Fermentation Badge
Discover the Home
Written by Kerry Cordy
_____ 1. Learn what fermentation is. Find out how tiny living things such as bacteria and yeast can change food and drinks.
_____ 2. Explore some familiar fermented foods. Look for foods such as yogurt, cheese, pickles, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, or soy sauce. Try at least 3.
_____ 3. Learn why people ferment food. Find out how fermentation can change a food’s flavor, texture, and how long it will keep.
_____ 4. Make a fermented food such as sauerkraut, yogurt, sourdough, fermented vegetables, kimchi, or another food of your choice. Follow a tested recipe and proper food-safety procedures.
_____ 5. Explore the history of fermentation. Find out how people used fermentation long before they understood bacteria or yeast and why fermented foods were important before refrigeration.
_____ 6. Learn what yeast and bacteria do during fermentation. Find out what they eat, what they produce, and how temperature and other conditions affect their growth.
_____ 7. Teach someone how to do a skill from this badge or teach some knowledge about this badge to someone. You can teach kids, your spouse, seniors, anyone, just as long as you are sharing your newfound knowledge.
_____ 8. Learn about three different types of fermentation. Find out how lactic acid fermentation, alcoholic fermentation, and acetic acid fermentation are used to make different foods and drinks.
_____ 9. Watch fermentation in action. Mix baker’s yeast with warm water and sugar and observe what happens. Experiment with changing one thing, such as the amount of sugar or the temperature of the water.
_____ 10. Learn why sourdough starter bubbles and grows. Start your own sourdough starter or observe someone else’s over several days.
_____ 11. Make something using yeast, such as bread, rolls, pizza dough, or another baked food. Watch how fermentation causes the dough to rise.
_____ 12. Compare a fermented food with a similar food that has not been fermented. You might compare cabbage and sauerkraut, milk and yogurt, or cucumbers and fermented pickles.
_____ 13. Learn about fermented dairy foods. Find out how milk can be transformed into foods such as yogurt, kefir, sour cream, and cheese.
_____ 14. Learn the difference between fermented pickles and pickles made primarily with vinegar. Find out what makes each one sour.
_____ 15. Learn how fermentation changes food. Choose a fermented food and compare it with the ingredients it started with. Notice how the flavor, smell, texture, or appearance changed during fermentation.
_____ 16. Find at least five fermented foods from different parts of the world. Locate their places of origin on a map. Try at least 2.
_____ 17. Learn about kimchi and its importance in Korean food and culture. Find out what ingredients are commonly used and how different varieties of kimchi are made.
_____ 18. Learn how soybeans are transformed through fermentation. Explore foods such as miso, tempeh, natto, or soy sauce and try one you have never had before if possible.
_____ 19. Learn how cacao beans are fermented before becoming chocolate. Find out how fermentation helps develop the flavor of chocolate.
_____ 20. Learn how coffee can be fermented during processing. Explore how different fermentation methods can affect the finished coffee.
_____ 21. Learn how temperature affects fermentation. Find out why some fermented foods need a warm environment while others ferment best at cooler temperatures.
_____ 22. Learn why salt is important when fermenting vegetables. Find out how the right amount of salt helps create conditions for desirable bacteria while discouraging unwanted growth.
_____ 23. Learn about food safety when fermenting at home. Know the signs that a fermented food is progressing normally and when a food should be thrown away rather than eaten.
_____ 24. Learn about probiotics. Find out what they are and why not every fermented food contains live microorganisms by the time it is eaten.
_____ 25. Visit a bakery, cheese maker, farmers market, fermentation shop, food manufacturer, or other place where fermented foods are made or sold.
_____ 26. Compare several brands or varieties of the same fermented food. Try different yogurts, sauerkrauts, sourdough breads, cheeses, kimchi, or other foods and compare their flavor and texture.
_____ 27. Explore how fermentation was used to preserve seasonal foods before modern refrigeration. Choose one food and find out how fermentation helped people store it for later use.
_____ 28. Learn about fermentation in beverages. Explore how fermentation is used to make drinks such as kombucha, kefir, traditional root beer, or other fermented beverages. For alcoholic beverages, focus on the science and history rather than making or consuming them.
_____ 29. Create your own fermented-food meal or tasting. Include at least three fermented foods and share what you learned about them with the people eating with you.
_____ 30. Share fermentation with others through service. You might donate supplies for a cooking program, help someone learn to make bread or yogurt, prepare an appropriate fermented food for someone, or help reduce food waste by teaching others about traditional food-preservation methods.
