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.
To have your question answered in Ask Allie posts, please use the form on our website. If you prefer to be anonymous, just say so in the form and we’ll leave your name out when we answer it in the blog! Note that some submissions may be edited for clarity.
For troubleshooting active issues with a culture you’re working with, please check the FAQs or write us at support@positivelyprobiotic.com - you’ll get your answer faster that way! Please also take advantage of our Facebook group for troubleshooting, conversation, and getting to know more members of our community!
I’m not planning to make more than 1 L of yogurt a week, so more than two starters would be too much to handle for me. Do you have suggestions?
— Lisa
My suggestion really is to do small batches. I only ever do more than a cup of milk (and I often go as low as half a cup of milk) if I need it to make cheese or plan to be serving a lot of people or I’m making it for the foster cat (he often prefers yogurts that Child Tester does not). Accordingly, I usually will do up to 4 kinds of yogurts at once, since that way I’m sticking within that litre/week range without having to worry about rotating cultures. The other thing I do, if I have a laundry list of yogurts to make, is to rotate them (I have dozens of yogurts, so rotation generally will happen even if it’s not part of “the plan”). So if I wanted halso and bollnäs one week, I’d just make those, then tuck a bit of the last of one/both of those in the freezer before starting, say, milk kefir and matsoni.
I recently ordered several cultures (thermo and meso yogurts, other dairy, and sourdough). I have a couple of questions about them.
For the yogurt and dairy cultures can I do small batches of like a cup each week just to keep them alive? Or would freezing them in between batches be better?
For the dairy cultures that use cream or half-and-half, does it matter if I use ultra-pasteurized or should I stick to pasteurized?
For the sourdough instructions it says that the forever feeding is once every 24 hours; is that accurate or am I misinterpreting it? I thought once the starter was established it only needed to be fed once a week (although, that could explain why I’ve had mixed results starting my own.
— Melinda
I never do big batches of any dairy culture. My daughter is the only one who eats it if it isn’t being cooked or baked with, so it’d be a lot of waste if I made full batches. Mine float between half a cup and a full cup. I also freeze them when she’s tired of a given yogurt. After your first complete activation batch (some dairy cultures need about 3 batches to hit their stride, so don’t make more than half a cup at a time in case they’re runny), save some of that yogurt in the freezer as backups. I personally have needed a second backup before it could be replaced, so two samples of each is ideal. Ditto your sourdough, and basically always every culture that can be frozen (so not kombucha, jun, or vinegar). Things happen, and we really don’t want to have to sell you the same thing twice.
Doesn’t matter what kind you use AT ALL. You can even use lactose-free dairy, because it still has lactose in it (it gets lactase added, which is the enzyme people who’re lactose intolerant don’t produce or produce enough of).
You are correct. The vast majority of people who buy starters from us have never worked with sourdough before, so we only want to teach the gold standard of sourdough care to better ensure their success (plus, people really ought to know the rules before they choose to break them). I’ve always assumed people who already know sourdough handle their starter in whatever manner best fits their lifestyle. I personally have 2 starters sitting on my counter that didn’t get fed for a month because I forgot about them even though they’re right there. They’re both fine, though they probably would like it if I visited them again and brought food. If you had trouble w/ your homemades using the 1x/week method, it’s likely because your mixture was too wet. If you’re going to underfeed, you also need to underwater because the more hydrated a starter is, the faster it eats all the available food. I have a rye that really is like cement and another one that probably gets 1:4 water:flour (maybe 1:3 since I don’t measure, but I really doubt it) when its fed so it can handle my neglectful ways without me getting hit with the Acetone Smell of Anger when I go to feed it.
Hey there, going to try my hand at a couple mild sourdough starters. I saw in the activation section that you have a favorite brand of all purpose flour, is that info included with the starter packaging?
— Stephanie
Note: I answered a question Stephanie didn’t ask, so I had to send her a second reply to answer the one she did. Both replies follow.
Answer 1: It isn’t, no. I actually use a different flour than our company uses, but you can use any flour with any starter. Me personally? I’m a huge fan of the Kroger brand $1.69/5 pounds unbleached all-purpose. But whatever you like that’s in your house already is what you should keep buying.
Answer 2: I just realized I answered a question you didn’t ask, which was whether the activation info and flour information was included in packaging. No, all of our documents are online so as to be more eco-friendly. Sabrina uses King Arthur unbleached all-purpose to make the starters. As you saw in my last response, I use a different flour.
