Ancestral Kitchen

If we understand the importance of eating nose to tail, preparing bone broth and fermenting our grains, we understand that these ancestral principles for preparing food help our body to benefit more from the food we are eating and to avoid some of the damaging effects of industrial foods.
But are there other areas in our life where industrialized habits, behaviors and products are damaging our bodies and lives and are there ancestral, traditional ways of living we can look back at and try to imitate or recreate in our lives today, for optimal human thriving, longevity and happiness?
Yes, there absolutely are. There are ways of ancestral living that reach beyond the doors of the kitchen that support our habits in the kitchen, and our habits in the kitchen support our life outside. It’s all inextricably interconnected. In this episode we talk about what some of these ancestral aspects of modern life are, and how we have been integrating them and what you can do to bring them into your life today.
We have a further aftershow on our private supporter podcast, Kitchen Table Chats, where we discuss some important habits to cultivate, and we dropped a lot of links and resources in the show notes to support all of what we are discussing today. Rather than push our body to the limits of its tolerance, let's place ourselves in a prime position for thriving and succeeding, and enjoying our life more every day.
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Sign up to the pod's newsletter here.
Get a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains
Read our Guide to Milling Your Own Flour
Get all three of the podcast cookbooks
Wear our beautiful, sustainable merchandise
Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics
Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course
Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop: US here and UK here.
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Come join the podcast community! You can select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion group Find out more here!
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If you love the show, leave us a 5* reviews on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Apple Podcast app and find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews', click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening

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Resources:
Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth
Whoop sleep study (one of many!)
Episode 76: Essential Oils in an Ancestral Kitchen
Episode 37: A Peek into Alison and Rob's Ancestral Lifestyle
Episode 12: Why I Gave Away My iPhone
Decluttering help from Minimal Mom on YouTube
Whoop Podcast (they are on YouTube also)
Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne - signs of PTSD in children in heavily programmed lives matching signs of PTSD in children raised in war zones
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Whole Body Barefoot: Transitioning Well to Minimal Footwear by Katy Bowman
Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman
Nutritious Movement, Katy's website
Xero Shoes
Many, many styles of barefoot shoes for all ages and styles: Anya's Reviews
e-Ink Screen devices
Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? Visit our website here for how to share
The podcast has a website here!
Stay in touch with Alison via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen
The podcast is on You Tube here
The podcast is mixed and the music created by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay

Eggs seem the simplest of foods, right? Why would someone write a book with over 800 egg recipes? We both have this book: "Too Many Eggs", and it has blown our minds with its plethora of recipes, practical tips and fascinating history.
So we were very excited to talk to its author, Mimi Smith Dvorak. In this episode, she shares with us the story of this book. We talk about the crazy lengths she went to when researching and some of our favourite recipes in it. We also talk about the practicalities of eggs, with some really helpful tips on how to work with them including a deep dive into mayonnaise, with her expert tips from having made it over and over again. Along the way, we talk about sustainable food, her incredible historic cookbook collection and much more.
This is a fun episode, and with the book that you can buy in hardback or download free as a PDF from toomanyeggs.com, you'll never look at eggs the same way again.
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Sign up to the pod's newsletter here.
Get a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains
Read our Guide to Milling Your Own Flour
Get all three of the podcast cookbooks
Wear our beautiful, sustainable merchandise
Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics
Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course
Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop: US here and UK here.
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Come join the podcast community! You can select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion group Find out more here!
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The personal views and opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect our own personal views or opinions. We recognize that our guests are whole persons and this may include views we or our audience actively disagree with; our guests are invited to the show because we feel they have something valuable to share with us all, and we do not ask them to censor their personal views on air. Our sharing of their work is not necessarily an endorsement of their personal views.
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If you love the show, leave us a 5* reviews on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Apple Podcast app and find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews', click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening

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Resources:
Get a copy of "Too Many Eggs" from Mimi's website. You can buy a hardback there, or you can download a PDF copy for free.
You can also, in the US, buy "Too Many Eggs" from our Amazon-free online bookstore. In doing so, you'll be supporting the podcast.
Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? Visit our website here for how to share
The podcast has a website here!
Stay in touch with Alison via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen
The podcast is on You Tube here
The podcast is mixed and the music created by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay

Whether it's anticipating busy days between work and school, heavy project days writing or working in the garden or canning, postpartum or surgery recovery period - there are many reasons why having a stocked freezer supplied with ready to go meals and ingredients is an enormous benefit to living an ancestral, locavore style life. For many reasons - financial, ingredient concerns, sourcing concerns, access - many of us are not able to rely on the fallback of quick easy prepared foods from a grocery store or restaurants, and many of us don't have a village around us that can supply emergency meals in time of need, much less meals that would comply with our sometimes complicated or weird dietary requirements.
Building the routine of freezer stacking has been invaluable for our family, and in this episode I hope to share some of the ideas, meals and ingredients that have been helpful for us. Of course I thought of many more as soon as we finished recording, but there is plenty here to work with!
There is a bonus download for this episode available to all listeners, where we included recipe links for many of the foods we are going to discuss. If you are in our supporter community, we look forward to hearing your freezer ideas and contributions in our discussion boards on Discord. Let’s get the ideas flowing and keep those freezers stocked!
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Sign up to the pod's newsletter here.
Get a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains
Read our Guide to Milling Your Own Flour
Get all three of the podcast cookbooks
Wear our beautiful, sustainable merchandise
Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics
Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course
Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop: US here and UK here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Come join the podcast community! You can select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion group Find out more here!
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What we talked about:
Leah's business, which relies on freezers!
The free bonus download for this episode
Why and when freezer meals can play an important role
Ideas to consider when planning your freezer meals
All-in-one prepared meals and casseroles
Sidekicks, or parts of meals that can be paired with more
Prepped ingredients, meant to be use in a dish
Containers and storage solutions

The personal views and opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect our own personal views or opinions. We recognize that our guests are whole persons and this may include views we or our audience actively disagree with; our guests are invited to the show because we feel they have something valuable to share with us all, and we do not ask them to censor their personal views on air. Our sharing of their work is not necessarily an endorsement of their personal views.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If you love the show, leave us a 5* reviews on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Apple Podcast app and find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews', click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening

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Resources:
Ketchikan Sam’s podcast link or go to Ketchikan Sam’s and use code ANCESTRAL26
For more recipe links and our working notes, check the download here
Industrial Sharpie
Non-Gummy Masking Tape (I use for everything in the kitchen)
Souper Cubes
Spaghetti Sauce
Swedish Meatballs
Enchiladas
Mexican Lasagna (not Mexican, and not lasagna)
The Pastured Pork Cookbook
Meals at the Ancestral Hearth Cookbook
Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? Visit our website here for how to share
The podcast has a website here!
Stay in touch with Alison via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen
The podcast is on You Tube here
The podcast is mixed and the music created by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay

We get lots of questions from supporters and listeners about milling your own flour and thought it was about time we brought them all together a Q&A.
This episode is packed with information:
We start with troubleshooting bread made with freshly milled flour, including:
why your bread might not be rising as much
why you might have experienced your bread pancaking
and why freshly milled flour breads need more water and how best to transition to that

We then go on to talk about sifting, how to do it, and the nutritional effects.
We talk about storing grain, whether we're personally concerned with the heat that grinding grains at home produces, and then how we store excess flour.
We cover freshly milling gluten-free grains, including a deep dive into oats.
And we talk about all the other things you can use your home mill for, and there are lots of them.
Whether you have a mill or whether you're just thinking about getting a mill, this episode will bring you something new.
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Sign up to the pod's newsletter here.
Get a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains
Read our Guide to Milling Your Own Flour
Get all three of the podcast cookbooks
Wear our beautiful, sustainable merchandise
Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics
Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course
Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop: US here and UK here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Come join the podcast community! You can select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion group Find out more here!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If you love the show, leave us a 5* reviews on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Apple Podcast app and find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews', click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening

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

Resources:
Ancestral Kitchen Podcast Guide to Home Milling
The Grain Flavour Wheel Project
Alison’s article on making stone-ground oatmeal in the mockmill
Mockmill Milling Guide
Bread Lasagna
Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? Visit our website here for how to share
The podcast has a website here!
Stay in touch with Alison via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen
The podcast is on You Tube here
The podcast is mixed and the music created by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay

What was the last thing you ate? This is the question we always begin our podcast episodes with. The reason is because we always want to know what the other is fixing and cooking! What’s going on in your kitchen these days? What’s fresh and good? One of our earliest episodes recounts everything in our refrigerators at the moment! That was a lot of fun to record.
Part of what drives this interest in what we are eating is developing the ideas and understanding of what a day in the life of ancestral food looks like in a world where you may be the only person you know who is eating anything like an ancestral or ancestrally inspired diet. A world where once upon a time it would have been the norm to eat this way, but now you are trying to create a life, habits, rolling tasks, completely on your own, and without the benefit of examples from your childhood or the people around you or expert cooks who live nearby and can give suggestions and show you a good way to use up chicken carcasses or how to feed a lot of small children filling food day after day. And another reason why is - there is something intangible we learn when we travel to a place, stay in a home and break bread with someone. It is an intimate communion that tells us something about that person.
For this episode, we decided to track our meals for an entire week so you could see the shape of them - where some were more interesting, some were new and exciting, and others were leftovers, scraps, things we were just trying to use up. An ancestral diet is often made up of the mundane and simple, but exquisite foods. Pure in their sourcing, flavour, freshness but simple in their preparation and humble in their serving.
To create a supporter bonus, I reached out to our supporter community and asked if they were willing to contribute a week of their meals as well, to be published as an accompanying booklet to the episode. The incredible booklet for podcast supporters that accompanies this episode includes at last count 50 pages with about 20 delicious menus, real menus made by families eating ancestral and home prepared meals ranging in size from empty nesters to 7 children in the home, including a special weekend with 12 children to be fed!
There is also an aftershow - we wanted to go over some details from these contributed menus and we were really pushing the limit on podcast length so we continued recording some of those discussions as an aftershow which supporters can find in the podcast feed. Now without further ado, let’s find out what is on the menu in ancestral homes today.
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Sign up to the pod's newsletter here.
Get a free 30-page guide to Baking with Ancient Grains
Read our Guide to Milling Your Own Flour
Get all three of the podcast cookbooks
Wear our beautiful, sustainable merchandise
Alison's course, Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics
Alison's Sowans oat fermentation course
Visit our (non-Amazon!) bookshop: US here and UK here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Come join the podcast community! You can select from a variety of levels with benefits including monthly live calls, a private podcast feed stuffed with bonus content, and a Discord discussion group Find out more here!
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What we talked about:
What we ate
A lovely review from a listener
Why talk about a week of meals?
An incredible download for supporters, contributed to by supporters!
The beauty of the mundane
Where our concept of mealtimes came from
Alison's upper-class menu style
Alison's notes on her menu: low histamine, gluten-free, and more
Andrea's notes on her menu: winter fare, gluten-free, an outdoor week
Our week in meals, alternating days
The most common concerns listeners had about their menus
Sharing samples from some listener menus
Supporters can visit the private podcast, Kitchen Table Chats, to see the aftershow for this episode and hear more from the listener menus.

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If you love the show, leave us a 5* reviews on Apple Podcasts:
Open the Apple Podcast app and find Ancestral Kitchen Podcast in your library
Scroll down to 'ratings and reviews', click on 'write a review', give us 5*s and then tell us why you love listening

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Resources:
Supporters can download A Treasury of Ancestral Menus, Volume I in the downloads section today!
The Evolution of Mealtimes
Why and How to Study Food History - hour long YouTube lecture
The Little-Known Evolution of Lunch
The Regency Town House: Mealtimes
Megan's Ranch Seasoning
Sending in a menu? Include how many adults/children (and the children's ages!), any special dietary needs, and roughly where you are in the world (country/state or major city if you like), and Firstname/Last initial. Any other details you feel are pertinent such as sourcing, what you grew, special processing info or food prep, is all delightful and adds to much color! Photographs and recipes or instructions are welcomed. We are most interested in the menu you actually ate, not the menu that was planned - it's what actually ends up happening that tells us our story! We cannot guarantee your menu will be used in a future volume, and we are honored to receive it regardless! Volumes may be available for sale in the future and submitting information implies you consent to your material being included. Menus can be sent to info@ancestralkitchen.com.

Do you have memories, documents, recipes or stories of those who cooked ancestrally? Visit our website here for how to share
The podcast has a website here!
Stay in touch with Alison via her newsletter at Ancestral Kitchen
The podcast is on You Tube here
The podcast is mixed and the music created by Alison's husband, Rob. Find him here: Robert Michael Kay