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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I'd like to make Icelandic Skyr with low fat milk. Is that possible?

— Meghan

Skim milk is how it’s traditionally made, so yes.

First, a question for you to get to on the blog when you get a chance - what are the best cultures and practices for making drinking yogurts?

— Holly

Can you give me a bit more info on what you mean in the first question? I tend to think all of our drinking yogurts are good, but the amasi is what gets used the most in my house. The halso is fairly sweet, so that’s your best bet for a sweeter drinking yogurt. In general, I am a firm believer in giving a culture some time before you mess with it, because sometimes they just want to be left alone to culture. Otherwise, keep a room temp of under 78F, and don’t put crazy amounts of starter in your milk.

Well, for instance, I used the halso recently, and found it ended up a little lumpy for drinking and a little too sour. My daughter took a couple drinks, then handed it back to me. I had let it culture for about 24 hours at around 71 degrees, milk + honey and vanilla/almond flavorings. Perhaps that was too long? I'd used whole milk that had been heated, because I was making a couple different batches. I typically use your French culture and make pot-set vanilla-almond yogurt, so I tend to heat the milk for that, and maybe should not have for the Halso?

Curious as how to make a nice, smooth, drinkable, not-too-sour drinking yogurt.

Yeah, cut the time. Any time I have a culture that got too sour, it gets recultured for less time after that. I use the stuff that’s too gross for anyone to want in mashed potatoes and baking so I can avoid waste. You can totally heat and cool the milk for the halso, and it should result in a thicker batch. I’d say to give your halso 18 hours and see what happens, because lumpy and sour usually means over-fermented. If it’s still wonky, decrease to 16, 14, 12, etc until you find its sweet spot. I’m gonna tell you, Holly, this is my LEAST favorite part of making yogurts, since it can really be a nightmare to figure out what it decided it wanted at that time. And then when you throw seasonal changes in (which is happening now), it adds a whole new element of spaces for cultures to act like jerks to us! Maybe they feel like we’re the jerks, but I always blame them instead of me. Hahaha. Anyway, yeah cut the time down and see if it smooths out. It should do so.

I found something about the soaked rye crusts. At this site, scroll down to step #46. I don't know if want to bake a bread with that many steps...but what else do I have to do with my time?

— Jeremy

It makes for a fun project, for sure! I don’t think I have time for something like that, either, but it’s now on my “someday” list!