FermenteaWhere food goes to change
1086 articles on substrates, cultures and additives.
Koji is steamed grain — rice, barley, soybean or wheat — grown out with a food-grade Aspergillus mold until the kernels carry working enzymes. It is bought or cultivated, and it converts starch and protein for the foods that follow.
Horseradish is the long white root of Armoracia rusticana, a perennial of the mustard family. Grated, it releases a sharp, nose-clearing heat that vinegar fixes in the sauce.
The shredded white kernel of a mature coconut, used fresh or thawed from frozen in sambols and chutneys; its lauric-acid fat is rich and the moist meat is perishable.
Wasabi is the enlarged stem of Eutrema japonicum, a pungent perennial in the mustard family. Fresh rhizome is grated as a Japanese condiment; powder and prepared paste are separate products.
Milk supplies protein, fat and lactose for cultured drinks and cheese. Animal species, composition and processing each affect how it behaves.
Dahyangheukmi (다향흑미) is a registered Korean black-rice cultivar with an aromatic, non-glutinous grain. It has been used to make rice-flour nuruk, yakju and gochujang in published studies.
Curry leaves are the glossy compound leaves of the curry tree, Bergera koenigii, used fresh across southern India and Sri Lanka. Fried in hot oil they give a citrusy, nutty, faintly smoky note.
Cooked rice is rice grain heated in water until its starch gelatinizes; in Thai sour sausage it feeds the bacteria that acidify the meat.
Fat pressed or separated from the kernel of a mature coconut: solid below about 25 °C, mostly saturated and half lauric acid, sold virgin, refined or hydrogenated.
Calamansi is a small, very sour kumquat-mandarin hybrid, Philippine cooking’s all-purpose citrus, squeezed into soy sauce, fish sauce, broths and dips.
A fragrant, usually yellow pome with firm, tart and astringent flesh, cooked for tender fruit dishes, jelly and dense quince paste.
A gelling polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds, sold as kanten strips or powder; it sets firm at a low concentration and stays solid until about 85 °C.
An East Akim survey reports fruit and leaf use in soups and stews; a separate Cape Coast experiment grew a selected seed accession. External poisoning reports do not establish Ghanaian incidence or a safe preparation method.
Oaxaca market research documents food uses of Diphysa americana flowers. A separate Honduran Lenca table contains an unvouchered “Diphysa robiniodes” leaf row that remains a provisional crosswalk; forestry observations from Honduras and Guatemala do not confirm that food identity.
Allium vineale is a widespread European allium with hollow leaves and bulbil-bearing flowerheads. A White Carpathian ethnobotany study records a narrow, source-specific leaf-use tradition; it does not provide a complete recipe or gathering guidance.
Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) has a tart leaf used in salads and cooked dishes. UK growing guidance covers outdoor beds and containers, while the source does not give a numeric cold limit or a complete recipe or food-safety threshold.
Madagascar food studies identify tavolo as Tacca leontopetaloides and describe tuber use in distinct regional settings; broader crop guidance comes from a tropical handbook.
Madagascar sources document distinct seed and tuber food accounts for this wetland aroid; greenhouse cultivation data come from a botanical display, not food production.
Aymara records from Lake Titicaca describe totora as food, with separate reports of rhizomes and the basal tutura stem; later planting evidence comes from a wastewater lagoon.
One 2017 Mostaganem thesis reports young leaves, later shoot tips and capitula as food. The Algerian food attribution is provisional: the entry has no inspected voucher or informant-level record, and no independent Algerian food source was found.
Moroccan and Tunisian sources describe fennel leaves, stems, fruits and bulb forms in different food contexts; one Tunisian folk label also pools fennel with dill.
Timur is recorded as a spice made from fruit in a Nepal study and government growing guide. Sources describe regional cultivation and nursery guidance, but their flowering and planting calendars conflict and do not validate a household food process.
A two-site MARDI trial compared 15 Etlingera elatior accessions in Negeri Sembilan and Terengganu and found yield traits varied by genotype and location.
Loroco is the edible flower bud of Echites panduratus (syn. Fernaldia pandurata), eaten in Guatemalan dips, pupusas, soups and rice; local growing and preservation studies leave household production open.
Cambodian accounts describe Sesbania javanica flowers as food, with separate reports of leaves. PROSEA records wetland habitat; a 2003 home-gardening handbook preserves a historical sowing row whose continuation cells cannot be reliably assigned.
A source-linked account of katuray food uses in Philippine crop guides and an abstract-level regional survey, with conflicting field-spacing figures and incomplete household growing evidence.
Fiji crop accounts call the edible inflorescence crop Saccharum edule; this crop-name concept remains unresolved in current botanical treatments.
In Taiwan and Hong Kong food sources, jiaobai is the swollen stem of Zizania latifolia associated with Ustilago esculenta. It is distinct from the grain called North American wild rice, and the plant-fungus association is not food fermentation.
Japanese sources identify madake, Phyllostachys bambusoides, as a historically eaten bamboo shoot and describe a regional emergence season. Kew uses P. reticulata for the accepted-name treatment, while other floras retain P. bambusoides; species-specific food processing and household cultivation details remain unresolved.
Ugandan Nakati sources describe the leafy Shum group of a species that also includes fruit, dual-use and ornamental groups. Regional cultivation and a small pickling study offer context, but neither establishes universal crop limits or a validated home preservation method.
A historical Ghana flora account reports leaf and fruit use, while a Cape Coast fertilizer experiment supplies one accession and one-site growing data. Its abstract and detailed yield results conflict.
A wild fern recorded as a cooked young-shoot vegetable in one Gurung study in Nepal. Source-specific growing accounts describe wet, partly shaded habitats and propagation, but do not establish a household crop method.
Sarawak sources describe young Stenochlaena palustris fronds as a vegetable and give regional cultivation guidance for nursery propagation, wet field sites and harvest.
Tanzanian sources document false sesame in distinct leafy-green traditions. The name mlenda also covers other plants, and reported cooking and growing details remain tied to their source communities and studies.
Horopito is a New Zealand endemic whose peppery leaves are described as a culinary flavouring; garden advice is qualitative and household preparation evidence remains incomplete.
Cleome gynandra is documented in Kenyan growing guides and regional food and crop records from Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe sources add local leaf uses, seasonal observations and one Marondera manure trial whose published spacing and plant-density figures conflict. These records remain tied to their settings and do not establish a universal recipe or home-production prescription.
A Muda food-use study identifies nkakana as Momordica balsamina. A separate UEM abstract uses cacana for the same printed name but calls the plant introduced; another crop overview prints Momordica indica, a different current taxonomic concept. The source records remain distinct.
Regional Mexican food accounts and a Guerrero common-garden study document Anoda cristata names, dishes and growing observations, with identification and safety limits kept explicit.
Genjer is an aquatic leafy vegetable used in parts of Java; food and growing reports describe differing plant parts and cultivation settings.
Ethiopian ethnobotanical studies describe regional use of Urtica simensis leaves and young shoots. A separate four-site study reports outdoor livestock-forage cultivation; those yields and methods are not human-food production guidance.
Trifolium pratense is used as a forage crop and has separate human food reports for leaves and flowers. NCSU Extension describes salads, soups and cooked greens; a Mediterranean review summarizes flower uses in several countries. The growing evidence differs by region and purpose, and the available sources do not provide a complete food recipe.
Primula vulgaris is a spring-flowering European perennial with documented flower-garnish and leaf-use notes, alongside regional garden guidance that does not define a household crop protocol.
Bellis perennis has Danish reports of leaves in salads and flowers used candied, as garnish and in cabbage dishes. A Colorado extension list names the petals as a garnish or salad ingredient. The accounts differ on heating and do not provide a complete recipe or safety limit.
Lao field and ethnobotanical accounts describe young shoots used to flavor bamboo-shoot soup, alongside paddy-field and limited garden-growing records.
Gesho (Rhamnus prinoides) is used in Ethiopian cereal beers and honey wines for bitterness and flavour. Sources document regional cultivation and use but do not establish one origin, universal brewing measure, starter role or safety limit.
Fuki is eaten as leaf stalks and spring flower heads; Japanese sources describe seasonal food use, water-based preparation and region-specific growing guidance.
Colchic jonjoli is a Georgian food plant whose unopened flower clusters are reported pickled. Sources also use jonjoli for the distinct species Staphylea pinnata, leaving some food reports taxonomically mixed.
Georgian sources describe ekala as a wild food plant used in pkhali and report brine preparations. Names and plant-part labels vary by source; the food accounts do not establish a field identification or a productive growing method.
A source-bounded account of reported young-leaf uses in Ağrı and separate Turkish seed and laboratory studies. The evidence does not establish a home-growing method or identify a plant gathered under a shared local name.
Allium triquetrum is a Mediterranean bulbous allium with a three-angled flowering stalk. An Australian gardening handout reports culinary uses for its leaves, bulbs and flowers, while separate sources document invasive spread and jurisdiction-specific restrictions.