Ask Allie!

Ask Allie is our advice column, where you can ask all your food-related questions to get digestible answers! No question is off limits!

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1. For thermophils activation, is it okay to use 1/2 cup milk, instead of 1? Then use just half of the culture pack?

2. In heating the milk to 180F, is it okay not to stir? Or is it okay to stir the milk to prevent scalding at the bottom of the pan?

3. For incubation, will there be difference if I use a (i) earthenware container, or (ii) glass container, or (iii) stainless steel (304) container, or (iv) plastic container?

4. If I’m going to do small batches next time to freeze them then take a break, I plan to use a yogurt maker like a Euro Cuisine type. Is it okay to put yogurt with different cultures in one batch? Say, in one container cup is Greek, another cup is Jap style, another cup is Bulgarian, etc?

— Annlyn

1. I never do more than half the pack or half a cup of milk for activation. It really CAN take up to 3 batches to set correctly (expect that w/ skyr), so it’s just a lot of potatoes or baking to use up the runny batches. Other half goes in fridge as first backup.

2. I have never ever stirred milk. It is to prevent scalding, though, yes. Normally, if I don’t do the yogurt in the instant pot, I cook that yogurt until it’s golden so the yogurt is sweeter due to concentrated sugars.

3. Not if you’re doing the cooler method, though ceramic is generally best because it holds heat better. If you’re doing oven method, I’d avoid plastic.

4. It’s really hard for me to imagine a reason why it wouldn’t be okay, BUT you want to have ample backups for all of them in case you wind up with some frankenyogurts. I think frankenyogurts are super fun, especially when they happen without me doing stuff to make them, but not everyone agrees.

I have other question. I am activating the French sourdough. I am on day 5 already. I can see some bubbles a couple of hours after I add the 30g of water + 30g of flour, but in the next day the dough has a liquid appearance and it smells a bit of sour. Is it normal?

— Tiago

Yep, totally normal. That liquid is called hooch. If you prefer a more tart sourdough, stir it back in. If you do not, pour it off. I always stir it back in, but some people never do, others it depends on what they’re planning to make.

What starter do I need for the Blue Zones Sourdough Bread?

— Vicki

Their website says:

Eat only sourdough or 100 percent whole wheat. Blue zones bread is unlike the bread most Americans buy. Most commercially available breads start with bleached white flour, which metabolizes quickly into sugar and spikes insulin levels. But bread from the blue zones is either whole grain or sourdough, each with its own healthful characteristics. In Ikaria and Sardinia, breads are made from a variety of whole grains such as wheat, rye, or barley, each of which offers a wide spectrum of nutrients, such as tryptophan, an amino acid, and the minerals selenium and magnesium.

Whole grains also have higher levels of fiber than most commonly used wheat flours. Some traditional blue zones breads are made with naturally occurring bacteria called lactobacilli, which “digest” the starches and glutens while making the bread rise. The process also creates an acid—the “sour” in sourdough. The result is bread with less gluten even than breads labeled “gluten free,” with a longer shelf life and a pleasantly sour taste that most people like. Traditional sourdough breads actually lower the glycemic load of meals, making your entire meal healthier, slower burning, easier on your pancreas, and more likely to make calories available as energy than stored as fat.

Based on this, any of our sourdough starters should be fine. Their guidelines appear to be all-purpose flour friendly so long as it’s sourdough. But, we also have starters for whole wheat flours, desem, and einkorn, plus rye. You can make your own flour mixes with the various grains they prefer, but only feed the starter the type of flour it calls for. If you go to our “What’s Your Flavor” feature, which is listed in the middle of main site with a button, you can choose based on how sour you want the bread to be. So basically, you should pick the starter that aligns with your flavor preferences, as all of them do what this diet is asking for.