Ask Allie!
What is Ask Allie?
Ask Allie is our food-related advice column, where you can ask all your fermenting, cooking, baking, and pantry-related questions to get digestible answers! No question about food is off limits!
Most of you will receive an emailed reply prior to your question hitting the blog, since I frequently think you need a more immediate answer. You should anticipate 1-2 weeks between submitting your question and its appearance on blog. Although emailed replies normally take between 1-3 days, it can take up to a week.
To have your question answered in Ask Allie posts, please use the form on our website. If you prefer to be anonymous, just say so in the form and we’ll leave your name out when we answer it in the blog! Note that some submissions may be edited for clarity.
For troubleshooting active issues with a culture you’re working with, please check the FAQs or write us at support@positivelyprobiotic.com - you’ll get your answer faster that way! Please also take advantage of our Facebook group for troubleshooting, conversation, and getting to know more members of our community!
Can I combine kefir cultures? I have the CAUCASUS one and I'm thinking of buying another. Is that advisable or should I keep them separate? Many thanks!
— Julia
DEFINITELY you can combine them. That said, I would keep a teaspoon in the freezer of each of the kinds you’re mixing so you have backups of each to play with. Sabrina and I personally are huge fans of “frankencultures” in sum, and often do experiments to figure out what combinations and ratios we like best!
How do I save some of my culture as a backup?
— Lots and lots of you, I’m happy to say
This is one of the most frequently asked questions these days, and I’m really glad it’s so. This tells me y’all are planning ahead and/or sharing with others! Because the answer to this question is long and depends on which culture we’re talking about, I’ve written up a blog post about it!
We just started with yogurt with a few of the room temperature cultures. We're using whole milk, but wanted to know if other milks like 1%, 2%, and nonfat would also work.
— Andrea
You sure can, but be aware your yogurt may be thinner!
I received the French starter about a week ago, and I am on day 5 of the activation instructions. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be working. I have followed the instructions precisely, but there is little to no activity or rise after 24 hours. I am using all purpose flour and filtered room temp tap water. The temperature in my house is about 75 deg. Could you let me know what I'm doing wrong and how to salvage the culture? Even though my tap water is filtered, could it be that trace amounts of chlorine are killing the bacteria?
— Anurag
I can see activity in the pictures, so it’s definitely alive. I wouldn’t worry at all about tap water. I use city of Houston tap water for all my starters, and they’re all perfectly healthy. I do it with fussy fussy water kefir, too, and those are also healthy. Our water is not great, either! At this point, I would say it’s time to stop discarding and start building it up to baking quantities. Go on ahead and give it 1:2:2 ratio for this feed, which should help it show you more activity, and start building to the specifications of whatever recipe you’re using.
After reading through the instructions several times on Mesophilic starter I am confused. It says to use a coffee filter as lid BUT then in “Tips and Tricks” is says you all like to use a plastic lid (and even a seal) because yogurt doesn’t need oxygen. Coffee filter or tight lid? Please shed some light on my confusion.
— Rachele
You choice, but I prefer a lid. Lids prevent cross-contamination and also gnats/fruit flies. Yogurt can be fermented anaerobic or aerobic, though, as you prefer.
I have been making yogurt from live commercial yogurt and then from my own yogurt and recently found your website and products, exciting! So glad I found you all. I have a question: I bought a Heirloom Filmjölk culture and followed intructions re reconstituting. Then made my first 2 batches of Filmjölk yesterday. This morning (after 12 hours), they have both fermented, but they smell off and taste strange. I kept the AC on all day at 77 (I live in LA), but probably too high??? So, I made 2 small, 1 cup batches of it with milk warmed to 180C, and cooled off to 75F and put them in a cooler at 74F. Did I screw up the culture??? May be in LA I should stay with the thermophilic yogurt? Thanks
— Maryke
You do not have to heat the milk at all, although you of course may do so. I literally get milk out of my fridge and pour it into a jar, add culture, lid, set on a counter, and go about my business. You do not need a cooler or any other device to maintain the temperature. These are fine at room temp. I also live in Houston (Sabrina is in Riverside, although she generally favors thermophils), which gets MUCH hotter than LA does, and I only do mesophils unless Child Tester asks me for a thermo or I have to make one to do a new product description. Thermos are really just too fussy for my lifestyle.
It sounds to me like you haven’t given them enough time. Give the fil its full 24 hours and see how it goes for you then. Also, be aware that it really might take up to 3 batches (at 24 hours) before the culture normalizes. I generally do this in half cup increments so there’s less weird yogurt that I have to decide what to bake or cook with.
All of this said, if you’re used to thermophilic yogurts, a mesophil may never smell, feel, or taste right to you. They are very different in their profiles.
I just read the small print that says the starter should be frozen until use. Does this mean that it won't work if I kept it out? I ordered a few things at one time but the sourdough sort of overwhelmed me so I thought I would wait until I got the hang of it before adding other to-do's to my list. I was thinking that the starters were dried or something because of how the sourdough starter looked. I need readers now so I didn't read the smaller print. Do I bother trying to keep up with the sour cream or would this likely be a waste of cream? I also have yogurt and creme fraiche I was going to try this week... We are watching our budget carefully due to covid/lack of work so I hate to be wasteful right now. I'm really frustrated with myself!
The sourdough has been so amazing! Thanks so much for your support.
— Gina
It means that if you keep it room temperature for more than a few months, the culture may degrade and be unviable. The culture is dried, and it should be fine, but ideally you’ll keep any dairy or sourdough you’re not ready to deal with in the freezer.
DO NOT be frustrated with yourself! Go on ahead and start a small batch of the cream (1/2 cup), and give it up to 3 batches before you make any decisions about it. Some cultures are just wonky when they’re reactivated and need a bit more love to get over their sluggishness. If this happens where they’re wonky, we’ve got some recipes for things you can do with them on the blog. I think that mostly is taking the form of pancake-y things, tuna casserole and mashed potatoes, but I’ve had multiple runny activation batches recently, so I am putting up recipes for what I do with them as I encounter batches like these.
You are welcome! Support is, we feel, the very most important thing we do over here. ❤
