A New way to Look at Fermented Food Recipes 👀

In my new book, Fearless Fermenting (on page 57), I introduced the “FerMatrix”, a new scale that measures the relative complexity of different fermented food and beverage recipes.

How easy (or difficult) is a fermented food recipe to make? The FerMatrix will tell you.

Each fermented food recipe in my book has a FerMatrix score.

Each fermented food or beverage recipe is ranked on each of the aspects, and then the scores are totaled to achieve a FerMatrix score. The higher the score, the more difficult or complex the ferment is to create.

Here’s how it works:

I took unique attributes of foods that are commonly fermented and create a universal scale so that you’ll easily understand the relative level of difficulty and complexity required to make a given ferment. I call each attribute an “aspect”.

Aspect

Wild vs. Cultured

Number of Ingredients

Brine Required?

Climate Control needed?

Average length (days) fermentation

Number of fermentation phases

Total Preparation time hours

Special Equipment needed

Starter maintenance Requirements

Hazard factor

Each aspect has several possible values, and each recipe is rated on each aspect and from there, the FerMatrix score is derived.

My book goes into detail about each of these aspects, their possible values, and of course, where each recipe rates.

Here’s an example of the FerMatrix in action:

Here’s the breakdown of the Hot Pepper Sauce recipe:

I’m hoping this scale is useful and that it will catch on with other fermenters!

What do you think of the FerMatrix?

Do you find it useful? Confusing, helpful? All feedback is good (even when it’s critical).

Pick up a copy of my book, Fearless Fermenting, and dive into the FerMatrix! (If you want a personally signed copy, order here!)