Fermentation & Microbiology
📋 What it is
Helpful microbes transform food — turning milk to yogurt, grapes to vinegar, dough to sourdough.
🗣️ Coach says
Fermentation is controlled help from MICROBES. Bacteria and yeast eat sugars and produce new substances: milk becomes yogurt and cheese, cabbage becomes sauerkraut, dough becomes tangy sourdough. It preserves food AND creates unique flavours — one of humanity’s oldest food technologies.
🧠 Memory hook
Fermentation = helpful microbes transform food (yogurt, sourdough, pickles). Preserves + flavours.
😂 Giggle
Why did the lettuce win the race?
Because it was always ahead!
😲 Whoa!
Sourdough bread rises using WILD yeast and bacteria caught from the air and flour — some sourdough "starters" have been kept alive and bubbling for over a hundred years.
✅ Quick check: What actually does the work in fermenting food?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Microbes — bacteria and yeast that eat sugars and produce new substances (acids, gas, flavours).
Fermentation is driven by microorganisms.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Look at yogurt or sourdough — living microbes transformed plain milk or dough into it.