What’s cooking?

Sometimes I like my beet kvass with garlic and salt, other times, like here, I make it with ginger and some fizz!

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There is a lot of this in our house at the moment.
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It’s sourdough rye spice bread. I’ve got one in the freezer, one just cooked and one fermenting! On top of that, there’ll be another one being mixed up tomorrow.
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Tomorrow’s I’ll be mixing up live as part of the zoom cook-up I’m doing with @farmandhearth. The event is based on Nourishing Traditions, the cookbook we dedicated a recent podcast episode to and that we both *love*.
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In addition to my spice bread, we’ll be making, thanks to Andrea, lemon mousse and root beer. I think her kitchen is currently as stuffed with those as mine is with spiced sourdough!
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If you’re not following our podcast account yet, you can find it at @ancestralkitchenpodcast. All the details for the Patreon community are on the profile over there.
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In the meantime, if you happen to be near Florence and you want some spice bread, I’m in till our weekly #mercatointransizione trip at 4pm. This slice is yours 🙂

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I’m slowly working my way through the entire back catalogue of @fat_pig_farm’s Gourmet Farmer. Yesterday’s episode was set in France and at the end Matthew (the gourmet and farmer of the title) sat in a square and enjoyed some traditionally-processed local duck.
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He said: “You always need more duck fat in your life”.
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I agree.
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Here it is, with dripping, on my sourdough spelt.

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I have never cooked live on camera – but I will be, next Friday! This is what I’ll be demonstrating – a sourdough discard sweet rye spice loaf. It’s a bread I’ve made countless times over the last three years, so hopefully I’ll be able to talk and mix at the same time!
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My Ancestral Kitchen podcast co-host @farmandhearth will also be demonstrating lemon mousse and root beer. All three recipes come from Nourishing Traditions, the wonderful cookbook that we spent all of our last podcast episode raving about!
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The interactive workshop is available live (and in perpetuity) to the patrons of our podcast. Check out our IG account @ancestralkitchenpodcast if you want to know more.
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And if you want more mouth-watering previews, I’ll pop some pics in my stories in a mo and you can find the recipe on which this rye spice bread is based on page 491 of Nourishing Traditions.

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Whether you put a cover on your sourdough whilst baking makes a huge difference.
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Here we have two loaves made from the same dough. It’s spelt flour mixed 50/50 with spent beer mash (which was barley and rye). The left loaf was cooked in an open tin, the right one in covered tin.
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The crust is lighter on the left because it dried out. With a moist bread like this, it doesn’t really matter that much. But with the sourdough millet and sorghum bread I make not having a lid leaves me with a top that disintegrates into crumbs when I slice.
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You do not need to have expensive equipment to ‘lid’ a bread. I have a loaf in the oven right now resting on a pizza stone and covered in a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Works a treat.
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Do you lid your breads?

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I love ancestral food. In addition, photographing what goes on in my kitchen is a way for me to create and express beauty.
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Many would judge this picture as anything but beautiful. I grew up in that ‘many’ and can feel its ties making me hesitate before posting.
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Food that comes in plastic packets; cuts of meat that come from the middle of an animal; ready meals – these things do not give a clear visual cue of what they were. Because of this, it’s easier for us to not care how that animal lived.
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To me, witnessing a scene like this is a moment of beauty. The reverence that it calls forth in me; the gravity with which it makes me grateful; the respect it gives me for all that a sustainable food system gives and takes.
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It’s a duck that will nourish my family; one that was cared for by Flavio. I’ll use all the organs. I’ll make stock from the bones.
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It has a face.
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And it’s beautiful.

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In the last 10 years, I’ve moved over 10 times. And two of those moves have been across continents. There is only *one* cookbook that has stayed with me, on every shelf: Nourishing Traditions by @sallyfallonmorell
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This book floored me when I first stumbled on it. It not only has over 600+ pages of ancestral recipes; each one of those pages also has the most amazing research notes in the margins.
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I am in awe of Sally’s creative process – it’s a masterpiece of ancestral food and one that I hope will stay on my shelf for many years to come.
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In today’s @ancestralkitchenpodcast, Andrea and I talk about this book – how we came across it, what it means to us and our favourite recipes. You can listen by searching for Ancestral Kitchen in your podcast app, or by streaming from my site (link in profile).
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Because there is just *so* much to love about this book, we’ll also be doing a live Zoom cook-up of three of the recipes on Friday July 30th at 7am PST, 3pm BST, 4pm CEST. Patrons of the podcast can come and join in the fun for free. If you want more details, head over to the IG account we made for the podcast @ancestralkitchenpodcast and check out the Patreon link.
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Do you have Nourishing Traditions? What does it mean to you?

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The best thing about new potatoes in my book is cooking them, leaving them in the fridge a couple of days and the giving them a serious fry up in lard – until they are well and truly golden and almost crack when you bite into them.
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Are you with me?

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