My patience is being rewarded! Unpasteurised honey, water and time (almost 10 days) and my mead is bubbling like crazy when I give it a stir.
There are some videos of this bread, steaming from the oven, in my story today. I could *not* leave it until cold. I’ve got pretty good self-control…but this was just too much!
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It’s my latest lard bread experiment – rolled up sourdough spelt with cracklings left over from rendering lard inside.
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Breads like this – with left over lard bits – have been made in Italy (and throughout the world) ancestrally. And tasting it, you’d know why.
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If you want to have a go, use my sourdough spelt pizza base recipe (linked in profile) and follow the pictures in my story, sprinkling and rolling up. Then support in a loaf tin and cook at a temperature a little lower than you would a normal loaf.
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Tell me if you make, or remember your family making breads with cracklings. I’d love to hear of other traditions.
The most common response I’ve had to people trying my slow-cooked beef heart recipe is, “It tastes like roast beef”.
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It’s a shock. And it was for me the first time I tried it. Beef heart is delicious, and I just wasn’t expecting that!
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My recipe, which is seriously hands-off, is up on the WAPF website. There’s a link to it in my profile.
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Here’s today’s lunch: slices of the slow-cooked heart (bought from my #farmerman, Flavio @valledelsasso), steamed cauliflower (bought from Massi at @radiciumane) and slices of spelt sourdough (recipe also in my profile), spread generously with home-rendered lard.
As you probably know, I’m obsessed with fermented porridge. But eating the same thing every day, even if I love it, isn’t the best thing for my soul.
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It’s easy for me to get stuck, or sucked into ruts, food-wise; sometimes I have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of them! I’ve always been this way; I was like it when I was twice the weight I am now, and I’m like it now, even though my food and life have seen a 180-degree change.
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But I know when I let go of my ‘must-have’ and change it up, I see (and taste!) things I couldn’t when I was down in the rut and I emerge a little smarter with my foods.
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This morning I had previously-cooked millet, heated in some gelatinous pork stock, miso stirred in, an egg poached in it and some fresh coriander chopped onto the top. Plus black pepper, as I don’t seem to be able to eat egg without black pepper!
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I’m not the only one who gets stuck in (sometimes glorious!) food ruts, right??! I’d love to feel your solidarity! Go ahead and share 🙂
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If you don’t happen to know about my fermented porridge check out the free video series linked in my profile. Or if it’s the gelatinous pork stock that catches you instead, go to @ancestralkitchenpodcast and listen to our last but one episode on stock.
When I discovered my son had a lectin-sensitivity, I worked to make an alternative sourdough bread that would lighten his lectin load. I needed it to be simple and have ‘normal’ ingredients.
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This has sorghum, millet, linseed, salt and water. It’s a mix-and-leave it bread that tastes good and slices well. I make it every week.
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The recipe is the first one listed in the ‘recipes’ section of my liktr.ee. In it, there’s a link to another article where I explain how to make a sourdough starter using millet flour.
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Lots of people have asked me to write this up…feel free to share it with anyone who needs a simple gluten-free or lectin-free loaf.
Four Mamas, all striving to eat ancestrally and pass a love of that onto their children, around a (virtual) table, answering your questions.
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That’s the latest @ancestralkitchenpodcast episode, in which @fornutrientssake and @nourishthelittles joined us to talk about budgets, burnout, bone broth, ferments and more.
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Find the podcast by searching for Ancestral Kitchen in your podcast app or by streaming/downloading from the link in the linktr.ee above.
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And check out the first half of our session, which aired earlier in the month over at the @modernancestralmamas podcast.
Since the lard revelations of @historicalitalianfood’s book ‘Chewing The Fat’, I’ve been on a fats research mission. Digging into first Roman, and now Medieval fat usage in Italy.
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And this lard immersion has created even more enthusiasm for it in my kitchen. I’m rendering the fat I get from our local farmer, Flavio @valledelsasso and using the cracklings in a myriad of ways. Crackling bread (pan di ciccioli) has quite a history in Italy and I want to try combining cracklings and bread in myriad ways (enjoying the results!) until I find the one I love the most.
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Here we have a spelt sourdough focaccia, placed in my cast iron pan and topped with fresh cracklings. I baked it until golden and then added salt and pepper, and later rosemary. In my story today you can see how we ate it.
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If you know any crackling plus bread recipes, send them my way. Test kitchen at the ready 🙂
How do you eat ancestrally on a budget? What about burnout and decision fatigue? Alison and Andrea sit down with Christine and Corey from the Modern Ancestral Mamas Podcast with a stack of your questions, and all share resources and … Read More
Fermented sweet potato. I chopped it into discs (or as I called them, to encourage my 7-year old to help, pirate coins) and jarred with a 5g salt to 1 cup brine and some raw garlic and rosemary.
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This is the second time I’ve done these. I’d say ferment them for 5-7 days if you can wait that long and use the yellow-fleshed sweet potato as they are tastier than the orange-fleshed ones.
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I baked them for 25 mins, liberally daubed with lard, salt and pepper. I turned them half way through. Crunchy, salt, sweet and with that ferment tang that is indescribably good!
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Thank you @kirstenkshockey for, as always, inspiring me.
Bran. It’s good for us, right? That’s what I thought; up to a few years ago, I’d always chose the wholegrain option.
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So why (as I’m doing here in this photo) did the ancestral Scots strain the bran out of their fermented oats and give it to the chickens/compost?
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And why did Galen and Roman physicians recommend white bread for optimum health benefits?
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The role of bran in our health is more nuanced than has been painted by modern health drives.
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Yes, the outside of grain, bran, does hold nutrients that the inside of the grain doesn’t. And yes, it’s fibrous which can help with elimination. But it’s harder for our bodies to digest and contains a larger percentage of the toxic compounds – for some people these two things can cause issues.
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I believe the way to intelligently work with this information is to not swing one way or the other, but to be measured and to call upon the ancestral techniques learnt by those who nourished themselves on the bounty of the land long before us.
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I bake wholegrain breads. I also bake breads with partially-sieved flour. I soak and sour all my flours (i.e. I make sourdough) which helps eliminate the toxins. And with other foods, like sowans, the Scottish oat ferment in the photo, I do as tradition dictates and strain out the bran before making my porridge!
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It’s harder than being all-or-nothing, but as with so many things in life, finding compromise is the best way forward.
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I have an article on my site titled “Are Whole Grains Healthy?”. I’ve popped it at the top of my linktr.ee if you want a read. And my course on sowans, the ancestral oat fermentation method is available at @thefermentationschool.
