Several decades on, I am still an oat-lover (in fact, I’m such a fan that I’m currently writing a book on traditional British uses of them). But if you look in my kitchen now, you’ll find many more types of oats than just my childhood rolled ones.

The choice on our shelves these days can be bewildering – groats, rolled, thick, old-fashioned, quick, instant, oatmeal, pinhead, steel-cut, sprouted, black and naked. This article is a comprehensive guide to the types of oats available, how they’ve been processed and how to use each type the traditional way.

What are oats?

Almost all of the oats you’ll find in kitchens throughout the world are seeds of the grass genus Avena Sativa. These grow covered by a hard, inedible hull which has to be removed before the seed can be used as a grain. The hull adheres strongly to the seed and in the process of removing it the grain is very often damaged and exposed to the air. This activates an enzyme called lipase which degrades the fats in the oats causing them to go rancid, giving them a bitter taste. To avoid this happening, oat grains are ‘stabilised’ (heat and steam treated) at the very early stages of processing.

Most of the oats we buy are already ‘cooked’

This stablilsation means that the oats that make it to our kitchens (unless they are naked or sprouted oats) have been ‘cooked’ using a mix of heat and moisture (at an average temperature of 90-100°C).

Once the dehulling and stabilisation has been completed, oats are processed in a number of ways. This article explains what you might see at your mill or supplier, sorted from the least-processed to the most-processed:

Types of oats, how they’ve been processed and how to use each the traditional way

Oat groats

These are whole, unground, uncut oat grain. As they are whole grains, they take the longest to cook of any oat.

These weren’t often traditionally-used for porridge (though our ancestors in the UK did use the for savoury ‘puddings’), but I think they are great cooked this way.

If you want to use oat groats for porridge/oatmeal, cook them as an alternative to rice or add them to a stew, I suggest soaking them overnight in water. The next day, drain and rinse them, before cooking for at least 35 minutes. For a cup of soaked groats, you’ll need around 3 cups of liquid (broth is a great savoury choice instead of water here!)

Stone-milled oats:

The only way of making the whole oat grains into smaller pieces, more suitable for cooking, until well into the 1900s was to process the grains in stone mill. This created a meal (rather than the more commonly found rolled oats we see today). This meal is what our European oat eating ancestors (who didn’t have rolled oats) would have eaten.

Why Our Scottish Ancestors Didn’t Eat Rolled Oats (link to article)

Stone milled oats are still available, though can be harder to source outside of the UK. They come in three grades:

Pinhead oatmeal

Oat groats ground between two millstones set very widely apart to break the groat into a few pieces.

This was traditionally used for porridge (oatmeal), particularly in Ireland.

To make a traditional pinhead oatmeal porridge, soak the oatmeal in water overnight using one part oatmeal to four parts water by weight (you can add a tablespoon of something acidic, like apple cider vinegar to aid digestion) and then, in the morning, cook the mix, adding some salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet), for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

Medium oatmeal (often called Scottish oatmeal in the US)

These oats have been stoneground with the millstones set to create a medium meal.

Medium oatmeal was traditionally used for porridge in Scotland and in many other parts of the UK. It was also used in haggis, in puddings and sausages and as a coating when frying fish.

To make a traditional medium oatmeal porridge the Scottish way, bring water to the boil and, when it’s boiling, sprinkle in the medium oatmeal, stirring constantly. Once all of the oatmeal is incorporated, turn the pan down low, add salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet) and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring regularly. To serve three people I use 180g medium oatmeal, 900g water and a half teaspoon salt.

Fine oatmeal

By stone-grinding the oat grains with the millstones more closely together, a fine oatmeal is produced.

Fine oatmeal was traditionally used for oatcakes – a savoury oat cracker – as well as a thickener for soups and stews.

Try my recipe for Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes which makes a delicious crêpe-like pancake or my Traditional Scottish Oatcakes recipe which will give you authentic Scottish oat crackers, great with soups or some cheese!

(If you want to try these two recipes and you don’t have fine oatmeal, don’t despair, they can easily be made with rolled oats too – follow the instructions in the recipes!)

Oats produced in steel mills:

In contrast to this traditional stone milling, most of the oats on our shelves today have been processed in modern steel mills. Here’s what you can find:

Steel Cut/Irish oats

Steel cut oats are so called because steel blades cut the whole groat into two or three pieces.

This type of oats are often called Irish oats in the US because the pieces are the same size as pinhead oatmeal, the type of oatmeal historically used to make porridge in Ireland.

In the kitchen, steel cut oats work in a similar way to their stone-ground cousin, pinhead oatmeal. If you want to make a traditional porridge with them, follow the instructions in the pinhead oatmeal section above.

Rolled Oats:

Rolled oats are so ubiquitous these days that one might think they’ve always been around. They are, however, a modern creation; the process of rolling oats only having been invented in 1877.

The Differences Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal (link to article)

All rolled oats, whether large or small, are steam processed (for a second time, remembering they’ve already been steamed to prevent rancidity) before being rolled. This makes them softer and less likely to create dusty waste.

‘Old-fashioned’ Oats/Rolled Oats/Jumbo Oats

These, being the largest form of rolled oats, are whole oat grains that are re-steamed and run through roller mills to create large flakes.

These can be used to make a non-traditional (but very tasty!) porridge. There’s no need to soak them, cooking for 10-15 minutes on the stove does the job. If you’d like to serve traditionally, add salt during the cooking time.

I also have some traditionally-inspired recipes that use rolled oats! Try my cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie or my sourdough oatcakes.

‘Quick Cook’ Rolled Oats

To make these smaller flaked oats, broken oat grains are re-steamed and put through roller mills.

These take just a few minutes on the stove to produce a porridge.

‘Instant’ Rolled Oats

These are the smallest, and hence the quickest cooking, form of rolled oats. They were brought to the oat market in 1966 by Quaker (who are now ownedi by Pepsi). Small pieces of oat grain are re-steamed and put through roller mills to create tiny, thin flakes.

I don’t think our ancestors would recognise instant oats (in texture or flavour). As a real food oat-lover, I’ve never used these.

The oat challenge:

If you’ve only ever used rolled oats, try something different this week. It’s easy to get hold of pinhead or steel cut oats – soak them before bed and take a few more moments in the kitchen to cook up your porridge the next morning. I think you’ll be surprised at how great it tastes!

Different Types of Oats – FAQs

Which type of oats is the healthiest?

Generally, the less a food is processed, the healthier it is. With this criteria, oat groats, that have had no further processing than their initial dehulling and stabilising are the healthiest.

But I am of the mind that the real food that you like is the healthiest. If you’re buying, cooking, and eating real food that you will like you’re more likely to continue with it – so choose the type of oat you like best.

How can I access stone-ground oats outside of the UK?

There are companies that import oats that have been stone-ground in the UK to other parts of the world. Check online to see if there’s one near you. In the US, Bob’s Red Mill sell a product called ‘Scottish oatmeal’ which is stoneground oats that are similar to British medium oatmeal.

Can I roll my own oats at home?

Yes you can! And they taste so much better rolled at home! Have a look at my article How to Roll Oats at Home (& 3 Good Reasons To Do It!).

Can I stone-grind my own oats at home?

It is possible to stone-grind oats from groats at home, but it is very difficult to replicate the pinhead/medium/fine grades of oatmeal that are available from large stone mills. This is because the stone mills use a number of sieves to sieve the meal into uniform sizes.

If you have a Mockmill, you can grind oats on any number above #3 (do not grind them on numbers #1 or #2 – the grain is too fatty and will clog up your meal). Using #3 or above will grind the oats but will give you a range of particle sizes from very fine dust to large chunks of oat groat. For making porridge this method works practically but does not replicate the porridge that you would make with uniform-sized commercially-produced oatmeal

How To Make Stone-Ground Oats in the Mockmill (link to article)

I love porridge/oatmeal. What else can I make with oats?

So many things! Here’s a selection of my traditional and traditionally-inspired recipes:

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes

Sourdough Oatcakes

Cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie

Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment

You can get three traditional oat recipes in my free download The Heritage Oat Collection. Enter your details below and I’ll send to your inbox:

I am currently in the process of writing a book to be called Oats: Recipes & Stories from the British Isles. It will include 50 recipes along with the stories of how this grain sustained many generations of people in the UK. Stay in touch via my newsletter (there is a sign up at the top of every page on this site) to hear the latest on this.

How can I make my oats healthier?

Fermenting your oats will unlock more nutrition and make them easier to digest. Learn how in my comprehensive article:

How to Make Fermented Oats

Is buying organic oats important?

I would always recommend buying organic oats. Choosing organic means that you are supporting farmers who care for our soil and our environment, stewarding it for the next generation. It also means that any residues left over from pesticides or fertilisers aren’t on your grains.

What are ‘naked’ oats?

‘Naked’ oats are a type of oat that, instead of having a hard difficult-to-detach hull, has a paper-thin hull. It is easier to prepare these grains for human consumption – it takes a lot of energy to remove the hard hull on standard oats; not as much energy is needed to remove the paper-thin hull on ‘naked’ oats.

Because these ‘naked’ oats do not have to go through a tough, damaging, process to remove their hulls, they are not heated before they get to our shelves. This results in a oat that is raw.

What are sprouted oats?

Sprouted oats are raw oats that have gone through a soaking and germination process to sprout them. This process is then halted by drying and the sprout knocked off. The sprouted groats can then be used as you would use a standard oat.

What are black oats?

Black oats are a type of oats that has a black hull. They were traditionally grown in large areas of Scandinavia and in Wales. Here are some I saw on a visit to Holden Farm in Wales:

What about oat flour?

Oat flour is a modern phenomenon which is finer than fine oatmeal. It can be purchased but can also be made from oatmeal or rolled oats by processing them in a high-powered coffee grinder or mixer.

You might also like:

The Heritage Oat Collection

The Difference Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal

Sourdough Porridge

The Fascinating History of Jannock: The Giant Oat Bread That Defined Authenticity!

The Best Way to Soak Oats

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

The healthy, tasty, gluten-free oat grain can be fermented into a myriad of dishes, including porridges, jellies, oat cakes, pancakes and ovened bakes. This free training will share how and give you recipes to create in your own kitchen!

The session begins by explaining what ancient grains are, and how they differ from modern wheat. I give examples of ancient grains and explain how they’ve been utilised in fermentation for many thousands of years.

I then get down to practicalities and walk you through the ways you can ferment ancient grains in your own kitchen. From porridges to flat breads, sourdough to bubbling drinks, there’s something here for every fermenter, whether you’ve just started or are an old hand!

In this session, you will learn:

• What an ancient grain is
• The different available ancient grains – those with gluten, low gluten and gluten-free
• How these grains differ from modern wheat
• The multiple ways you can ferment ancient grains; making porridges, polentas, drinks, pancakes, breads, pizzas and cakesHow these grains differ from modern wheat
• Of a unique Scottish, zero-waste ferment
• The detail on an ancient Eastern European fermented millet drink
• All about ancient grain sourdough
• Why you might be fine eating an ancient grain gluten-containing sourdough when standard wheat breads make you ill
• The differences you need to be aware of when making breads with ancient grains

Download the free PDF that accompanies this training by clicking here.

Does anyone who turns 50 actually feel 50?! I don’t know.

I don’t feel 50.

If you ask me how old I feel, I’d probably say mid 30s.

This was me, mid 30s, landing in the town in Tuscany that I called my home for five years:

It was a few years after this that I started learning about ancestral food. As you’ll know, if you’ve followed my story, food and I have had an ‘interesting’ relationship.

I celebrated my first ‘big’ birthday, my 18th, having never really known being anything other than substantially overweight. Food, specifically sugar-laced food, was my escape, a sensual experience that gave me the comfort, gratification and love that was lacking in my home life.

Between my 18th and the next big birthday, my 21st, I lost half my body weight. Looking back, losing it was the easy part. The following decades of learning to be Alison without the addiction; the turning towards many painful things in my life/psyche has been so much harder. Through addressing thorny habitual ways of being, bringing to life the things that I actually care about and connecting with my food, 50 looks a lot more peaceful than 18.

Engaging with ancestral foods and the lifestyle that supports them, as I did in my 30s, has taught me so many things. It feels like a worthwhile task to try to encapsulate some of those things to mark my 50th.

The world has not taught me these without a fight. And the ones that I refuse to learn, keep coming back and hitting me over the head again and again!

50 things an ancestral lifestyle has taught me:

Food heals. But there is so much more to health than food; you can get your diet ‘perfect’ and still be very unhealthy and it’s too easy to hide behind food changes and ignore other, unbalanced, parts of your life.

There are people who believe in the same things you do. No matter how isolated you feel, you are not alone. The incredible boon of information technology (is it the only one?!) is that we can find these people. I thought I was alone and yet I’ve found thousands of people through my work. Put it out there.

As much as technology can connect us, technology can ruin our lives. Most people are sleeping through this, unaware of the many, many ways they are being manipulated; how their life could be so much more alive if they began by looking up from their phone.

People who aren’t ready to change aren’t worth trying to persuade. Do not give your energy to them. Focus on what you’re doing and fine tune your instinct so you can notice those precious moments when others are receptive.

One size does not fit all, food-wise. And there are some things health-wise, that you just can’t get over. But, you can almost always make them somewhat better.

Self acceptance is the key to becoming softer, not harder, as you age.

Integrity – truly being in alignment with the choices you make – is one of the most worthwhile goals to aim at. When enacted, it feels so very good and also moves you forward in your life.

There is always another, deeper, layer than the one you’re working on now. And to uncover it will probably take longer than you think.

Patience can be learnt through actions.

Clarity is a pre-requisite to right forward movement. Question what you want again and again. If there’s any doubt that it feels right, circle back around and start over.

It’s not about all or nothing, in fact, all or nothing can be very harmful.

Saturated fat does not make you fat!

Most of the world still believes that saturated fat makes you fat.

Our biome is the master controller of our health.

It is very hard to change our biome.

No one knows more about your body than you. By all means take in information, but listen to yourself first.

In order to understand what your body is saying, take quiet time.

You can trust your instinct, but you won’t know what your instinct sounds like until you test out your inclinations, watch what happens and take time to reflect.

The thing that you ‘can’t do without’, food-wise, is so often the thing that is messing you up.

Changing something around in your diet, even if only for a couple of days, can be so revealing.

You can survive without the thing that you think you absolutely need.

Rest. Rest. Rest.

Following what brings you joy is the way to move forward in your life.

Cooking is not a frivolity. Cooking can be an incredibly deep way of connecting – to your digestion, your food, the soil, the community and your family.

Cooking is an art form.

The closer you get to your food, the more you value it and see the profound impact it has on all areas of your life and the world around you.

All actions have a consequence. Even ‘good’ actions.

Pushing harder is not the answer.

Restricting your choices in the kitchen will force you to be more creative.

Humans are founts of creativity – you have more than you will ever know.

Examine any resentment you hold. Over and over again.

If you want to remain active, choose a lifestyle where you have to be active.

Changes you make now will have an impact on you in 20 years time.

Having children at home is such a challenging lifestyle but brings immense benefits.

We can do things we never believed possible.

Lean on your past work. Remember challenges you’ve been through in the past and hard things you’ve done.

When we have clarity of direction and we put in effort, things shift. But 99% of the time it’s always slower than we want.

Calories are not what the world thinks they are.

There is so much going on outside the bubbles we live in…but sometimes it’s best to live in our bubbles.

Community is so, so important. Support can be the difference between giving up and keeping going. Plus it enlivens your life.

The creative process is incredibly challenging. But the payoff is magnificent.

Learning to accept, not fight failure is a key to being fulfilled. If we can pass this on to our children, we have done amazingly.

Screens are addictive and change your brain patterns.

I think I got 50, right?!

So, with all these lessons offered to me, where am I at? Here’s the flavour of the beginning of my 6th decade in the world:

What I’m working on:

The podcast, my blog, homeschooling, preparing three meals a day…these all fill my days and continue with their challenges. But my edge is my book; it’s offering up a chance for me to be moulded, to go deeper, to learn and to practise…

How can it really take this long?! There’s never enough time to write.

And I want it to be successful. But I know from experience that unless I act with integrity, I will suffer the consequences. So I question, again and again, yes, this action might promote the book, but how do I feel about it? When I hear a whisper of a doubt I try to stop and put plans to one side. The cycle of finding actions with integrity will start again.

What I still have to learn:

I need to remind myself of everything that I’ve written above.

Right now, I walk forward with goals that do not seem, to my rational mind, possible. I hold the belief that by honing my clarity and making effort towards my aims, things I would never imagine will move around me to support me.

And, as always for me it’s vital to remember that I don’t need to push.

Before I head off, don’t forget that you can support my work by sharing it with others, engaging with my courses, joining me at The Kitchen Table as a podcast supporter or leaving me a donation.

You might also like:

Letting Go of A Dream…I’m Leaving Italy – reflections upon leaving Italy after a decade of living there.

Come sit at my table and I’ll tell you a story – what I tell you if we sat together, with tea, and you asked about my life.

Alison in Pictures – a visual glimpse into my life.

What is oatmeal?

In the UK, which has a long oat-eating tradition, this meal, made from oats, is called oatmeal. The use of the word oatmeal to describe uncooked stone-ground oats often causes confusion with American English speakers for whom oatmeal is a dish of rolled oats cooked and eaten for breakfast. You can read about the differences between these two terms and more about oatmeal in my article The Difference Between Oatmeal and Rolled Oats.

Stone-ground oats, known as they are in the UK, as oatmeal, come in various grades – fine, medium and coarse (or pinhead). Oats ground this way have been used, historically, to create a huge variety of dishes, from porridges, to flatbreads, steamed savoury puddings, sausages and stuffings.

Why use oatmeal?

I always have a bag of oatmeal in my own kitchen. I create Traditional Scottish Oatcakes, use it for tasty hot breakfasts and often coat meat or fish with it. I prefer the flavour and working properties of oatmeal to rolled oats. Here’s why:

• All oats (except the ‘naked’ variety) have been heat-treated before they arrive in our kitchens. Shop-bought rolled oats however, have been heat-treated twice, a process which causes further nutrient and flavour loss. I find the once-treated oatmeal to be tastier than rolled oats.
• Medium oatmeal has more of a ‘bite’ than rolled oats. In porridge (the British English word for oatmeal) this is really satisfying and when included in a oatcake dough the result is crisper and crunchier than rolled oats.

Why grind your own oatmeal in a home-mill?

In the UK, where I live, it is possible to buy commercially-produced oatmeal. But that’s not true everywhere. Readers of my blog and listeners of my podcast living in other parts of the world who wish to recreate my recipes often find it hard to source stone-ground oats.

(If you must buy a commercial oatmeal, the USA has a few options: Bob’s Red Mill produce oatmeal and sell it under the name ‘Scottish Oats’ and ex-pat focused food sites often import it from the UK)

I am a strong advocate of home-milling, buying virtually all my grains whole and using a Mockmill 100 to grind them into flour just before I bake bread. Purchasing the mill and moving from shop-bought flour to home-milled transformed my bread-making – making it cheaper, fresher, tastier and more fulfilling. Why would I not extend those results to oats?! I started by rolling my own oats, using a manual roller mill and, since then, have moved onto creating the traditional British ingredient – oatmeal – too!

I’m here to share what I’ve learnt and guide you through creating both fine and medium oatmeal from the whole oat groats in your own kitchen.

Why you’d want to process you own oats from whole oat grains at home, rather than buying shop-bought oats:

• You can make oatmeal – stone-ground oats – which is difficult to source outside of the UK
• It’s cheaper to buy oat grains in bulk and home-mill
• The resulting oat dish will be fresher, it’ll taste better and it will have more nutrients
• You can start with whole ‘naked’ oats which have not been heat-treated, therefore obtaining a truly raw oat

How to Make Stone-Ground Oats (Oatmeal) in a Mockmill

Equipment

Mockmill

This process can be replicated with other grain mills, but I have only been able to test on a Mockmill.

Sieves

I use a 1mm sieve (size 18 in the USA) to create fine oatmeal and a 2 mm sieve (size 10 in the USA) to create medium oatmeal.

If you only wish to generate fine oatmeal it is fine to have solely a 1 mm sieve. If, however you wish to generate medium oatmeal you will need to have both the sieves (in order to sieve out the fine oatmeal from your desired medium oatmeal).

Why use sieves?

I’m often asked why I don’t just grind the oats and use everything that comes out of the mill. I have tried this. Whilst it tastes good, it does not replicate traditional British oatmeal. When you grind oat grains on, for example, a medium grind, you end up with a mix of relatively thick pieces of oat and a lot of very fine flour. This mix, if made into porridge, will have a much more cement-like texture (because of the very fine flour) than medium oatmeal. Using sieves, it’s easier to grind more thickly and sieve out the smaller particles.

Directions to create both fine and medium oatmeal using a Mockmill

In both of these cases, I start with around 130g (depending on your grain size, around 1/3 cup) of whole oat grains.

Grinding process to optimise fine oatmeal production:

• Grind the oats using Mockmill setting number five.
• Put the grinding results through your 1mm sieve. Don’t force the oats through the sieve, but do both agitate the sieve and use your fingers/spoon to distribute the oats over the surface of the mesh. The resulting mix collected in the bowl underneath represents fine oatmeal (with particles less than 1mm across). With this method, I am usually able to generate around 86g of fine oatmeal.
• After this, if you wish, you can additionally create some medium oatmeal by putting the oats remaining in your 1mm sieve through a 2mm sieve. The resulting mix collected in the bowl underneath represents medium oatmeal (with particle between 1mm and 2mm across). With this method, I am usually able to obtain 32g of medium oatmeal.
• You will be left with around 14g of large pieces of oat in your sieve.

The video below is of commercially-produced fine oatmeal. This is what you’re aiming for:

Grinding process to optimise medium oatmeal production:

• Grind the oats using Mockmill setting number 10.
• Put the grinding results through your 1mm sieve. Don’t force oats through the sieve, but do both agitate the sieve and use your fingers/spoon to distribute the oats over the surface of the mesh. The resulting mix collected in the bowl underneath represents fine oatmeal (with particles less than 1mm across). With this method, I’m usually able to generate around 60g of fine oatmeal, less than using the Mockmill setting number five (detailed above), which is good because here I’m trying to optimise medium oatmeal!
• Put the oats remaining in your 1mm sieve through a 2mm sieve. The resulting mix collected in the bowl underneath represents medium oatmeal (with particles between 1mm and 2mm across). With this method, I am able to generate 46g of medium oatmeal.
• You will be left with around 22g of large pieces of oat in the sieve.

The video below is of commercially-produced medium oatmeal. This is what you’re trying to replicate:

What to use these for!

• Fine oatmeal makes wonderful oatcakes!
• Medium oatmeal is really good in porridge.
• Medium oatmeal can be made into a scald and included in a bread dough.
• Medium oatmeal can be used as a breadcrumb alternative or made into stuffings.
• The large, leftover, pieces of oat can be included in porridge, but are also great decorating the top of a loaf of bread and can be used as a oat bran substitute.

What about steel-cut oats?

It’s very difficult to make steel-cut oats in a home grain mill because, commercially, this is made by shearing oats with a steel blade, a process very different to stone-milling. It is potentially possible using Mockmill setting higher than 10 and a larger sieve, but I have not tried it.

How is this better than grinding oats grains in a blender?

If you search online for how to grind oats, you will find a myriad of resources telling you to whizz up rolled oats in a blender/coffee grinder. In my experience, as well as potentially damaging your equipment (ask me how I know!) this results in a very fine, dust-like flour which is not the same as fine oatmeal or medium oatmeal.

Plus, as I explained above, rolled oats have been heat-treated twice and so are less flavourful and less nutrient-dense product. Why would you use them if you could make oatmeal yourself, freshly, from whole oat groats?

More on oats…

I know no other way of describing my relationship with oats than ‘obsessive’ I am a devotee of the grain. If you love oats too, check the other posts linked in this article or browse my oat posts and get on my newsletter – I share lots of oat information there and you’ll be kept up to date on my forthcoming book bringing the traditional oat recipes of the UK into our modern kitchens.

Sourdough rye breads are a staple in my kitchen, made every week. I taught myself the process over a decade ago in order to feed my husband, who has a wheat intolerance. But once I’d tasted home-made sourdough rye myself, I was hooked! Since then I’ve gone on to share my love of baking rye with readers here, on my podcast and with hundreds of students in my course Sourdough Rye Bread: Mastering the Basics.

Why make sourdough rye bread?

I make sourdough rye bread because I love its flavour. But rye has so many more reasons to recommend it:

• Rye is three times lower in gluten than wheat, and the gluten it does contain is of a different nature. This means that those of us who struggle with gluten can often enjoy rye without issues.
• Rye has the highest fibre of all the grains we commonly use in our kitchens.
• Rye is so nutritious – as well as all that fibre it is high in B vitamins and minerals.

Why use wholegrain rye?

All of my sourdough rye breads are made with wholegrain rye. Here’s why I love to use it:

• Including the bran brings so much flavour to the bread; much of the infamous depth of rye (think pumpernickel, rugbrod and all of those German/Eastern European breads) comes from the bran.
• By using the whole grain we are ensuring our cooking is zero waste.
• Most of the fibre content of grains is in the bran; when we include that we get all of the nutrition.

Why make sourdough?

• By using a home-cultured starter (rather than buying a factory-produced yeast) we bring the entire bread-making process into our own kitchens. This is part of taking a stand against our our industrial food system.
• Sourdough brings such wonderful flavours to bread. For rye in particular, the acidity of sourdough matches the robustness of the grain in a wonderful way, creating flavour-heaven!
• In the sourdough process, complex starches are predigested, meaning your tummy has to do less work when it comes to the eating.

What’s important to know about making rye bread

If you’re in the habit of making wheat bread, it’s important to understand that rye is different. Understanding the differences between wheat and rye, when it comes to breadmaking, puts you in a strong position to create wonderful sourdough rye breads. Here’s how I explain it, simply:

Breadmaking with wheat:

When in contact with water, wheat flour produces gluten. This gluten (assisted by kneading) creates a net-like mesh network which traps gases during the fermentation, rising the bread and creating its crumb.

Breadmaking with rye:

When in contact with water, rye flour produces complex carbohydrates called pentosans. These pentosans create a thick starchy gel which traps gases during fermentation, rising the bread and creating its crumb.

At the same time, the rye bread-making process also creates an enzyme called amylase. Amylase breaks down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. If this happens in your bread, the thick, starchy gel will not be formed and your rye bread will not rise. Amylase cannot survive in an acidic environment hence an important part of the process of making rye bread is to acidify the dough.

You can see me explaining the differences between these two bread-making processes here.

How To Make Sourdough Rye Bread From Scratch

Over years of making 100% wholegrain sourdough rye, I’ve learnt that there are six rules – each of them vital to ending up with a risen, sliceable, delicious bread. They’re important and I want to share them with you here. If you’d like to go straight to my recipe, it’s available as part of my Beginner’s Guide to Wholegrain Rye Sourdough, which you can get, in your inbox, by entering your details below:

1 – Have a strong starter

Having a strong sourdough starter is a vital part of any sourdough bread process.

I recommend making your sourdough starter with wholegrain rye flour, because:

• Rye is a very active flour, naturally containing lots of microbes that will super-charge your ferment.
• Rye hydrates differently to wheat and that results in a sourdough starter that is much easier to maintain (you won’t need to refresh it daily; I attend to mine once a week).

How to switch an existing wheat sourdough starter to rye:

It’s easy to switch an existing wheat flour starter to wholegrain rye. To do this simply start refreshing your sourdough starter with wholegrain rye flour instead of your usual wheat flour. After having done this four or five times they’ll be virtually no wheat flour left in your starter.

If you need help with your sourdough starter, read my blog article explaining how to create and maintain a rye sourdough starter, take a look at my visual guide to sourdough starters or take my pay-what-you-can video course.

If you are concerned about the strength of your sourdough starter, don’t use it to make bread. Be patient and keep working on it until you can see it rising well and consistently.

2 – Use a pre-ferment

To make a good sourdough rye bread utilise a pre-ferment. This helps acidify the dough enough to stop amylase destroying your crumb!

A pre-ferment, simply put, is a very big starter!

With a wheat bread, you mix sourdough starter into your dough. Using a rye pre-ferment, you instead take a sizeable portion of the total flour (usually around 30%), mix it with the sourdough starter and leave it to ferment (usually for 12 hours). When ready, this bubbly pre-ferment is mixed into the remaining ingredients.

3 – Hydrate your loaf well

Wholegrain rye flour is thirsty. Where you may be used to making sourdough breads using a 50 to 60% hydration (a water weight of 50 to 60% of the total flour weight), rye will need more. I often make wholegrain rye bread at a 100% hydration (the same weight of water as flour).

4 – Watch the proof

Once you’ve mixed your active pre-ferment into your remaining ingredients, there’s nothing more to do. Rye bread doesn’t take long to bulk ferment or proof. Make sure you watch the fermentation – it is very easy to leave rye bread too long. Look for a small increase in volume and pinprick holes beginning to appear on the surface of the dough.

5 – Use a baker and cover the bread in the oven

Rye bakes much better in a bread baker – by that I mean a container of metal, ceramic or glass. Having sides to climb up will help your bread rise and give it a much more pleasing aesthetic. The added bonus here is that, when using a tin of some form, there is no need for you to worry about shaping the bread!

Make sure that you cover the baker whilst the bread is in the oven. If your tin does not have a lid you can craft one from aluminium foil.

6 – Let your bread cool before you enjoy it!

Once your rye bread is cooked (I like to see an internal temperature of 95C/200F or above) remove it from the tin and leave it to cool completely before cutting. Rye bread continues to form its crumb whilst cooling and you will spoil it by trying to cut it while it’s still hot. If you can, wait even longer; rye bread improves when left for a day or two after baking.

Frequently-Asked Questions:

How do the timings work for this sourdough rye bread method?

Here’s how I make rye bread in my kitchen:

The evening before I want to bake I create a pre-ferment from my active sourdough starter, leaving it to ferment overnight.

The next morning I retrieve the bubbling pre-ferment and mix it into the rest of my ingredients.

I watch this bulk fermentation carefully and, when it is ready, I put the dough into a pan.

I watch the proofing carefully and, when it is ready, I bake the loaf. This is usually around lunchtime.

I leave this loaf to cool fully, not usually cutting it until the next day.

Hence, if I want to bread for lunch on Monday, I begin it with the pre-ferment on Saturday evening, baking it on Sunday.

How should I store my sourdough rye bread?

Sourdough rye bread ages much better than bread made of other grains. In my experience its flavour improves, when left, for up to 5 days. When first cooked, I leave my bread to fully cool on a cooling rack. After the first slicing, I turn it, crumb down, to stand on my breadboard. After this I move it to a metal bread tin which has small air holes and a wooden lid. A fabric bread bag or paper bag is also a good option.

Does sourdough rye bread freeze?

Yes! Sourdough rye bread freezes much better than bread made of other grains. I often cut loaves and freeze one half for weeks at a time or make two loaves in one go, saving one in the freezer for later. Before placing in the freezer, I bag the loaves in a double layer and ensure I expel all the air before closing.

Can I proof my sourdough rye bread in the fridge?

Yes, this is possible. Sometimes, I will mix the pre-ferment into my remaining ingredients in the evening and then immediately place the dough into my fridge. In the morning I remove the dough from the fridge, place it in the pan to proof and bake mid-morning.

Is rye gluten-free?

No, rye is not gluten-free but it contains much less gluten than wheat and the gluten it contains is of a different structure. This means that often, people who have problems with digesting wheat can enjoy rye without issues, especially when it is baked into sourdough. This is what happened to my husband – when I met him 15 years ago he could not eat bread due to a wheat allergy, now he eats sourdough rye bread almost daily without any side-effects.

Can I grind my own flour?

Yes, most definitely, and your bread will be even more incredible if you do! When I started making rye breads I used shop-bought wholegrain rye flour. Some time into my journey, I invested in a Mockmill and I now grind all my wholegrain rye flour from rye berries minutes before I make bread. It is a beautiful process and enhances the flavour (and by enjoyment) of my breads greatly.

My sourdough starter isn’t strong, what can I do?

Keep working on it. There is a lot of information out there on creating sourdough starters and it can be overwhelming. My advice is to find one method/teacher and follow their method exclusively. If you would like my guidance you can read How to Create a Sourdough Starter, follow my visual guide on starters, access my pay-as-you-can video course How to Create and Maintain a Rye Sourdough Starter, and for $5, I have a comprehensive set of guidance in 10 Tips for Creating and Maintaining a Sourdough Starter over at The Fermentation School.

Do I need to refresh my starter the night before I make bread?

If you want your starter to be the most active it can be, it’s best to refresh it 12 hours before you make the pre-ferment. I’ve found that, my starter, after a decade of care, does not need this and I use sourdough starter straight from the fridge when making my pre-ferment.

I want to start now! Can I get your assistance in making wholegrain sourdough rye bread?

Yes. You can start by downloading my free 30-page guide, Baking with Ancient Grains, which includes a comprehensive recipe for sourdough rye bread. My podcast episode on rye sourdough bread will also help. You can have me guide you, virtually through the whole process in my course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics and if you’d like 1:1 time, there’s the option of Sourdough mentoring – I currently offer two packages, a get-going and a trouble-shooting.

To get your copy of The Beginner’s Guide to Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Bread enter you details below:

You might also like:

Differences Between Bread-Making With Wheat And Rye

Ancestral Kitchen Podcast: Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics

I’ve been baking exclusively with ancient grains for over a decade, and regularly hear these questions:

• Why should I bake with ancient grains?
• What’s wrong with modern wheat?
• How are ancient grains different from wheat?
• What do I need to know before I start baking with ancient grains?
• Have you got some ancient grain recipes I can try?

In this article, I’ll give you answers. I’ll define ancient grains, explain how they differ from modern wheat, share five reasons why you should be baking with ancient grains and point you to a resource that’ll get you started.

What are ancient grains?

Ancient grains are ‘old-school’ grains; ones that our ancestors have been subsisting on for thousands of years.

Modern wheat isn’t like this. It was developed in the mid 1900s specifically for increased yield; scientists intensively selected and cross-bred the grain. Our ancestors wouldn’t recognise today’s wheat and neither would they be able to grow it – as well as needing large amounts of water it relies on fossil fuel fertilisers.

Get my free 30-page guide to baking with ancient grains straight to your inbox by entering you details below:

What are some examples of ancient grains?

There are ancient grains that behave similarly to wheat, like einkorn, emmer and spelt.

There are ancient grains that, like wheat, contain gluten, but work differently, like rye and barley.

There are gluten-free ancient grains like buckwheat, teff, oats and millet.

Why should I bake with ancient grains?

Here are 5 reasons to bake with ancient grains:

1/ For your health

How many times have you heard someone say ‘I can’t eat wheat’?

Yes, there are many people with coeliac disease, who cannot eat any gluten. Yet there are swathes more for whom wheat just doesn’t sit well. They feel bloated or uncomfortable after normal bread.

And looking at where our modern wheat came from and how, industrially, we make it into bread, it’s unsurprising that so many of us have problems with it.

Modern wheat grains were developed by super-intensive selection and cross-breeding and are dependent on industrially-produced pesticides and fertilisers. The wheat that makes the bread we eat was not developed with nutrition or digestibility in mind.

Ancient grains, in contrast, have not been through this intensive modification. Yes, our ancestors did choose grains, after harvest, that appeared to be doing well in their soils and their climates, but this made stronger, healthier grains which in turn helped societies thrive. These ancient grains are consistently higher in nutrition and easier to digest than modern wheat.

2/ To make a stand against industrial, commodified food

Who, interested in a sustainable food system, would choose scientifically-created wheat grains (the seeds of which come from a global conglomerate), and grow them as a mono-crop in nutrient-depleted soils, spraying them with fossil fuel fertilisers and pesticides?

And yet, we chose this wheat for our mainstream loaves. We grind it in industrial roller mills before whipping it into breads laced with chemical additives.

Buying supermarket wheat bread or standard wheat grains is supporting the continuance of this way of producing food.

Alternatively, we can, by choosing ancient grains and baking with them at home, step out of the food system that is destroying our health and planet and do so whilst bringing ourselves and our families joy, nutrition and pleasure.

3/ Because they taste better

Modern wheat has been bred for yield and pest resistance, not for flavour. And when you begin to bake with ancient grains that becomes so clear – they taste amazing compared to supermarket wheat!

An average week of baking with ancient grains my kitchen might include rich and deeply sweet rye bread, buckwheat made into earthy, grassy crepes, traditional Scottish oatcakes with their toasty and golden flavour, the nutty spelt in a sourdough, plus a mild and slightly sweet millet made into a polenta loaf.

Bringing these flavours into your kitchen is an adventure; one that will fill your home, mouth and mind with deep satisfaction.

4/ To get more variety in your diet

Look at many modern Western diets and you will see a day’s food is often wheat (cereal for breakfast), followed by wheat (sandwich for lunch), followed by wheat (pasta for dinner).

And yet, consistently, nutritionists are telling us to diversify our diet; to eat lots of different foods every day.

There are, according to the Whole Grains Council, 22 grains. By looking beyond wheat and baking with ancient grains, we can give our bodies the gift of diversity through the staple foods that are on our plate, meal after meal.

5/ To actively support small-scale, sustainable growers

All over the world, there are farmers who care about the soil, the planet and their community. Many choose to grow ancient grains that are less-lucrative and harder to process than wheat.

These growers, often working on a small-scale, deserve our support. They are choosing to act differently in a world that pushes them to make a living by growing the commodity crop, wheat.

If you want our food world to change, baking with ancient grains is a step towards that goal. With it, you can feel in integrity – even joyful – when your hands are in the dough.

How can I bake with ancient grains?

Baking with ancient grains is not the same as baking with modern wheat. Depending on the grain, you might be able to produce ancient grain bread that looks similar to (though is much tastier than) wheat. You might, however, have to handle your dough differently to wheat to make a loaf or perhaps you’d be better off diving into the world’s incredible flat-bread traditions.

Getting to know each ancient grain and how it works best in baking is a learning curve, and that’s where my free guide, Baking with Ancient Grains, comes in!

It will guide you, step-by-step, through learning to bake with these delicious, nutritious and sustainable grains. Whether you’re a proficient baker wanting to bring ancient grains into your kitchen or have never made bread at home before there’s something in here for you.

It includes more information on ancient grains, many tips for baking with them, plus five 100% ancient grain baking recipes to get you baking with ancient grains today!

To get a free copy of Baking with Ancient Grains, pop your name and email in the boxes below. In doing so, you’ll also be subscribed to my bi-weekly ancestral food newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.

I’ve never had a big kitchen. In fact, most of my kitchens have been tiny (you can see my latest here). And I’ve always been on a very tight budget. This means I’ve been very selective about the equipment that I ‘need’. Below your find my current favourite kitchen equipment; the things that, given the choice, I just would not be without!

There are some links on this page which, if you follow and buy from, I will get a small commission (you won’t pay any extra). I only do this with companies I believe in. If you would like to support my work and buy the same piece of equipment I have, please do use my links. Thank you!

My Favourite Kitchen Equipment

Mockmill grain grinder

I’ve been making my own sourdough bread from ancient grains for a decade but it was many years before I took the plunge and got my own grain grinder. It was a study that talked of the deleterious effects of previously-ground flour on lifespan that pushed me over the edge (I talk about it in this podcast).

I purchased a Mockmill two years ago and have never regretted it. I now grind flour for all my sourdough breads – spelt, rye and gluten-free – freshly. It is so convenient, taking moments. And I know, by doing this, I am not only ensuring the most nutrient-dense flour possible for my family but also, by buying grain in bulk, saving money. Plus, it tastes amazing!

It’s not only for loaves that I use the Mockmill. I often make chunky, stone-ground oatmeal using freshly-ground oat groats. I grind buckwheat for pancakes. I make millet polenta and polenta bread using freshly-milled grain. And I freshly-grind rye to add to my fermenting oats in order to most effectively deactivate phytic acid (you can see me talk about this more here).

The Mockmill is a stone grinder – inside it are two stones. This retains as much as possible of the grains nutrients, replicating how our ancestors would have created flour. I have the 100 model, which I find amply quick enough for my kitchen. Despite having minimal counter space, my Mockmill has, because of its daily use, pride of place on my work surface.

The Mockmill I bought in the USA shop.

The Mockmill I bought in the UK Deliver Deli Mockmill shop.

The EU Mockmill shop (use code P2024-AK-03 to get a 3% discount).

The ‘rest of the world’ Mockmill shop (use code P2024-AK-03 to get a 3% discount).

Listen to me explaining why milling is so beneficial and talking about various mill options in the podcast above, or read more about my Mockmill here.

Wooden boards

I love wood in the kitchen. It’s warm on the eyes and hands, it’s naturally hygienic and, if sourced well, an ecological choice. I also love to chop on wood – the surface responds well to my knife and cleaning up is easy.

I have three wooden boards in my kitchen. One is the big and stays out permanently. It raises the counter about 2 inches and provides the space for almost all of my food prep. The other two smaller and lighter; easy to pop in and out of the cupboard to use for ad hoc tasks or as a rest for hot pans when we eat.

Glass mixing bowls

I have four stainless steel mixing bowls that I use daily in my kitchen, which I like because they are light and virtually indestructible. But, in addition to these, I love to also have glass bowls on hand.

These are invaluable to me as part of sourdough bread baking. I can put a rye pre-ferment or a sourdough leaven into one of them and, because of the glass, clearly see how the fermentation is progressing without having to guess using my nose alone or by digging into the fermenting flower with a spoon.

Silicone spatulas

I hate wasting food; silicone spatulas are invaluable in my kitchen because they are incredible for scraping out bowls or saucepans.

I use them to get every last bit of fermented rye dough out of the bowl and into my loaf. I use them to scrape round a saucepan of leftover oatmeal/porridge, getting out enough to have a snack later. I use them to extricate every bit of cabbage from my food processor bowl when I make sauerkraut. I use them, wet, to smooth down the top of a rye pre–ferment, so I can see how well it’s rising. Without my silicones bachelors I’d waste a lot more food, have murky washing-up liquid and be grumpy!

Lodge cast-iron pan

My Lodge cast-iron pan stays permanently on top of my stove. I use it every single day. It’s 13 years old and still is wonderful as the first day I used it. I cannot overstate how amazing, hard-wearing and economical cast-iron cookware is. If you don’t have one, you will not regret getting one.

Probe thermometer

Again, I hesitated before buying one of these, but several years on I do not know how I’d live without it. The most obvious use is for bread-baking – my loaves are ready when they are 95°C. It’s simple and I can leave those instructions with my husband, Rob, if I’m not around.

But there are so many other things that I also use the thermometer for. I check that the millet I’ve cooked up to make the fermented drink boza is the right temperature before I add the starter. I make sure warmed water isn’t too hot to be added to yeast/sourdough. I check the ambient temperature of my kitchen to decide whether my bread will be fine fermenting on the counter or needs to go my proofing box.

Timers, timers, timers!

Managing an ancestral kitchen involves a lot of keeping an eye on things/popping back in after doing the washing/remembering that something needs to be done in 20 minutes and I cannot be trusted to hold it all in my head!

I have three kitchen timers:

• The first is a digital count up or countdown timer that beeps loudly for a full minute when the time is up.
• The second is a manual wind-up timer that can do up to 60 minutes.
• The third is another manual wind-up timer, but the amazingly simple yet clever thing with this one is that it can be worn around your neck! No going out to the garden and not hearing the beeper go off in the kitchen! It’s genius.

Bokashi kitchen-to-compost system

Creating three meals a day, every day means a lot of kitchen waste; my vegetable ends, skin and pips can often overwhelm my kitchen surface! Vegetable and fruit ends are not the only organic waste I have in my kitchen – after making stock, there are left-over bones plus coffee and tea produce waste leaves and grinds.

I use all of these to create a super-quick compost right in my kitchen using a Japanese system called bokashi. Later, I dig it into my garden to supercharge my vegetables. The first year I put bokashi into my pots, I was astounded by the size and quality of my root veg.

Get 10% off Bokashi supplies in the US/Canada using the code AKP.

Get 10% off bokashi supplies in the UK.

Emile Henry ceramic loaf baker

For me, baking is a thing of beauty and, to honour that, I love to use my Emile Henry ceramic loaf baker. It’s not only creates the best crust on a loaf I’ve ever eaten, but the beauty of the breads I bake in it is enhanced because of their special baking home.

Slow cooker

A slow cooker is such a versatile piece of equipment and comes into its own in a traditional kitchen. I use my slow cooker to both render lard and make broth, as well as cooking soups and stews in it from autumn to spring.

You might also like:

Listen into Ancestral Kitchen Podcast episode Our Favourite Kitchen Tools to hear more kitchen equipment geekery!

My Ancestral Kitchen Routines

How to Roll Oats at Home (& 3 Good Reasons To Do It!)

But I don’t spend my whole life in the kitchen! Instead, it’s well-loved routines that help me to provide nutrient-dense food at our table day in, day out. Like a comforting blanket or favourite meal these rhythms create backdrops to my days and serve myself and my family well – ensuring that what we are eating supports both our values and our health.

In this post I’ll share the daily, weekly and monthly routines that keep mytraditional, ancestral kitchen running. In doing so, I hope you’ll see how rhythms have such horsepower and be inspired to work with them in your own home.

Daily routines in my Ancestral Kitchen

Soak/Ferment Oatmeal

During the week we usually have oatmeal (called porridge here in the UK) for breakfast. I prepare this the night before by soaking rolled/flaked oats in water. Most often I include a live starter and/or some phytase-rich, freshly-ground flour.

You can watch my You Tube video Healthy, Fermented Oats here.

If you prefer to read, this post How To Make Fermented Oats will talk you through it.

Time needed: 5 minutes

Result: Delicious, healthy breakfast every day!

Make Tibicos/Water Kefir

As a family, we drink 1 litre/quart of Tibicos (often known as water kefir) every day.

My son (who is 10 years old) is in charge of this process. Once a day he strains the jar of fermenting water kefir into a swing top bottle for a second fermentation, adding flavourings (like fruit and ginger). He then prepares a new jar, using sugar, water and our water kefir grains, for a first fermentation.

To see how check my post How To Make Tibicos (Water Kefir).

Time needed: 5 to 10 minutes

Result: A litre of probiotic water kefir everyday.

Cooking!

I prepare three meals a day from fresh, local ingredients. That does not, however, mean that I spend hours and hours in the kitchen every day.

Breakfast:

Our breakfast most days is oatmeal. This takes 15 minutes to cook.

Main meal:

Our main meal is at noon and usually consists of previously-made bread, seasonal vegetables and either freshly-cooked (or leftover) meat/fish/eggs or frozen food prepared on previous days. I usually start preparing this meal about 45 minutes before we eat.

Evening meal:

We eat our last meal of the day around 5pm. This is lighter and often consists of grains cooked in stock, seasonal vegetables and cheese or eggs. This meal usually takes around 30 minutes to prepare.

If you’d like to hear me talking about how I do this, you’ll enjoy my podcast episode Preparing Nutrient-Dense Meals From Scratch Every Day.

Time needed: 1 1/2 hours

Result: 3 meals a day

Weekly Routines in my Ancestral Kitchen

Roll Oats

Home-rolled oats taste much better than those that have been rolled industrially. Once a week we roll a kilo (about 2 pounds) of oat groats in a manual Marcato Marga grain mill. This provides our oatmeal/porridge for the week. If you wanted to do this process more quickly, you could buy an electric flaker. See my post How to Roll Oats at Home for more details.

Time needed: 30 minutes

Result: The oats for our breakfast all week taste great!

Make Oatcakes

Flatbreads are so versatile and the traditional British flatbread, oatcake, is something that I make every week. It’s great as a snack, a compliment to soup or a quick supper. I make oatcakes once a week and store them in an airtight container.

You can follow my recipe for Traditional Scottish Oatcakes here.

Time needed: 30 minutes hands-on

Result: A container of oatcakes that will last all week.

Process my Kitchen Waste into Bokashi Compost

Cooking with real food everyday means that I have a lot of organic food waste. I recycle this waste into amazing soil for my plants using the bokashi compost system – a clean, simple method that uses the power of fermentation to produce compost quickly. It can even be used in an apartment!

Daily, I collect waste in a caddy on my kitchen counter. When this is full, I transfer it to my bokashi bin and layer it with a bran that has previously been inoculated with lactobacillus. Once a week I drain off the liquid, which I used to water my plants. Once the bin is full I leave for two weeks to ferment before digging into my garden.

Listen to the lowdown on bokashi here.

Time needed: 15 minutes.

Result: Much better/happier vegetables and plant; they grow so well in bokashi!

A Trip to the Farmers Market

The majority of the food that comes into my house is from my weekly local farmers market. We look forward to this as a family trip out – it’s time together outside and there is always good conversation to be had.

Time needed: 2 hours

Result: A fridge/freezer full of the food that we will eat that week; virtually no need to do any other shopping.

Milk Kefir

As well as water kefir, we consume milk kefir. Once a week, I decant a litre/quart of milk into a glass jar and add in some milk kefir grains. This is then a hands-off ferment, taking 4 to 5 days to complete. During that time, I stir it once a day. Once it is finished, I strain it through a plastic sieve into a fresh glass jar and conserve the milk kefir grains in a small amount of water in the fridge until next time.

Time needed: 5 minutes

Result: Probiotic-rich milk kefir all week.

Kefir Cheese

Cheese is one of our more expensive purchases, and to help with the cost, I love to make a simple kefir cheese at home. Using fresh, very creamy milk, I decant a litre/quart into a glass jar and then add milk kefir grains. I stir this daily, watching for when it starts to separate. Once I see the whey in pockets distinct from the curds, I stir it well, looking for and picking out the kefir grains, then strain it through a cheesecloth. This leaves me with cheese in the cloth and whey in the jar.

I use the whey as a starter for fermented drinks or cook grains and it.

Time needed: 15 minutes

Result: Inexpensive cheese for a week.

Make Sourdough Bread

We eat sourdough bread made from the ancient grains spelt and rye every day. I make these once a week, ideally both on the same day so that I can efficiently use our oven.

Ancestral Kitchen Podcast episode: Your Sourdough Questions Answered

My e-book: Spelt Sourdough Every Day

 I freshly-grind flour for these breads using my Mockmill

My post all about the Mockmill is here.

Time needed: 60 minutes hands-on

Result: Sourdough bread at every main meal.

At the same time as making our sourdough bread I will also refresh my sourdough starter.

Refresh my Sourdough Starter

I maintain a thick, low-hydration, wholegrain rye sourdough starter. I love this method because it gives you a really active starter with very little fuss. I keep it in the fridge most of the time and only refresh it once a week – usually the evening before I make sourdough bread

How to Create a Sourdough Starter

Time needed: 15 minutes

Result: A sourdough starter without having to worry about it for the rest of the week.

Make the Probiotic Millet Drink, Boza

My family love the home-made probiotic drink boza. It’s gluten-free and dairy-free – I started making it for my son who, early in his life, had a dairy intolerance. Now, my whole family adores it!

To find out what boza is, read my article What is Boza Drink?

Boza is how I usually start my week. I cook up the millet on a Monday morning and, by Monday evening, I’ve blended all the necessary ingredients and the drink is fermenting on my counter. It’s usually ready to tuck into by Wednesday.

Time needed: 20 minutes hands-on

Result: A delicious, inexpensive probiotic drink that is dairy-free.

Make One Batch Meal

Once a week I will take more time to prepare food, making four or five servings at one time so that I can stock our fridge/freezer with quick, nutritious meals.

I usually choose dishes that will cook without me having to give them much hands-on attention like a big pot of soup or a slow-cooked stew.

Here are two examples:

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Beef and Barley Stew

Time needed: 2 hours hands-on

Result: A meal that day plus 3 to 4 further ready-to-go meals for later in the week.

Monthly Routines in my Ancestral Kitchen

Make Bone Broth

Bone broth is one of the fundamentals of a traditional food diet and it is so cheap and easy to make. I buy bones for next to nothing from a local farmer and, in addition, I save the bones from any whole meat that I cook, keeping them in the freezer until I’m ready to make a batch of broth.

I use the slow cooker to make bone broth, putting in the bones, some root vegetables and water. I set the cooker to low and leave it for 18 to 24 hours before straining out the protein-rich, delicious broth.

Podcast episode: Broth Q & A

My 5 Favourite Ways to Use Bone Broth

I store about a litre/quart of broth in the fridge (with the fat cap still on it to help it last longer) and freeze the rest.

Time needed: 1 hour hands on

Result: Broth for a month, ready when I need it.

Make Sauerkraut

Most meals are better with sauerkraut! Not only is the flavour profile delicious, but you’re adding a spoonful of live probiotics to your plate. Sauerkraut using my method is super-simple. I make it this way once a month, leaving it on the counter to ferment before I transfer it to the fridge the following month, when I make the next batch.

Super-Simple Sauerkraut Recipe

Time needed: 45 minutes

Result: Probiotic-rich sauerkraut for 4 to 6 weeks.

Home-Render Lard

I am a lard lover. We use lard to cook with, in breads and pastries and we spread it on sourdough bread (as you would butter) before sprinkling with salt!

Supermarket lard tastes horrible. Home-rendered lard made from the fat of well-fed pigs is a completely different food. It’s also very economical and easy to make. I source back fat from our local pig farmer and I use the slow cooker to render it into lard.

How to Render Lard (in a Slow Cooker)

Time needed: 2 1/2 hours

Result: Delicious, economical, sustainable fat that will last 1 to 2 months.

Purchase Grains and Other Foods in Bulk

Our house is very small, yet we still find enough space to store our grains for a month, which I purchase in bulk. Our supply includes whole spelt grain, whole rye grain, whole millet grain, whole oat grain, Scottish oats (called oatmeal in the UK), linseed (flaxseed) and nuts. Bulk purchasing means that I’m not worrying about running out of grains and also saves me so much money!

Time needed: 1 hour

Result: A cupboard full of grains that will last at least a month.

Bringing Routines into Your Own Kitchen

As with any other long-term journey, bringing ancestral food routines into your own kitchen is about picking up one thing at a time. You may want to do it all (I always have done and am sure I always will!) but in my experience that results in overwhelm, which does not help. Select one thing that you would really like to make part of your kitchen rhythms and focus on it exclusively until it feels a natural part of your life and then move onto the next. Good luck!

For more inspiration you can listen to Ancestral Kitchen Podcast. In particular the episodes 20 Small Steps to a Ancestral Kitchen and the Ancestral Kitchen Challenge contain lot of step-by-step inspiration.

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My Favourite Kitchen Equipment

I love it and want everyone to be enjoying it, but I’ve noticed that most people have never heard of boza. Hence this post! In it, I’ll explain what the drink boza is, its history, how it’s made and what it tastes like.

What is boza?

Boza is a fermented drink that is native to the European regions we now call Turkey, the Caucuses and the Balkans. Made with millet, it’s gluten-free, dairy-free and, thanks to the fermentation, probiotic. It’s thick, fizzy, tangy and deeply satisfying.

What is the history of boza?

The first time the word ‘boza’ is recorded as being used to describe a fermented drink was the 14th century, but, incredibly, fermented millet drinks have been made since the 9th century BCE, meaning that a drink really similar to boza has been around for 11,000 years!

The heyday of boza was during the Ottoman Empire. A 17th-century traveller to Istanbul reported that the city housed 300 boza shops that employed over a thousand people!

There are still shops selling boza in Istanbul, one of the most famous being Vefa, which was founded in 1876 and is now run by the original owners great-great-grandchildren. You can see the shop here.

As well as being available in shops, boza has a long history of being sold by street vendors, who would wander the streets of Istanbul carrying boza in metal containers hung on milk pail-style apparatus. They had a very distinctive call. You can watch a short clip of one here.

If you’d like to read more about the environment in which boza-sellers worked, the main character in Orhan Pamuk’s 2014 novel A Strangeness in My Mind (a book that was shortlisted for the 2016 International Booker Prize) is a Turkish boza-seller.

What is boza made of?

The earliest records of boza-style fermented drinks used the grain millet. As the drink has travelled to different geographies and been influenced by changing crops, it is now often made with other grains such as corn or wheat.

I use millet in my own kitchen to make boza which creates a drink which is not only dairy-free but also gluten-free and lectin-free. Students of my boza course have also made the fermented drink with sorghum, amaranth and teff (as you can see below!).

Why should I make boza at home?

Boza is a simple, inexpensive drink to make and one that is exciting, delicious and probiotic. It’s great to have in the fridge when you want a healthy snack to turn to. In addition, if you’re looking to bring more probiotics into your life, making and consuming boza is a way that you can do this without relying on dairy, gluten, lectins or, importantly, expensive shop-bought beverages or tablets.

How do you make boza?

To make boza, hulled, cooked millet is mixed with yeast and left to ferment. The microbes doing the fermentation produce acids which make the drink tangy along with small amounts of alcohol.

What yeast can I use to make boza at home?

Some people use packets of commercial yeast in the boza-making process (and this is how boza is made in shops today).

Some experiment with sourdough starter, but I find this creates a drink that is too sour.

I choose to create my own starter full of natural yeasts using a small amount of cooked millet and some sugar. I then inoculate a bigger batch of cooked millet with this home-made starter, which ensures delicious results!

“I’m so impressed with this course. I’d never even heard of boza and now I’m addicted to it!” Deb, student of my course Boza: The Probiotic Millet Drink

What does boza taste like?

Boza is sweet, fizzy on the tongue, tangy and slightly sour. The cooked millet adds a creaminess to the drink too. You can vary the thickness (by adding more or less water) depending on your preference but it is generally a satisfyingly-thick drink which can also be eaten with a spoon.

Boza has generally become sweeter over time. Historically it was a more sour drink. My own method produces a drink that balances the sweet and sour flavours – I think the boza in my home is probably much less sweet than the boza you can currently buy in Istanbul.

What is the alcohol content?

The alcohol content of boza is low. In Turkey there is legislation saying that it cannot be greater than 2%. In my experience, when making boza at home, the alcohol content is much lower. General agreement states that home-made boza is less than 1% alcohol.

How is boza traditionally served?

Historically, boza has been served in the winter. This is because without refrigeration it was difficult to stop the drink over-fermenting in warm summer temperatures.

In addition, traditionally boza is seen as a warming and nourishing drink (even though it is served cold).

If you go to Istanbul today and buy boza, it will be served with roasted chickpeas and cinnamon on the top.

What are some other ways of serving boza?

In my home, boza is most often drunk (or eaten with a spoon) as a snack. My husband and son love it when they return home after a walk or an energetic trip out.

We consume it cold. In the summer, it’s really refreshing. In the winter, the thickness and fizzyness is very satisfying.

Here are some other ideas for serving boza:

• Top it with ground linseed or toasted nuts
• Use it as a yogurt alternative to top fruit or oatmeal/porridge
• Gently heat it up and sip it from a mug whilst warming your hands
• As a base for smoothies: Boza makes a brilliant non-dairy base for a probiotic smoothie. We like to add egg yolks, linseed, fruits or cocoa powder!
• Boza popsicles: Freeze boza in popsicle moulds for a delicious, healthy summer treat.

If you’d like to make boza in your own kitchen check out my step-by-step video course here