Shadowing Practice: Why you should ferment your garlic - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I love fermented foods.
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Like, a lot.
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And for a long time, I've been tempted to try fermenting food myself.
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But the idea of basically letting food sit out on my counter for days, weeks, months, whatever, and then crossing my fingers that it's safe to eat?
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Honestly, it has always freaked me out.
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But then this changed everything.
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This is Minute Food.
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Okay, so a few months ago, I was meeting with this awesome beer chemist who happened to mention that she makes her own fermented garlic.
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Not like black garlic, which isn't actually fermented, but a fermented garlic paste.
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And for weeks, I could not stop thinking about this.
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Because not only do I love fermented food, as a die-hard garlic lover, I am basically obligated to try every possible preparation of it.
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Maybe this was the metaphorical kick in the pants I needed to actually try fermentation.
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But first, I wanted a better handle on what I would be getting into.
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And at its most basic, fermenting food is a matter of having microbes, maybe bacteria, maybe yeast, maybe mold, eat your food before you do.
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Which might seem gross, because microbial breakdown is also what makes food rot and even become unsafe.
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But the critical difference between great and gross is the particular types of microbes breaking down the food.
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Fermentation is a matter of pushing the microbial melee toward a certain outcome.
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This is possible because different types of microbes like different conditions.
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Like harmless microbes known as lactic acid bacteria can thrive without oxygen and under high levels of salt, conditions which lots of nasty germs don't like.
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By selectively creating an environment that's hospitable for the microbes you want and not for the ones you don't, you give the good guys a big enough advantage to win out.
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The science makes sense.
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I mean, I am a biologist and this is just basic competitive exclusion.
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I don't know, life finds a way, right?
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I still wasn't completely confident that I wouldn't mess this up.
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So I kept digging, especially into lacto-fermentation, the type that harnesses those lactic acid bacteria to make stuff like sauerkraut and kimchi,
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and the aforementioned garlic paste.
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Lactic acid bacteria pump out waste in the form of, yes, lactic acid.
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And most of the microbes you want to exclude, like the ones that cause rot and botulism, hate acid.
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They literally cannot survive the conditions that lactic acid bacteria create.
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I dug and I dug
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and I could not find a single documented case of food poisoning attributed to vegetables lacto-fermented with basic best practices.
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In fact, because lactic acid bacteria are so good at excluding disease-causing microorganisms,
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lots of experts consider lacto-fermented vegetables to be safer than raw, unfermented vegetables.
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And at this point, I really had no more excuses.
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It was time to mediate my own microbial melee.
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The basic recipe for fermented garlic paste comes from this fantastic book, aptly named fermented vegetables.
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Basically, you peel a lot of garlic, then blend it up into a paste.
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You add salt, which is what's going to give the lactic acid bacteria
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that naturally exist on the garlic the initial advantage so they can start multiplying and acidifying things.
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You can even kickstart the process by adding some already fermented brine, like from sauerkraut or kimchi, or garlic paste that you've already fermented.
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Then you pack it all into a jar, being careful to minimize air pockets.
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Remember you want anaerobic conditions here.
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You cover it up, and you weigh it down.
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And then you wait for the magic to happen.
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Which doesn't take long, because the second day, I woke up to this.
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See, when you blend up the garlic, you release compounds from its cells, including sulfur-containing molecules and amino acids.
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When these come into contact with each other, a chemical reaction can create wildly colorful pigments.
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The more acidic your concoction is, the more likely the chemical reaction is, so this change is a sign that those lactic acid bacteria are already going wild.
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But the reaction depends on all sorts of other factors, too, so don't worry if your garlic doesn't hulk out.
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My second batch was way less dramatic.
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In any case, over the course of days and weeks, the color dulls and darkens.
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It starts smelling less like fresh pungent garlic and more like sweeter sautéed garlic.
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And two to three weeks later, according to the recipe, it should be ready.
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And the flavor is really interesting.
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I mean it's definitely garlic, it still has some of those pungent, sulfury notes.
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But it also has some umami, some bitterness, a nice tang.
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There is a lot going on here.
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Which makes sense, because the process of fermentation creates flavors and aromas that you cannot get through other processes.
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As the microbes digest the food, they cleave the existing fats and proteins and carbohydrates apart into smaller molecules.
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And since smaller molecules are more volatile, they're more likely to reach your olfactory system and get sensed.
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Other molecules, like the newly formed glutamates, become newly accessible to your taste buds.
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And as fermentation progresses, all of these new molecules can be broken down further, or interact with each other, leading to more diverse, nuanced, and complex flavors.
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And as the conditions in the fermenting food change, like as the pH changes, the microbial community shifts, creating more new products and more complexity.
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The exact flavors you get will depend on the particular food you're fermenting, and the particular microbes that are doing it.
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But put simply, fermentation equals flavor.
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So it is no wonder that a ton of condiments, the stuff we add to our food to simply make it more delicious, are products of fermentation.
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And then there's ketchup, mustard, and a lot of others, which although they aren't products of fermentation, they rely heavily on vinegar, which is a fermented product,
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to supply their punch of flavor.
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And that is basically how I've been using this garlic, as a flavor booster.
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It provides a really garlicky flavor that's just a little more complex than the standard stuff.
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makes using garlic a breeze.
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All the annoying peeling and chopping is already done.
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All you have to do at this point is just take it out of the fridge and scoop it.
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But maybe the biggest thing this garlic has done for me is serve as kind of a gateway.
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It was the kick in the pants that I needed to finally get over that hurdle of refereeing my own microbial melee.
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And I'm now dipping my toes, or my veggies at least, into fermenting other foods too.
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These aren't the first ferments this family has seen.
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My husband makes sourdough and has even fermented his own miso and salami.
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But it does seem that most people, unless they grew up in a family that fermented food, need some kind of gateway,
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some impetus to get over that initial hump and start experimenting with fermentation.
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Your gateway might not be garlic.
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Maybe it's a different hard-to-find condiment that you're dying to try.
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Or the need to do something with all that cabbage that your garden is pumping out.
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During the pandemic, a lot of people found their gateway to fermentation in yeast shortages or sheer boredom.
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So look, if you are fermentation curious but just haven't gotten over that hump, consider this video your kick in the pants.
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Grab a jar, some basic ingredients, and a reputable recipe and brew up your own fermentation revelation.
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And now it's time for a little behind-the-scenes bonus story.
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So remember the time I had the right idea to play around with chemicals that smell like vomit?
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Well, while I was making that video, I spilled those horrifying chemicals right on my favorite butcher block, the one I use in every single Minute Food video.
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Well, used to use.
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Because despite my best efforts, it turns out that once the smell of super concentrated puke gets into wood, it doesn't come out.
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On a whim, I reached out to the John Booz Company, which had made that board, and I told them the whole ridiculous story.
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And I don't know if they took pity on me or they just wanted to get rid of the weird vomit lady, but a few days later, a brand new butcher block showed up at my door.
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The gorgeous one that you've been seeing in our recent videos.
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This isn't a sponsorship, and actually the folks at John Booz have no idea that I'm sharing this with you.
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They are just an awesome company that deserves a shout out for being the savior of this stench-riddled saga.
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And as always, a huge thank you to our amazing patrons.
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Without your support, Minute Food simply would not exist.
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Yeah, that's an egg joke.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 99 sentences and 1493 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:27. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 74% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| garlic noun | /ˈɡɑɹlɪk/ | A plant, Allium sativum, related to the onion, having a pungent bulb much used in cooking. |
| acid noun | /ˈæsɪd/ | A sour substance. |
| flavor noun | /ˈfleɪvə/ | The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect. |
| pasta noun | /ˈpɑ.stə/ | Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating. |
| molecule noun | /ˈmɑ.lɪ.kjul/ | The smallest particle of a specific element or compound that retains the chemical properties of that element or compound; two or more atoms held together by… |
| vegetable noun | /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ | A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice… |
| gateway noun | /ˈɡeɪtˌweɪ/ | A passage that can be closed by use of a gate. |
| pants noun | /pænts/ | An outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers. |
| recipe noun | /ˈɹɛs.ɪ.pi/ | Any set of instructions for preparing a mixture of ingredients. |
| gross adjective | /ɡɹoʊs/ | remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive. |
| newly adverb | /ˈnuli/ | Very recently/lately; in the immediate past. |
| pump noun | /pʌmp/ | A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas. |
| blend verb | /blɛnd/ | To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other. |
| peel verb | /piːl/ | To remove the skin or outer covering of. |
| exclude verb | /ɪksˈkluːd/ | To bar (someone or something) from entering; to keep out. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get over verb | To overcome. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 24 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, doesn't, aren't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: delicious /dɪˈlɪ.ʃəs/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, shout /ʃaʊt/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/, revelation /ˌɹɛv.əˈleɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, accessible /əkˈsɛs.ɪ.bəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like garlic, acid, flavor.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been using · you've been seeing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been tempted · has always freaked · you've already fermented |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | I've been tempted · isn't actually fermented · can be broken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | salt, which is · vinegar, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.