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Let me talk to you about bread pans :-) . Here we have four rye breads, ready to proof, in four different pans. . From closest to furthest away: . A metal non-stick pullman-style pan (which has a lid): This bakes amazing wholegrain rye (and it’s the tin that I talk about most in my rye course) because it’s narrow yet high, conducts heat well and keeps steam in. Loaves cooked in it rise beautifully and look like they came out of a top-notch kitchen (which sometimes, mine is ;-)). I just wish it wasn’t non-stick… . A long ceramic pan: This is called a ‘plum cake’ pan here in Italy (one day I will understand the Italian obsession with plum cake!). It used to have a lid, but my son, Gabriel ‘helped’ with tidying up earlier this year and it got smashed! Now I tent it with foil during proofing and baking. It’s slower at baking due to being ceramic, but the loaves are good. . A bog-standard metal non-stick pan: I’ve had this 2kg tin years. Most times I use it, I line it (because of the non-stick). For rye, I always tent it with foil. It cooks bread quickly, but the resulting loaf can look a bit boring. . My pride and joy. My baby. My Emile Henry ceramic pan with lid: This has two holes in both the base and the lid that help circulate a small amount of air. For best results it needs to go in a non-fan oven. It does something to the crust of my rye and spelt breads that is just heavenly and I also feel so homely using it. . Ridiculourly detailed instructions on how to make this 100% wholegrain rye sourdough loaf (which, as you can see, is a staple in my home!) plus another three wholegrain rye recipes are in my course over at @thefermentationschool. There’s a link in my profile. . What bread tin do you use?

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Let me talk to you about bread pans 🙂
.
Here we have four rye breads, ready to proof, in four different pans.
.
From closest to furthest away:
.
A metal non-stick pullman-style pan (which has a lid): This bakes amazing wholegrain rye (and it’s the tin that I talk about most in my rye course) because it’s narrow yet high, conducts heat well and keeps steam in. Loaves cooked in it rise beautifully and look like they came out of a top-notch kitchen (which sometimes, mine is ;-)). I just wish it wasn’t non-stick…
.
A long ceramic pan: This is called a ‘plum cake’ pan here in Italy (one day I will understand the Italian obsession with plum cake!). It used to have a lid, but my son, Gabriel ‘helped’ with tidying up earlier this year and it got smashed! Now I tent it with foil during proofing and baking. It’s slower at baking due to being ceramic, but the loaves are good.
.
A bog-standard metal non-stick pan: I’ve had this 2kg tin years. Most times I use it, I line it (because of the non-stick). For rye, I always tent it with foil. It cooks bread quickly, but the resulting loaf can look a bit boring.
.
My pride and joy. My baby. My Emile Henry ceramic pan with lid: This has two holes in both the base and the lid that help circulate a small amount of air. For best results it needs to go in a non-fan oven. It does something to the crust of my rye and spelt breads that is just heavenly and I also feel so homely using it.
.
Ridiculourly detailed instructions on how to make this 100% wholegrain rye sourdough loaf (which, as you can see, is a staple in my home!) plus another three wholegrain rye recipes are in my course over at @thefermentationschool. There’s a link in my profile.
.
What bread tin do you use?

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So many people I chat to on here don’t realise I’m British. If you listen me on @ancestralkitchenpodcast you’ll hear my voice. I was born in southern England and my Mum is half Welsh. . Wales (in case you’re one of the 90% of my followers who lives outside the United Kingdom and doesn’t know) is a separate country to England, but part of Great Britain. It’s halfway between England and Ireland geographically. . It is such a diverse land. Despite being smaller than Vermont, it has a huge coastline, mountains and stunning green pastures. And, as I learnt when interviewing Carwyn Graves, author of the book pictured here, Welsh Food Stories, that geographic diversity is so wonderfully reflected in its traditional food. . In the latest episode of @ancestralkitchenpodcast, we talk about food born from landscape, sustainability, women as the holders of ancestral heritage, fermentation, bread and much more. . There is so much to dive into in this rich, fascinating and beautiful conversation. I hope you’ll listen. . Find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast wherever you get your podcasts or stream/download the episode from the link in my profile.

by

So many people I chat to on here don’t realise I’m British. If you listen me on @ancestralkitchenpodcast you’ll hear my voice. I was born in southern England and my Mum is half Welsh.
.
Wales (in case you’re one of the 90% of my followers who lives outside the United Kingdom and doesn’t know) is a separate country to England, but part of Great Britain. It’s halfway between England and Ireland geographically.
.
It is such a diverse land. Despite being smaller than Vermont, it has a huge coastline, mountains and stunning green pastures. And, as I learnt when interviewing Carwyn Graves, author of the book pictured here, Welsh Food Stories, that geographic diversity is so wonderfully reflected in its traditional food.
.
In the latest episode of @ancestralkitchenpodcast, we talk about food born from landscape, sustainability, women as the holders of ancestral heritage, fermentation, bread and much more.
.
There is so much to dive into in this rich, fascinating and beautiful conversation. I hope you’ll listen.
.
Find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast wherever you get your podcasts or stream/download the episode from the link in my profile.

… Read More

Podcast

#57 – Celebrating the Ancestral Food of Wales

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In this episode, Alison talks to Carwyn Graves, author of Welsh Food Stories, a beautiful chronicle of the ancestral food of Wales. They talk about food born from landscape, sustainability, women as the holders of ancestral heritage, fermentation, bread and much much more…… Read More

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This is what 25kg (55 pounds) of wholegrain spelt flour looks like! . And if you want to know what the same amount of sorghum looks like, check behind the sofa! . Seriously, I have things tucked in places you would not believe! Buying in bulk (here from @tibiona.italia) plus living in a small flat means I have to be resourceful. . This spelt will be portioned into six. One bag will go into the cupboard, one into the fridge and the other four into the freezer (they’ll take up a third of my freezer space, I had to plan!). . Do you keep flour under the bed? Ferments in an airing cupboard? Seeds behind the sofa? I’d love to know :-)

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This is what 25kg (55 pounds) of wholegrain spelt flour looks like!
.
And if you want to know what the same amount of sorghum looks like, check behind the sofa!
.
Seriously, I have things tucked in places you would not believe! Buying in bulk (here from @tibiona.italia) plus living in a small flat means I have to be resourceful.
.
This spelt will be portioned into six. One bag will go into the cupboard, one into the fridge and the other four into the freezer (they’ll take up a third of my freezer space, I had to plan!).
.
Do you keep flour under the bed? Ferments in an airing cupboard? Seeds behind the sofa? I’d love to know 🙂

… Read More

Instagram

Most of my meals aren’t dreamy instagrammable shots. They are simple, the work of previous days, repeatable and hopefully as local and nutrient-dense as I can get them. . Here’s pig’s liver from @valledelsasso (choose pigs liver over beef liver if you find the strong flavour difficult – it’s milder). I try to eat liver twice a week – sometimes simply fried like this in the cast iron pan, sometimes mixed with ground beef in meatballs or bolognese. . We’re eating it with the last of the Brussels sprouts from @radiciumane (I’m so sad when Brussels sprouts finish, they are one of the best things about winter!). Plus there’s sourdough bread made from the spent grain from my home-made ale topped with home-rendered lard. . The three cups have the actual rye/oat ancestral ale in them (yes, my 9-year old drinks our ale). It’s low in alcohol, isn’t bitter and feel like a digestive tonic. . @farmandhearth and I are super-excited to announce our @ancestralkitchenpodcast cookbook…coming tomorrow. It includes 20 meals from our kitchens that you can take into yours play with and enjoy!

by

Most of my meals aren’t dreamy instagrammable shots. They are simple, the work of previous days, repeatable and hopefully as local and nutrient-dense as I can get them.
.
Here’s pig’s liver from @valledelsasso (choose pigs liver over beef liver if you find the strong flavour difficult – it’s milder). I try to eat liver twice a week – sometimes simply fried like this in the cast iron pan, sometimes mixed with ground beef in meatballs or bolognese.
.
We’re eating it with the last of the Brussels sprouts from @radiciumane (I’m so sad when Brussels sprouts finish, they are one of the best things about winter!). Plus there’s sourdough bread made from the spent grain from my home-made ale topped with home-rendered lard.
.
The three cups have the actual rye/oat ancestral ale in them (yes, my 9-year old drinks our ale). It’s low in alcohol, isn’t bitter and feel like a digestive tonic.
.
@farmandhearth and I are super-excited to announce our @ancestralkitchenpodcast cookbook…coming tomorrow. It includes 20 meals from our kitchens that you can take into yours play with and enjoy!

… Read More

Instagram

What’s your ideal for an oatmeal cookie? Crunchy throughout? Chewy inside with crisp outer? Smooth or jumbo oats? . Oat cookie experimentation means there are lots to try at the moment in my house! There are two types here – one with egg, one without. They were both made with a long-matured dough (the first picture): honey and oats left for 9 weeks to ‘ferment’ before being mixed up with butter/spices and baked. . Turns out I prefer the non-egg, crunchy-throughout ones :-)

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What’s your ideal for an oatmeal cookie? Crunchy throughout? Chewy inside with crisp outer? Smooth or jumbo oats?
.
Oat cookie experimentation means there are lots to try at the moment in my house! There are two types here – one with egg, one without. They were both made with a long-matured dough (the first picture): honey and oats left for 9 weeks to ‘ferment’ before being mixed up with butter/spices and baked.
.
Turns out I prefer the non-egg, crunchy-throughout ones 🙂

… Read More

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Sourdough oatcake pop tarts! . When I came up with a recipe for sourdough oatcakes I never imagined sandwich-ing two of them together with a fruity jelly to make a pop tart. But man, it works, and I am ever-so-grateful to @mrsachase for taking my oatcakes and coming up with this idea in her kitchen! . The recipe for the sourdough oatcakes is on the resources page of my site (ancestralkitchen.com). Check my story today for some step-by-step photos (I’ll save them to my oats highlight). . You could also make a version of these pop tarts using a traditional Scottish, unfermented, oatcake (again, recipe on my site). The Scots didn’t ferment many of their oat products – I’ve got a newsletter going out tomorrow talking in depth about that fact. If you’d like to receive it go to ancestralkitchen.com – there’s a sign up at the top of every page.

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Sourdough oatcake pop tarts!
.
When I came up with a recipe for sourdough oatcakes I never imagined sandwich-ing two of them together with a fruity jelly to make a pop tart. But man, it works, and I am ever-so-grateful to @mrsachase for taking my oatcakes and coming up with this idea in her kitchen!
.
The recipe for the sourdough oatcakes is on the resources page of my site (ancestralkitchen.com). Check my story today for some step-by-step photos (I’ll save them to my oats highlight).
.
You could also make a version of these pop tarts using a traditional Scottish, unfermented, oatcake (again, recipe on my site). The Scots didn’t ferment many of their oat products – I’ve got a newsletter going out tomorrow talking in depth about that fact. If you’d like to receive it go to ancestralkitchen.com – there’s a sign up at the top of every page.

… Read More