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!
I do not understand the directions for the starter. One I keep adding do I use all of the starter for sour dough bread. I am new to this. The instructions did not say how much you need for a loaf
— Karen
No, when you make bread, you need to save enough to feed and rebuilt its volume. Otherwise you’ll have spent $12 to make only 1 batch of bread! If you look around our blog, you’ll find recipes for the starter.
As for how much starter to use for a given loaf, it depends on the loaf, Karen. If I remember correctly, my brother-in-law never uses more than 50g per loaf, as he bakes Tartine-style. Average recipes will call for 100g, whereas I personally tend to float closer to the 150-200g range.
I ordered a mesophilic yogurt culture from you - as I am looking for a better starter for my yogurt gelato - and then got a discount code to use on my first order. Mayhaps might I be permitted to use it on a follow on order?
— Tom
Yes, definitely. The code should work fine, but you can put a note to Sabrina letting you know that you got it after the first order and would like to use it for the next.
Hey guys I wanna order yogurt and sour cream starters. What’s the thickest Product yogurt starters and sour cream starters you have? Can I keep the milk raw with thermophils? What’s your favorite one?
— Zoe
All of the sour creams are about equally thick, but for yogurts you’d want to focus on thermophils. Mesophils are always thinner and more watery.
You can use raw milk, but you’ll want to check out the raw milk guide first. Some portion of the milk will need to be pasteurized, though not all of it. You will basically need to keep a pasteurized starter culture to keep the microbes in the raw milk from overwhelming the culture entirely!
I don’t actually eat yogurt just as yogurt (I only use it as an ingredient), but my kid prefers the Armenian and Traditional for thermophils. Child Tester routinely tells me she’s “off dairy” if I don’t filter these into the yogurts she’s reviewing!
