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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Hey There! I was wondering if you happened to have any insight on whether using mineral oil on the wooden spoon I use during the yogurt culturing would affect the yogurt. Been making yogurt 10+ years and I have never seasoned the wooden spoon I solely use for yogurt. Definitely reduces the life span of the spoons by not doing it. Can't seem to find anything about it on the old interweb. Thanks for any advice you may have!

—Cabell

I can’t see a reason it would affect the yogurt, no. I float between mineral and olive oil for my wood stuff, but you always wipe off any excess oil when you’re done letting it soak, so there’s no real reason a properly seasoned spoon would transfer oil to the yogurt unless it’s been excessively oiled without the excess being removed (which is a storage issue, so it’s hard for me to imagine those circumstances existing).

Hello. Yesterday I activated my Trad Australian grains. by following all of the steps. I have one of those thermos type things with the qt mason jar fitting in for culturing. After checking in 5hrs it didn't seem warm in the thermos, so I stuck it oven with the light on for several hrs. Nothing much happened. Runny, like the consistency of maple syrup, though it has an identifiable yogurt smell. Not sure if I should throw it away, or what.
Please advise.

— Virginia

It’s simply being fussy during activation, which is startlingly common. Reculture it, since it did culture, and it should resolve within a few batches. This normally takes up to 3 batches, but I’ve had cultures where it took up to 5 before it sorted itself out.

Hello Allie! Thank you for being so available to help! I am looking for a mesophilic heirloom yogurt with a high bacterial diversity. Are there any cultures in stock that stand out in the sheer number of different bacterial species present?
A second question, do you know whether milk kefir in general is more or less diverse by number of species than yogurt?
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!!

— Tiffany

Milk kefir is the most potent ferment full stop, averaging 30-50 different strains of microbes. The most potent yogurt recorded is amasi, with up to 13 different strains. Most yogurts are around 3-5 different types. Hope this helps!