LAURA LEE ALICE
COOKS
®
Fermented Foods
When I was much younger, fermenting foods was a regular part of food preservation. Just about any fruit or
vegetable was preserved in some way. Kraut, pickled beans, and cucumber pickles were all preserved in large
crocks. Beans and hot peppers were strung up to dry. And onions and garlic stalks were braided and hung, so
that they could be used when needed. I like the idea of getting back to basics, both in food and lifestyle.
Recipes are like stories; they can change from person to person. Everyone has their idea of how a recipe should be, even
though it may have changed from the original. We will never know the true author of the original recipe, regardless of
what some may say. That's why I go back and look through the oldest cookbooks that I can find. Sometimes it's not the
recipe in the books that I find, but the tiny pieces of handwritten recipes and newspaper articles that are stuck within
the pages. That's where the real story is, finding those simple Southern recipes. -Mac