Lardo, the traditional Italian way of dry curing pork fat, is a delicious. It is best sliced very thinly and can be eaten in many ways. Here are some favourite ways to enjoy it: Lay lardo on top of warm … Read More
Here’s what’s on this plate, from 2 o’clock, clockwise:
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Left over fermented oat porridge (method on my homepage)
Crisped-up home-cured lardo (Italian pork fat – recipe in my newsletter tomorrow)
Local salad and tomato, topped with sauerkraut (recipe on my site)
Liver pate (recipe from @almostbananas)
Sourdough rye ‘borodinsky’-style bread (included in my course over at @thefermentationschool, link in profile) soaked in lard left from the crispy lardo pan!
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All of this (aside the tomato) was pre-prepared. Having things sitting in my fridge, waiting for me to put together is *such* a vital part of my kitchen.
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Make too much. Make in bulk. Make it routine. Use the fridge. Use the freezer.
And Ferment! All my carbs here are fermented and the fat and cabbage are too.
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What’s waiting for you in your fridge/bread bin today? I’d love to know!
When someone with as much passion for photography as I’ve passion for sourdough spelt pizza makes and then takes her camera to my recipe, this is the heavenly result!
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Becky from @thestoriedrecipe.podcast interviewed me last week and she, as a complete newbie to sourdough, made my pizza. What a result! Swipe for more pics.
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You can listen to the podcast episode, titled “What is Ancestral Eating” by searching for The Storied Recipe in your podcast app, or by clicking on the link in my profile. It’s partly my story, partly me answering Becky’s insightful questions and partly sourdough chat!
I was recently interviewed as a guest on The Storied Recipe Podcast. It was a frank, compelling discussion that covered ancestral eating and a whole lot more! Becky, the host, said this about our interview: Alison of Ancestral Kitchen speaks … Read More
If you want to bake with rye, listen to this week’s podcast.
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In it, I talk through the four reasons I love rye sourdough: Its gluten content, its taste, the amazing, stress-free, starter it makes and the ease of working with it. I answer questions on mixing, ageing, health benefits, bringing out flavour and much more.
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And I share a discount code for my new course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics, a thorough, hands-on course with over two hours of video that’ll walk you through understanding rye baking, creating and maintaining a starter, baking two wonderful sourdough loaves and equip you with delicious discard recipes.
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Download the episode via your podcast app, by searching for Ancestral Kitchen podcast, or stream/download from my site (link in profile).
Why am I so obsessed with rye? It’s because I love it… Rye is just so special. – Alison Where to begin with sourdough rye bread? This is a topic that both Alison and Andrea have received so many questions about. Alison … Read More
This bread was made using ale yeast I grew at home.
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Last week I made ale. After brewing I decided to try using a bit of the same home-nurtured starter to make bread. It worked a treat – this beautiful wholegrain spelt loaf came from it.
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Although I made this ale starter from rye flour, just like I do my sourdough starter, the two mixes are quite different. Ale brewing uses yeasts and avoids bacteria. This is different to a sourdough starter which encourages both yeasts *and* bacteria. So using my ale starter in this bread meant the flavour was different.
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And you know what? I didn’t really like it! I am so used to sourdough and I missed the flavours the bacteria produce!
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How quickly we get used to tastes! Have you had that? You try something you haven’t eaten for ages and you wonder how on earth you ever used to like it?!
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I’m also guessing that this bread isn’t as nutritious, as it is lacking the transformations that the bacteria in a sourdough culture provide…
Ancestral ale made with Italian rye and my own ale yeast!
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I’m so excited to get back to traditional ale-making. I’ve used quite a few starters in the eighteen months I’ve been playing with this – sourdough, mead, boza…yet I knew I wanted to have a go at making my own dedicated starter from scratch.
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What I needed was a yeast (not bacteria) dominant starter. Reading about Norwegian techniques I knew I could use flour and water, but that I also needed something to suppress potential bacteria. I didn’t want to use hops – they only came into ale/beer in the 1500s. I plumped for the locally-abundant anti-bacterial rosemary and boiled the herb in the water I used for every refresh.
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Along with rosemary, I also use bacteria-inhibiting salt and yeast-encouraging sugar. After 10 days I had a strong yeasty starter (pic in my story) which I then used with grain I’d malted myself to make this ale.
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Pictured here are three bottles about to go into a second ferment, one flavoured with cloves, another fennel seeds and the last elderflower and rosehip.
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I’m reading all about how women dominated brewing in England until the commercialisation that happened after the Black Death. Every page I read and every experiment I do connects me to those who came before me, whose DNA is in my own.
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I’ll put more details and pictures in my story today. There is an ‘ancestral ale’ highlight if you want to follow along in my journey.
Beets grown in fermented kitchen waste!
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Bokashi is a Japanese fermentation technique that for me, in my tiny kitchen/container garden, has helped me:
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A – recycle virtually all of my kitchen scraps
B – make compost with no outside space needed
C – avoid buying new bags of compost this year, and
D – make my vegetables pretty amazing!
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I’m so excited about it, that I’m lining up an expert to come and explain all on the podcast. Watch out for interview later in the year.
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If you bokashi, I’d love to hear how you use it.
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More pictures of happy gardeners and veg in my story today!
The Weston A. Price Foundation published my article Fact Or Fiction? Uncovering The Fats Of Italy’s Past in the Summer 2022 edition of their journal Wise Traditions. It was a deeper dive into my previous piece ‘The Myth of Olive … Read More