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.

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I purchased the French Parisian starter and was just reading the “how to activate” instructions.  I says to use any flour and then in the detailed instruction it just says to add “flour.”  I’ve been researching and many sites that say to feed half whole-wheat flour and half white-bread flour, then some sites that say use white-bread flour only.  Do you recommend I activate my starter (and continue for feedings) with half whole wheat flour / half white-bread flour?

— Susie

We use all purpose for that starter, and for all of our starters where a flour isn’t specified (rye, whole wheat, etc). You can, however, use half-and-half with the bread flour and ww, or really whatever you want. Many people dislike “all white” (made and maintained using only ap flour) starters because they can be more finicky. Generally what differentiates them in this way is that they do prefer a lot more stirring than other grains or even other preparations of common wheat do. They don’t require it, but they’re better behaved if they get more aeration during the feed.

 I've made a few batches of Icelandic skyr using store bought skyr for a starter culture along with 1/4 tablet of dissolved rennet. I'm still new at this yogurt making adventure or "salmonella experiment" (as my husband calls it 🤨). This is the first time making my yogurt with freeze dried culture and my question is, do I non longer need the rennet to achieve the same thickness of my skyr? And if I do use the rennet, will that cause my culture to weaken over time? All information is greatly appreciated. I am enjoying this new adventure and hope to learn as much about it as I can. Thank you in advance.

— Linda

Hi Linda! I love your husband’s label! Mine also makes silly comments, though less so over his years spent developing fermenter tolerance. 

Your yogurt will be a bit thinner without the rennet, but can be strained if it is. Your culture definitely will not weaken from the lack of rennet or from its use. What happens if you’re not using rennet is that your skyr goes from being a cheese (because rennet creates that designation for it) to a soured milk/yogurt. I never use rennet in my skyr, because I am too busy to not skip any step I deem superfluous for Child Tester’s process (she is the primary consumer of fermented dairy in my house). That said, if I was making it for someone who was accustomed to the traditional preparation, I would put rennet  in that batch because no longer superfluous.

I owned kefir grains about 8 years ago and found them easy and delicious: put them in milk, leave for 1-2 days and strain out. Done. Sadly, I lost interest and let them die. A month ago I purchased two different milk kefir grains from you (Caucasus and Russian) to see which I liked better. Both are too much work! They are often too yeasty for me and sometimes have a fizz I do not like. I have let them ferment longer to get a less yeasty (and more bacteria) taste with some success. I like the Russian strain more than the Caucasus but it is so difficult to strain out the grains! I shake and shake and shake and strain at least 3 sometimes 4 times. If I do not the milk/kefir is thin and has an awful vinegar flavor. I assume this is because the bacteria are still clinging to the grains in that cottage-cheese-looking mass. So I keep straining to get the grains out of that mass and give the kefir milk more balanced flavor. Is there an easier way? Why was the kefir I owned before so much easier? Help, what can I do before I give up?

— Anna

You are overfermenting these batches, if it’s that yeasty, sour like vinegar, and hard to strain. Ideally, instead of overfermenting, I would switch from doing what you’re doing now to fermenting for a shorter period (no more than 24 hours, but you should pull it when you see your first few whey bubbles), and then put it in the fridge for a day or two for at least the next 3 batches (or until it stops being so funky). Any yeastiness will smooth out in the fridge, and you won’t be doing so much work trying to strain. If you were able to let your prior grains go for 2 full days fermenting and it wasn’t causing this problem, I have questions about the strength of the grains. It shouldn’t ever take more than 24 hours unless you have too much milk in there for the volume of grains.

NOTE, due to subsequent conversation:

Left picture: the ideal time to strain it

Middle: “Danger, Will Robinson!” You’re getting really close to overfermentation here. This is usually when I strain it, because I often forget I was even fermenting things to begin with. This will result in a more sour kefir.

Right: completely fermented. There is literally no more food there, and the grains will be well integrated into the curd (as you know), difficult to strain, with incredibly tart kefir.

Thank you for this picture, Anna! Although we normally talk about looking for whey bubbles at the bottom of your vessel, it doesn’t always work this way. It usually does, which is why we always talk about it, but sometimes the bubbles are at the top or somewhere other than top/bottom. In this picture, it’s all top action.