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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Hi! I was going to do a 3 culture pack. It does state exclusive to yogurt or sourdough. I was looking at the Mexican Sour Cream culture. However, that is sour cream and not yogurt! However, however, it does show up in the list of Mesophilic yogurt. Just curious if it counts as a yogurt for the package purpose! Thank you!

— Charles

You can mix the yogurts, sourdoughs, and sour creams, definitely. That particular sour cream is my family’s favorite!

Can you brew water keifer grains in a continuous brew? Would you keep them in a plastic container? Thanks.

— Karen

I’ve not heard of anyone doing this, but I see no real reason why this wouldn’t work in the same manner in which vinegar and kombucha do. You probably would want to pull the grains periodically to split them, though. I think any container that has a spigot should be fine. Please let me know how this goes for you!

I don't have a yoghurt maker or any good way to keep my yogurt warm except a gas oven with a lightbulb. I like thick yoghurt. What kind would you recommend? I am trying my first batch of amasi, but that may've been a wonky choice.

— Nicole

Amasi is a mesophilic culture so it just needs milk, a lid, and a counter to rest on, so you don’t need to worry about keeping it at a specific temperature or even incubating with heat at all. Mesophilic cultures need no incubation at all. BUT, amasi is a drinking yogurt, so you would need to add extra culture (which can be a problem over time) to get it to a more solid state after the first 3 regular activation batches have been completed.