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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Grains, nuts and legumes: From my research, these contain varying different types of proteins that when eaten too often and too much are difficult for the digestive tract. I have avoided grains and nuts for some time and when I used to eat them, if I ate more than a small amount two or three days in a row, would break out in small pustules around my ears. I have been doing well with legumes soaked for about three days and rinsed several times, eaten in small portions and rotated 3-4 days on and off. I do well with animal and fish proteins if fresh and well rinsed. Are there cultures and methods of preparation that you could recommend to break these down for better digestion to positively reintroduce grains and nuts into my diet?
— Diane
This you do need to talk to your doctor about, since it sounds like you are having some sort of allergic reaction to grains, pulses, and nuts. It’s common for people to sprout legumes and grains before using, but given the severity of the reactions you’re having, you want to reintroduce these foods under your doctor’s supervision so they’re available to help you if something goes wrong.
Currently I use regular thermophilic culture and a 42% cream to make sour cream. I ferment for 24 hours in order to maximize lactose consumption. Can I switch to mesophilic creme fraiche culture and get same results? (not runnier).
— Lena
It should be fine. All of our sour creams, including the crème fraiche, are very thick.
Hi Allie, I am about to activate the wild dark rye starter. Is there a rule what you feed your starter and also bake with? Do I only feed it rye flour or can I mix the rye with bread flour? Also, when baking, can I mix both flours? (I added some rye flour to my "white" very active Calmadoli levain when it was time to bake but the bread did not rise that much, turned to be a bit dense). Thanks for advice.
— Petra
Some people have that rule, but I personally feel that it’s a pretty self-limiting rule. If you want to feed the starter different flours, you can totally do that, but I recommend you activate it fully with the wild rye and then split some off for second+ starters fed with different flours. So maybe you have that wild rye base that you want to feed bread flour, so you grab some of your activated starter, toss it in a new jar, and then it eats bread flour from then on. It will, over time, become a fully wheat starter. That makes it important that you maintain your rye only (or freeze it until you’re ready for it) so that you’ve still got the rye starter you initially wanted.
When baking, all’s fair in love and baking and you can use any flour you want. Rye loaves in general do not rise well (and often are kind of like playdoh before they’re baked), as they have a weaker gluten than wheats do, so any wheat loaf that’s adulterated with rye or a gluten-free flour will be denser and rise less. In reverse (rye starter that makes a wheat loaf), they tend to work more like normal wheat loaves. Here’s a link on rye to help it make more sense.
