Bibliography & Sources

The sources this site is built on, split into two tiers. Safety authorities set the hard numbers — process times, the pH 4.6 line, acidification rules — and override everything else when they conflict. Craft references inform technique, flavor, and the science of why ferments work, but they are not the citation for a safety claim. When a recipe and an authority disagree on a safety figure, the authority wins.

Safety authorities (cite these for safety)

Source	What it is	Use it for	URL
NCHFP	National Center for Home Food Preservation (Univ. of Georgia) — the primary U.S. clearinghouse for tested home-preservation methods	Boiling-water-bath and pressure process times, fermentation and pickling recipes, altitude tables	nchfp.uga.edu
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning	The federal reference guide behind most tested home recipes; hosted by NCHFP	Authoritative canning schedules, jar sizes, headspace, hot vs raw pack	USDA Complete Guide
FDA 21 CFR Part 114	Federal regulation defining acidified foods and the pH 4.6 / aw 0.85 controls for commercial processors	Definitions, the equilibrium pH ceiling of 4.6, process-deviation handling	ecfr.gov 21 CFR 114
CDC — Botulism	U.S. Centers for Disease Control reference on C. botulinum, symptoms, and prevention	Why low-acid home canning fails, toxin facts, what to do on suspected exposure	cdc.gov/botulism

Caution

Every safety claim on this site — process times, the pH 4.6 botulism line, the aw 0.85 threshold, acidification ratios — traces to one of the four authorities above. The craft books below are excellent on technique and flavor but are not the source for a safety number. If you can it for the shelf, the authority’s figure governs.

Craft references (technique & science)

Author / work	What it is	Use it for
Sandor Katz, The Art of Fermentation (2012)	The encyclopedic survey of world fermentation traditions and home practice	Breadth of methods, wild-ferment intuition, troubleshooting lore, cultural context
René Redzepi & David Zilber, The Noma Guide to Fermentation (2018)	Noma’s systematic, lab-minded manual covering lacto, kombucha, vinegar, koji, miso, garum	Precise modern technique, percentage-by-weight discipline, flavor development
Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (2004)	The standard reference on the science of food and cooking	The chemistry and biology underneath — enzymes, acids, salt, microbial action

Info

The Noma Guide’s discipline of salting by weight as a percentage is the same convention this site enforces everywhere, and it lines up cleanly with the FDA’s equilibrium-pH framing. Katz is the better companion for wild, intuitive ferments; McGee explains the why when a result surprises you.

How these inform the site

• The pH 4.6 botulism line and 4.2 canning target come from FDA 21 CFR 114 and NCHFP/USDA — see Safety and Botulism and Acidity & pH.
• The process-time tables are aligned to NCHFP and the USDA Complete Guide — see Canning Safety Tables.
• The salt-by-weight, equilibrium-% method follows the Noma Guide’s discipline — see Salt Percentage.
• The science of pectinase, tannins, and microbial succession draws on McGee and Katz — see Spices & Tannins and Microbial Succession.

Note

Books are revised between editions; regulations and tested process times are updated periodically. For any safety-critical figure, check the current NCHFP page or the live eCFR text rather than a remembered number or an older printing.

See also

• Canning Safety Tables — where these authorities are applied
• Safety and Botulism — the pH 4.6 line, sourced
• Safety First — the site’s overarching safety stance
• CDC Botulism · NCHFP · FDA 21 CFR 114