Microorganisms: benefits or spoilage?
Food Alchemist Reflections #1. Ferment-nation
In a world that has been built by words and words that have been created by humans, where does nature take the lead? It is time for a change, re-think what has been already established by our words, and create a new paradigm that includes us as part of nature. How? Through Food. Food is our common treasure, the best indicator of our planet’s health. These words represent an out-loud thought from The Food Alchemist Lab that pretends to take you on a trip around general and specific food topics → proposing solutions, destroying myths, and waking up your interest through impactful recipes. Because your curiosity is our trigger and once you’ve shot us, nothing will stop us from bringing a better food system, the one that listens to nature’s voice.
1. First things first
We see we believe
Let’s start this writing from the beginning, from the consciousness of the term microorganism. Even if the human race has been using the power of microorganisms, even before the creation of philosophy and the rest of the sciences, it is not till the discovery of the microscope when we started to be conscious of the existence of this micro-world. Consciousness has always been key for humans, we are empirics and need to see to believe (faith is also important but let’s leave it for another post), and the microscope was essential for this fact. The identity of the original inventor of the microscope is still questionable, but it is said that he was the dutch lens-maker Hans Janssen in 1590 together with his son Zacharias (Ball, C. S., 1966). Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, and some other prestigious scientists continued improving this wonderful device until Robert Hooke, a physicist that in 1965 took the compound microscope to the next level. At that moment, we started to see, and as a consequence, we started to believe and understand that there is a parallel micro-world. This could be considered the origin of Microbiology also thanks to Anton Van Leeuwenhoek who described for the first time the bacteria, yeast, and the life present in a drop of water. (Lera, R. M. S., & García, N. R. O., 2015)
We see we kill
In 1857, Pasteur published the true manifesto, Mémoire sur la Fermentation Appelée Lactique, in which he affirmed that the process of fermentation is narrowly linked to life. This fact had a huge impact on the sciences, the destruction of the Spontaneous Generation Theory which affirmed that life could be created from “nothing” and just the presence of air is needed to transform an organic substance. Nowadays, that kind of affirmation might sound crazy and almost witchery but Pasteur needed to demonstrate to the world why life comes from life and not from “nothing”. Pasteurization was the key, basically killing anything alive to maintain that organic substance that somehow rotted in contact with air (Moreno, A. R., 1996). At this point, we understood that in part, it is the micro-world that is responsible for the transformation of the organic substances, but what does this transformation entail? Benefits or spoilage?
2. Benefits or spoilage?
Easy, the answer is both. However, this is not the key learning that we want to transmit to you through these words. We all know that bacteria, mold, and viruses can bring both values to food and benefits to our body, but also diseases. Since pasteurization, Microbiology has studied both the benefits and diseases that this micro-world brings to our lives. Benefits or diseases, black or white, good or bad… We cannot forget that as humans we have emotions and among these emotions, one of the most powerful is fear. It was fear that tipped the balance toward the study of diseases and so pathogens and microbes became the focus rather than probiotics or other benefits. It is somehow understandable that we were more in such a rush to understand how to heal ourselves that we did not invest as much energy in researching how this micro-world lives in synergy with us and the food we eat. This might be the reason why fermentation, as a culinary technique, has not evolved much and remains a tradition while pasteurization has been taken to the next level, creating a wide set of sterilization techniques currently applied across the food industry.
This dualism is still in our society and is the trigger for this post. The difference between rotten (due to spoilage) and fermented (due to probiotics) is purely cultural. If we understand culture as a set of knowledge within a specific time and space, it is this specific knowledge that influences the way we see life and therefore microorganisms.
Let’s see this through an example: my grandmother, 86 years old in southern Spain, continues to ferment Iberian pork. She does not even know that she is fermenting. For her, it is more like an aging process, closer to spoilage and rotten than to deliciousness and benefits. This is due to her culture. She grew up discarding anything fermented because, for her, fermented means something negative. She ignores the fact it is the mold and lactic bacteria that add value and ‘umaminess’ to these products. The only thing my grandmother knows is that she needs to add salt and black pepper to make sure everything goes as expected. We might find this kind of example all around the world in different cultures and realize that the same process that is considered rotten in one culture is considered delicious in another.
Knowledge and consciousness give us the capability of choice and make us free. In the past few years, the knowledge around microorganisms and fermentation has grown enough to unify cultures and open a new universe of flavors and aromas within the food system. This is the reason why fermentation has become a trend. We are destroying the dualism created by cultures and unifying our strength to see the micro-world beyond diseases. Microorganisms enhance nutrients, enrich us with probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics (do not miss the next post of Ferment-nation), add value to food waste, help us save money, and be more environmentally-friendly. Read, think and test, create your own dualisms between what is rotten or fermented, and relish the taste of life.
3. In-a-nutshell Recipe
Unifying cultures, bringing back Pangea.
Pangea, the supercontinent that incorporated almost all of Earth’s landmasses in early geologic time, a time when we were one. Often, I ask myself how would the food be if the landmasses hadn’t ever split into the different continents currently known? The following recipe aims to gather Japanese and European techniques. Japanese people are not big fans of cheese and especially blue cheese while European people love it. On the other hand, European people are not familiar with koji while Japanese people love it. Curiously both koji and blue cheese are elaborated with similar molds (Aspergillus and Penicillium respectively) that somehow bring the same value to the food, ‘umaminess’.
But… the recipe? A Koji-aged Cheesecake. We’ll first age/ferment kefir by using barley-koji, that is to say, we’ll make our own cheese in a couple of days by using kefir and the Japanese mold and then use it as the main cheese for a classic burnt cheesecake. Enjoy:
4. References
- Ball, C. S. (1966). The early history of the compound microscope. Bios, 51–60.
- Lera, R. M. S., & García, N. R. O. (2015). History of the microscope and its repercussion on Microbiology. Humanidades Médicas, 15(2), 355–372.
- Moreno, A. R. (1996). Louis Pasteur: in memoriam. Iatreia, ág-22.
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