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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I ordered your Russian rye sourdough culture. I am experimenting with making kvass but this is only a teaspoon and recipe says use 2 to 4 tablespoons of sourdough starter. It seems like this would be cost prohibitive at $13.95 per teaspoon. Am I missing something? Maybe I have the wrong starter. Recipe is here.
— Terry
Hey Terry! The packet you received is so you can activate it and have sourdough forever. NOT for one-time use. At Positively Probiotic, we do not believe in scamming people with products that can’t be passed down through generations of humans so long as they’re being treated well, so please do not worry about having to spend $14 every time you want to make kvass. Once you’ve activated your culture fully (website has activation instructions), follow your recipe exactly and use the 2-4 tablespoons of wet sourdough culture. Those recipes are written for active, wet sourdough, not for dried, so you’re pretty much good to go once you’ve got it activated!
Hello again Allie:
Re the activation/regular batches with mesophilic cultures (Piima, Creme fraiche), you mentioned using breathable cloth or lid. as far as I understand those are two different processes, aerobic and anaerobic, so what would be the right one for those? Another question, can I ask for strains content for the cultures I use? And the last one, is sour cream any different from creme fraiche culture?
— Lena
You can use either. The process is anaerobic, but you can treat it as aerobic from a practical standpoint. We don’t lab test our cultures, so the only way to know is to have yours tested. Sour cream is different, and is like American sour cream rather than those found in many other nations.
Can several batches of kefir from different sources be mixed together to ferment milk?
— Yixuan
Yes. That’s actually how we sell it now, instead of distinct cultures, so people can get the maximum benefit from all our strains with just one set of grains.
