I've done starter before. It's pretty fun. If your starter doesn't come toegether the way you want, there's a group of poeple on the web who will send you a free packet of their freeze-dried starter which works pretty well. It used to be sent by a guy in Oregon, and when he died a group of fellow breadmakers took over the distribution. It's about 100 years old at this point.
Oddly, I understand that although you could import a starter from somewhere (be it Oregon, San Francisco, Uzbekistan, or wherever), over the course of a couple of weeks your local bacteria will take it over and it will become effectively the same as a starter you built from scratch.
Which, in my opinion, is cool as shit. Although it means that getting a 100-150 year old starter is slightly less cool. It's still neat.
That's somewhat true, if you have local bacteria that are sour enough for use. Many kitchens aren't hot enough to have the natural culture of bacteria that full-time bakeries do.
Also, a lot of people keep their culture in a tupperware in the fridge, which inhibits local invasion to some degree.
Hmm. Pancakes have never been my thing; on the other hand, I've loved sourdough bread since we lived near an artisan bakery when I was a kid up in Seattle. I don't think finding excuses to make sourdough boules will be that difficult.
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The La Brea Bakery bread book is really cool too.
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Which, in my opinion, is cool as shit. Although it means that getting a 100-150 year old starter is slightly less cool. It's still neat.
Microbes, microbes, yay!
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Also, a lot of people keep their culture in a tupperware in the fridge, which inhibits local invasion to some degree.
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There's something that's just too cool about starter. Microbes, microbes, yay!
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