#42 - How To Get (&amp; Grind) The Best Flour For Bread

Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics

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The Run Down:

6:20 Where Elly sources her grains

11.20 Why Elly grinds grains at home for sourdough and what the benefits are

"When you freshly grind, you really can tell the difference!"

17.40 Elly's home stone mill and how it works

19.50 The differences between Alison's and Elly's mills

21.50 The difference between roller-milled and stone-ground flour

27.30 The grains (and legumes) Elly uses

33.40 Elly's whole process, start to finish

"I freezer-treat all my grains"

38.00 Alison's weevil attack and how someone with a small freezer could freeze grains.

45.45 Freezing flour (listen here to hear *the* way to defrost too)

49.30 How long to do grains last and how does that differ from flour

53.10 Using freshly-milled flour for a sourdough starter

57.00 How to get the best possible flour when you're on a budget

55.30 What Elly's up to now on her YouTube channel

"It's the detail that overwhelms people...I explain the things that matter; that really make a difference and the gloss over the rest."

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"Find a supplier of as locally sourced grains as possible...find a mill; a coop and support them!"

If you're a bread-maker, this episode's for you.

We welcome back the fabulous Elly from Elly's Everyday to the podcast to talk about the heart of bread, its raw material: grains and flour.

During this episode you'll hear Elly's wisdom on:

Sourcing grains and flour for bread
Grinding grains into flour at home, including why you would want to do it and how Elly grinds hers
The vital difference between the two ways flours are produced: stone-grinding and roller milling
Why and how Elly freezes her grains and what you must remember when defrosting
How to get the best possible flour even when you can't afford a home-mill
And Elly talks us through her whole grain process - from choosing and buying through to mixing the dough.

Elly has two hugely popular YouTube channels and has helped thousands of people with making wholegrain sourdough, we're so grateful to her for bringing us her wisdom!

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Get more news from Alison & Andrea by signing up to their newsletter at the top of the page here.

For more tips, inspiration and recipes plus a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains sign up for Alison's newsletter here!

Get our two podcast cookbooks:

Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics

Get 10% off US/Canada Bokashi supplies: click here and use code AKP.

Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop for a vast selection of ancestral cookbooks: US link here and UK link here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Our podcast is supported by a community of ancestral cooks around the world!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Run Down:

6:20 Where Elly sources her grains

11.20 Why Elly grinds grains at home for sourdough and what the benefits are

"When you freshly grind, you really can tell the difference!"

17.40 Elly's home stone mill and how it works

19.50 The differences between Alison's and Elly's mills

21.50 The difference between roller-milled and stone-ground flour

27.30 The grains (and legumes) Elly uses

33.40 Elly's whole process, start to finish

"I freezer-treat all my grains"

38.00 Alison's weevil attack and how someone with a small freezer could freeze grains.

45.45 Freezing flour (listen here to hear *the* way to defrost too)

49.30 How long to do grains last and how does that differ from flour

53.10 Using freshly-milled flour for a sourdough starter

57.00 How to get the best possible flour when you're on a budget

55.30 What Elly's up to now on her YouTube channel

"It's the detail that overwhelms people...I explain the things that matter; that really make a difference and the gloss over the rest."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5* reviews on Apple Podcasts, mean the world to us!

Here's how you can leave one:

Open the Apple Podcast app
Find Ances...

Previous Episode

#41 - Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics

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 is a rye sourdough bread expert - she has made hundreds of loaves over the span of years, and she has honed-in on a lot of the specific nuances and details of working with this amazing, delicious whole grain. In this episode, Alison breaks down some of her favorite reasons for using rye bread, and discusses her newly launched course - Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics.

With this course, I wanted to explain everything about rye sourdough starter; explain why rye is so wonderful, explain how rye works, how it's different from wheat. I wanted to walk people through two recipes that will enable them to understand rye, make it in their own kitchens, and, at the end of the course, be ready to start making the two loaves covered in the course or carry on experimenting with it. - Alison

Alison's course is a work of love and dedication and the produce of many years of rye failures, retries, and eventually successes! You can download her course at www.ancestralkitchen.com/rye, and podcast listeners can use the code PODCAST15 to get 15% off!

Rye has a different type of gluten than wheat. A lot of people who have ... sensitivities to gluten, may be able to eat rye. - Alison

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Get more news from Alison & Andrea by signing up to their newsletter at the top of the page here.

For more tips, inspiration and recipes plus a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains sign up for Alison's newsletter here!

Get our two podcast cookbooks:

Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics

Get 10% off US/Canada Bokashi supplies: click here and use code AKP.

Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop for a vast selection of ancestral cookbooks: US link here and UK link here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Our podcast is supported by a community of ancestral cooks around the world!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bread is a fundamental - it's a staple... It's so portable, practical, flexible, calorie-dense. It provides a simple meal in such a glorious way. - Alison

The Run Down:

08:00 Rye Sourdough Bread

10:00 Benefit 1: Gluten Content

16:10 Benefit 2: Taste

17:40 Borodinsky Bread

20:57 Ageing Breads

24:41 Whole Grain/Wholemeal Rye Flour

Huh. What do I know? I don't know how to eat soft eggs and I don't know what pumpernickel flour is. - Andrea

29:47 A tease - upcoming episode with Elly of Elly's Everyday Sourdough! You all asked for this topic!

30:30 Benefit 3: All About the Starter - and listen for the versatile ways Alison uses it!

36:10 Discard Uses

36:30 Alis...

Next Episode

#43 Fertility - It's More Than Just Pregnancy!

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was about fourteen... My periods were heavy and irregular... The doctor put me on the Pill at fourteen... I was about 27 when I stopped taking the Pill. - Alison

Fertility is an indication of peak health - a healthy human should be fertile for as long as possible. This indicates optimal endocrine, metabolic and nervous system functioning, as well as adequate-to-optimal nourishment. In our modern-day thinking, we have reduced fertility to simply something you look at when you want to get pregnant, and we casually ignore warning signs from our body when our fertility, metabolic and endocrine systems are crashing.

In this episode, we recount Alison's incredible fertility journey, what the doctors told her about her hopes of ever conceiving naturally, and what she found as a solution.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Get more news from Alison & Andrea by signing up to their newsletter at the top of the page here.

For more tips, inspiration and recipes plus a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains sign up for Alison's newsletter here!

Get our two podcast cookbooks:

Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics

Get 10% off US/Canada Bokashi supplies: click here and use code AKP.