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!
Can I freeze dry my yogurt or sour cream made with heirloom culture and then use rehydrate it later to use?
— Hilary
Absolutely, yes. When you want to rehydrate and use later, you’ll follow the activation instructions again. Make sure you also freeze your dried culture if it’ll be a while, since they degrade much more quickly at room temp.
I'm planning to buy 3 heirloom yogurt starters and 2 T of dehydrated water kefir grains. Would they survive the transport to Indonesia?
— Lisa
Definitely. This is actually true of all of our cultures. In groups I was active in in the past, I often saw international packages get lost in the mail, occasionally for months at a time, and still be viable. This is extreme, and I’m sure there are more instances of cultures dying over several months of transit than survivors, but your cultures ideally will be there within two weeks. I’ve had times when I waited for cultures for a month or more before that were sent domestically, and all of those except one wonky yogurt were also fine.
Which kefir has the ultimate most bacteria types. Which would you recommend?
— Hilary
We don’t lab-test our cultures, but milk kefir in general will have 30-50 different strains of microbes. I personally pick what I’m going to use based on flavor, so that’s the route I would go since they’re all pretty stout. When I give our Caucasian grains to friends who’re trying to rehab their gut health, although those are the mildest flavored ones we have, I still asked them to only eat about a tablespoon per day for the first two weeks so we can avoid any adverse reactions while they’re trying to get their guts in shape. If you go to the main site and click on the “what’s your flavor” thing, it’ll rank them in order of tartness so you can best select the one that will fit your needs best!
