[breadlog] Sourdough Starter Culture, Day Three.

Dec 16, 2004 10:46

I am trying my hand at sourdough. This is based upon a formula in Peter Reinhart's excellent Bread Baker's Apprentice, which I am enjoying very much.

Starter Culture, Days One and Two. )

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moominmolly December 16 2004, 12:30:55 UTC
Ooh! Keep posting about this as you do it, please!

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fengshui December 16 2004, 18:45:01 UTC
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.

The La Brea Bakery bread book is really cool too.

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fishfoo December 19 2004, 13:05:07 UTC
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.

Microbes, microbes, yay!

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fengshui December 20 2004, 18:47:45 UTC
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.

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viesti December 16 2004, 20:40:55 UTC
Mmmm *_* that sounds positively tantalizing! Please let us know how it turns out!

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flit December 17 2004, 18:49:33 UTC
I've heard that sourdough pancakes are a good excuse to use and feed your starter if you don't feel like making bread, too.

There's something that's just too cool about starter. Microbes, microbes, yay!

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fishfoo December 19 2004, 13:06:12 UTC
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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