People fermented before they had a theory. Chemistry then stole the mystery; microbes stole it back.
East Asian mould crafts and yoghurt traditions are parallel domestications, not copies of Pasteur.
Timeline
Neolithic jars in the Caucasus and China show early fermented drinks.
Written traces of jiang-style pastes ancestral to doenjang and miso.
Louis Pasteur argues living cells cause fermentation.
Pasteur blocks spontaneous generation while keeping air.
Eduard Buchner shows juice without intact cells can still ferment.
A systematic naming of lactic bacteria that still echoes in dairy labs.
Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus successions in kimchi enter modern journals.
FAO/WHO separates live food from probiotic-with-evidence.
History is kitchens, temples and industrial tanks.
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