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
Oats as the main ingredients of a sausage are delicious. And who needs an electric sausage-stuffer?!
This is what 25kg (55 pounds) of wholegrain spelt flour looks like!
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And if you want to know what the same amount of sorghum looks like, check behind the sofa!
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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.
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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!).
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Do you keep flour under the bed? Ferments in an airing cupboard? Seeds behind the sofa? I’d love to know 🙂
These are the show notes for a podcast episode recorded especially for patrons of my main show (Ancestral Kitchen Podcast). These patrons pay a monthly subscription to be part of the podcast community and in return receive monthly exclusive recordings … Read More
You asked for it, and we did it. We finally did it! Alison and I have written our first Ancestral Kitchen Podcast cookbook, called Meals at the Ancestral Hearth. It’s available now at farmandhearth.com/shop.… Read More
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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@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!
What’s your ideal for an oatmeal cookie? Crunchy throughout? Chewy inside with crisp outer? Smooth or jumbo oats?
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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.
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Turns out I prefer the non-egg, crunchy-throughout ones 🙂
Sourdough oatcake pop tarts!
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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!
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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).
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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.
The Weston A. Price Foundation published my article So Much More Than Scottish Porridge: The Rich Culinary History of British Oats in the Winter 2023 edition of their journal Wise Traditions. It is an exploratory dive into the wonderful legacy of … Read More
Ale in medieval England was made with a portion of malted oats. Until now, I’ve not been able to replicate this as standard oats won’t sprout (they are heat-treated as threshing damages them).
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But then I learnt about naked oats, with their paper-thin hulls. And I scoured Italy for a supplier. Having sourced them, I’ve soaked and sprouted them and here we have my first brew with malted oats included 🙂
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Note the wooden spoon. I use kitchen equipment to brew. If you want to know more, check @ancestralkitchenpodcast #54 where I get super-enthusiastic about all things ancestral ale.