ingredients

280 ingredients

Substrates
Newest first
50 per page
Clear pale yellow acid whey in a glass pitcher and small glass cup.
Substrates

Acid whey

Acid whey is liquid left after acid coagulation of milk, including cultured dairy. Its composition and uses vary. Icelandic sour skyr-whey is related, but not automatically the same material.

Five whole deep purple black carrots with green tops on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Black carrot

Black carrot is the anthocyanin-pigmented Eastern carrot (Daucus carota var. atrorubens), the purple root that preceded orange types and still colours kanji and şalgam.

Whole and halved raw red beet roots on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Beetroot

Beetroot is the red taproot of Beta vulgaris. In Poland its soured juice replaced hogweed as the base of barszcz from the eighteenth century, and beet leaven is still made for Christmas Eve.

Two yellow apples washed with red stripes and a leafy twig, in watercolour, a historical interpretation of the lost Redstreak.
Substrates

Redstreak apple

The Redstreak was the famous seventeenth-century cider apple of Herefordshire, linked with Lord Scudamore. A yellow apple streaked with red, it was lost as a distinct variety by the 1880s.

Two whole peanut pods and an open pod containing two red-skinned kernels sit beside red-skinned and peeled kernels on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Peanuts

Peanuts are the edible seeds of Arachis hypogaea, a cultivated legume. They are eaten whole, roasted and ground, and peanut oil-press cake is a separate byproduct used in some fermentations.

A whole netted cantaloupe sits behind a cut half showing orange flesh and pale seeds in a fibrous central cavity on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Melon (Cucumis melo)

Cucumis melo, a cultivated melon of the Cucurbitaceae. Its origin is still debated: a review proposes Africa, and the wild melons it discusses are described as non-edible.

A whole purple-top turnip and a cut half showing pale flesh on a pale ceramic platter.
Substrates

Turnip (Brassica rapa)

The turnip, a brassica crop whose roots and leaves are eaten. The source record names the species Brassica rapa, but its wild and naturalised forms are not assessed here.

Whole red and burgundy cherries with long stalks and serrated green leaves rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Wild cherry (Prunus avium)

Prunus avium, the wild or gean cherry of Great Britain and Ireland, bears red summer fruit eaten by birds and used in cherry brandy. Kernel and leaf safety are not settled by the sources read.

A glossy brown sweet chestnut sits in an open golden-brown spiny burr beside three closed green burrs on an ivory surface.
Substrates

Sweet chestnut (Castanea)

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), a starchy tree nut eaten roasted, as flour and in confectionery, and kept apart from the toxic fruit of horse chestnut.

A bowl of raw whole brown hazelnuts with one whole nut and two shelled kernels, one with its thin skin and one peeled; shown as a Corylus avellana example.
Substrates

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts from Corylus avellana, the common hazel, eaten raw, roasted or ground, with the Piedmont protected product and the limits of regional growing and storage advice.

Whole red-orange hawthorn haws with tiny dried sepals and a few lobed leaves on an ivory surface.
Substrates

Hawthorn

Common hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), a hedgerow shrub whose red haws and young leaves are reported as food, with sources that disagree on raw fruit and leaves.

Illustrative editorial still life of cooked canned chickpeas in packing liquid in an open tin beside a bowl of drained chickpeas.
Substrates

Chickpeas (canned)

Canned chickpeas are commercially cooked seeds of Cicer arietinum packed in liquid. The beans and their starchy cooking liquid can both be used; salt and texture vary by brand.

AI-generated editorial image of fresh cacao seeds still coated in pale mucilage in a simple bowl; shown before fermentation, not a source photograph or record of a particular Ghanaian process.
Substrates

Fresh cocoa beans with pulp

Fresh cocoa beans with pulp are cacao seeds newly removed from the pod while the sweet-acid white mucilage still clings to them. The seed-and-pulp mass is the starting material for post-harvest cocoa fermentation.

An editorial still-life of cleaned white fonio grains (Digitaria exilis) in a pale bowl; illustrative of white fonio only.
Substrates

Fonio grain

Fonio covers two distinct West African cereals: white fonio (Digitaria exilis) and black fonio (D. iburua). Both are eaten in cooked dishes; sources also document fermented drinks and controlled fonio fermentations.

Three whole pale mushrooms and two lengthwise halves show brown gills, white flesh and soil-flecked stems on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Agrocybe dura

A grassland agaric listed as edible in historical and scientific catalogues for Hong Kong and China. Taxonomic concepts and practical food value vary; the listings do not establish safe identification or culinary practice.

A clump of frilled grey-green and brown Iceland moss lichen rests on soil among moss and sparse grass against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Iceland moss

Iceland moss, Cetraria islandica, is an Arctic-alpine lichen, not a moss or a mushroom. It was boiled to remove its bitterness and used in breads, porridges and soups, and now survives mainly in folk remedies.

A loose pile of pale cream melon seeds sits beside a ceramic bowl of ground egusi on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Melon seeds

Melon seeds, called egusi in Nigeria and much of West Africa, are the seeds of several cucurbit species. They are ground into soup and cooked and fermented into the condiment ogiri-egusi.

Three whole ear-shaped mushrooms rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Hairy wood ear

Auricularia cornea, a gelatinous wood-decay fungus recorded as food in the Congo and Asia, and cultivated and sold dried in China. It is mild in taste, and its name has been confused with Auricularia polytricha.

Three whole yellow-ochre false truffles and two cut halves showing grey-olive interiors rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Yellow false truffle

Rhizopogon luteolus, a pine-associated false truffle of Europe and introduced pine regions. Its food use is disputed, its immature stage is the one recorded as eaten, and it must not be confused with poisonous earthballs.

Two whole orange funnel-shaped mushrooms and two lengthwise halves show pale flesh and ridged outer surfaces on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Turbinellus floccosus

A vase-shaped ectomycorrhizal fungus sold as a scaly chanterelle in Pu'er markets, Yunnan. Its edibility is contested in the sources, and the name may cover populations that differ in toxicity.

Two whole fan-shaped ochre mushrooms and two cut halves display their gills and pale flesh on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Tapinella panuoides

A gilled wood-decay fungus of conifer wood, known as oyster rollrim. One Congolese interview record shows local eating, but other regional references call it inedible, so the food status is in conflict.

Whole and split grey-white huitlacoche galls reveal dark spore masses on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Huitlacoche

Huitlacoche is the grey gall of the maize smut fungus Ustilago maydis, gathered and eaten in Mexico, where it is also a crop disease.

Three grey-green lichen tufts with branching perforated lobes and dark tips rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Jhyau

Everniastrum cirrhatum, a tree-dwelling lichen of the Nepal Himalaya, gathered wild and used in soups, pickles and sausages by the Limbu and Rai communities of the north-east hills.

Illustrative plain mycoprotein pieces representing harvested edible biomass; not a depiction of wild Fusarium venenatum or a culture sample.
Substrates

Fusarium venenatum

Fusarium venenatum is the filamentous fungus grown in large fermenters to make mycoprotein, the edible mycelium behind Quorn, using glucose as feedstock in a continuous process.

Pale translucent natural casings coated with white salt crystals lie in loose folds and loops on an ivory surface.
Substrates

Natural casings

Natural casings are cleaned animal guts, stomachs, bladders and skins used to hold sausage and pudding fillings; the organ, animal and diameter decide the food's shape and drying.

Gathered green sibekh shoots with narrow serrated leaves lie on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Falcaria vulgaris (sibekh leaves)

Sibekh is the young leafy growth of Falcaria vulgaris, an Apiaceae herb sold in Yerevan markets and fried with eggs; pickled, dried and canned uses are recorded without methods.

Whole blueberries with dusty blue skins sit beside two leafy sprigs bearing ripe and pale unripe berries on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Lowbush blueberry

Lowbush or wild blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium: a small subshrub of eastern North America whose berries are gathered wild and harvested from managed fields.

Two brown tuberous chervil root crowns with fibrous roots, slender taproots and purple stem bases rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Tuberous chervil

Tuberous chervil, Chaerophyllum bulbosum, is a biennial of the carrot family grown for its root in central Europe and gathered for its young leaves in Armenia.

Editorial image of mature cream cowpea seeds with dark hilum markings, depicting one seed type rather than all cowpea varieties.
Substrates

Cowpeas

Cowpeas are the seeds of Vigna unguiculata, eaten green and freshly shelled or fully mature and dry. Across Africa they serve as food, fodder and a crop partner, while research also examines them in fermented pastes and cereal doughs.

A loose bunch of fresh green trifoliate cowpea leaves with prominent veins rests on a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Cowpea leaves

Cowpea leaves are eaten cooked and sun-dried in Botswana, where the dried product is called morogo wa dinawa. Studies of the crop add leaf-removal results and trial-site growing conditions.

Substrates

Cantharellus tomentosus

A miombo-woodland chanterelle described from Tanzania and called Wipatwe in the Southern Highlands. Food classifications conflict, including within a 2015 community study.

Fresh green Brède morelle leafy sprigs rest on a warm ivory surface in soft natural light.
Substrates

Brède morelle leaves

Brède morelle is a cooked leaf vegetable of New Caledonia, linked to Solanum americanum but recorded under the broad name Solanum nigrum. Sources conflict on its safety, and no cooking process is validated.

Red woodland strawberries with green sepals, hairy stems and toothed trifoliate leaves rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Woodland strawberry

Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a small-fruited perennial, picked wild for centuries and distinct from the large cultivated hybrid strawberry. It is eaten raw and in a few historical dishes.

Two closed green pacaya spathes and one opened spathe exposing pale flower buds rest on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Pacaya palm inflorescences

Pacaya, or tepejilote, is the edible male flower cluster of the palm Chamaedorea tepejilote, eaten in Honduras with egg, in tamales and soups, and sold pickled. Mexican farmers manage the palm in agroforests.

A cluster of whole dark Matiti fruits with blue-grey bloom and green leaves rests on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Matiti fruit

Matiti is the fruit of Artabotrys brachypetalus, a Mozambican Annonaceae species. Communities in Chicualacuala District eat the ripe fruit fresh and make traditional drinks and jam from it.

Ripe golden-orange cloudberries with their clustered drupelets clear against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Cloudberry

Cloudberry has distinct Gwich’in, Nunatsiavut, NunatuKavut-area and Québec records. A 2009 cutover-peatland trial reports site-specific rhizome establishment results, not a household pot or fruit-yield method.

Photograph of Sago.
Substrates

Sago

Sago is the starch extracted from the pith of several palms, mainly Metroxylon sagu, and it is dried into flour or pearls that are a staple in Southeast Asia and New Guinea.

Photograph of Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.).
Substrates

Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.)

Ndunduma is the Malawian name for small deep-water cichlids of the genus Diplotaxodon, caught in Lake Malawi and dried with usipa and utaka. The species in a given lot is often not recorded.

Photograph of Utaka (Copadichromis spp.).
Substrates

Utaka (Copadichromis spp.)

Utaka is a small cichlid of Lake Malawi, from the genus Copadichromis, sold dried in Malawi. It is one of the small fish that solar tents were tested on alongside usipa and ndunduma.

Photograph of Bamboo shoot.
Substrates

Bamboo shoot

Bamboo shoots are the young culms of many bamboo species, eaten after boiling or leaching in Asia, and fermented into sour and preserved foods in the Himalayas, northeast India and Burma.

Dried light-brown African breadfruit seeds, some split to show pale interiors, in a white dish.
Substrates

African-breadfruit seed (Treculia)

The seeds of the African breadfruit, Treculia africana, are cooked, dried and milled into flour in West and Central Africa, and the fruit is heaped and fermented before the seeds are washed out.

Bletted brown medlars, one cut open, on an ivory platter.
Substrates

Medlar

The common medlar, Mespilus germanica, is a small tree whose hard, sour fruit is eaten only after it has bletted, softening through decay into a sweet, apple-sauce-like pulp.

Boiled Tahitian chestnut seeds with tan skins and pale cream cotyledons on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Tahitian chestnut

Tahitian chestnut is the starchy seed of Inocarpus fagifer, a food tree of tropical Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Despite its name, it is not a true chestnut, and the seed is cooked before eating.

A fresh Miike takana mustard head with broad pale-green stems and crinkled dark-green leaves on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Takana

Takana is Japanese leaf mustard, including Miike takana of Fukuoka: pungent, broad leaves and stems eaten fresh or preserved as pickles.

A fresh raw abalone in its shell, showing the attached edible foot and iridescent inner shell.
Substrates

Abalone

Abalone are marine snails valued for their broad muscular foot and distinctive shell. They are eaten fresh or dried and appear in documented Korean dishes and preserved seafood traditions.

Whole raw squid on a pale plate against a warm ivory background.
Substrates

Squid

Squid is a cephalopod used fresh, dried and in salted seafood ferments such as Japanese shiokara. Its body, viscera and ink appear in distinct regional preparations, so the name alone does not specify a species or process.

Dried pink and cream rose petals in a shallow pale ceramic bowl.
Substrates

Rose petals

Rose petals are fragrant floral ingredients used fresh or dried in syrups, jams, jellies, drinks and desserts; culinary use depends on correct identification and food-safe growing.

Raw pork skin cut into pale ivory sheets, loosely folded into a small pile on a warm ivory surface.
Substrates

Pork skin

Pork skin is collagen-rich pig skin used fresh or cooked; in documented Southeast Asian meat ferments it is usually prepared separately before it joins the pork.

Substrates

Pork fat

Pig adipose tissue used raw in some fermented meats and made into distinct products such as cured lardo, salo and rendered lard. Cut and firmness affect processing.

Source-grounded editorial photograph of a raw cattle lung with natural lobed tissue and its trachea; not a cooked dish or handling recommendation.
Substrates

Beef lung

Beef lung is cattle offal used in regional Indonesian dishes and studied as a substrate for a modern fermented-sauce proof of concept. Culinary, regulatory and experimental uses vary; the sources support no universal process.