The Sourdough Trials
Jul. 14th, 2008 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sareaSo, I have 3 new pets. Their names are Italy (Camaldoli), Italy (Ischia Island), and France.
Who or what are these new pets? you might ask. They are sourdough starters! I have learned SO MUCH about bread and bread making, particularly about "wild yeasts" versus the packaged yeast that you get in the grocery store. The biggest difference between the two is that the latter is made for one-time use, while wild yeasts go into starters, which can live forever if you take care of it. I honestly had no idea that there were different yeast types and that each yeast culture produces a completely different-tasting bread. Commercial breads not so much, because they're all using that specialized strain of "active dry baker's yeast" that's been developed to 'perfection' over the years, but this totally explains why bread from different bakeries taste different/have different texture, and maybe even why we can't get the same kind of bagels and pizza on the west coast that New York has (though of course other factors come into play, such as water type, humidity, elevation, etc.)! Bakers guard their (successful) starters like gold, as you might imagine.
You can actually catch wild yeast on your own and develop your own culture. You just need to set out a mixture of flour/water and wait to catch two organisms -- the right yeast and the right bacteria that will live with it in symbiosis to develop a working culture. The problem is that you don't know that this particular yeast or culture will create bread that tastes any good. Maybe one day I'll create my own culture and name it after my town or something, but I wanted my first sourdough starters to have the best possible chance to thrive and be good. I ordered mine from www.sourdo.com and got Ed Wood's book as well; he's basically made sourdoughs and yeast development his life's work.
I ordered three yeast cultures from the site -- starters from a bakery in France, one from an island in Italy, and another one from Italy that comes from a 200-year-old bakery. Ancient yeast! Currently in my living room!
Why is it in my living room, you ask. Well, the yeast comes to you in dry form. You have to follow some very specific steps to activate it and get it to a working state. I went to Lowe's and bought the stuff necessary to make a "proofing box." Unfortunately I went through all the steps and my cultures still got contaminated, like this guy's. About 18 hours into the first proofing period I noticed that the hooch had settled to the bottom or middle of each culture (it's supposed to be on top), which is one of the signs of contamination. Plus they were very foamy and strong smelling, so it was 3 strikes, you're contaminated. The cool thing is that when I emailed help@sourdo.com, Dr. Wood himself replied specifically to talk about what was going on with my cultures!
It has nothing to do with the quality of the cultures purchased from the site; every culture has a chance to get contaminated through organisms that are already present in the flour you use (I'm using King Arthur all-purpose flour, which comes from hard wheat, aka has strong gluten). When this happens you have to "wash" the culture. You have to do this every 6-12 hours, typically for 5-6 days. You have to wash it and feed it each time, and hope that the good organisms win out over the bad.
All the washing and feeding takes a lot of flour, especially for three cultures, and I'm only on the second day. Sigh. It would be a little disheartening to see almost no activity going on (like, did I just totally kill it?), if not for reading about the guy above and Dr. Wood's Classic Sourdoughs book that says it is a process that will take several days. Here's to hoping that I see some positive results by day 5!
It's a lot of work and effort, especially to start. The activation period, when it doesn't go perfectly, can be a pain. And thereafter, just like a real pet (we are dealing with living organisms, after all), you have to 'feed' the culture every time you use it, so that it always multiplies and replenishes itself, and when you've let it go too long without using, you have to re-activate, but I think it will be worth it. Delicious, healthy, natural bread, made the old-fashioned way, and none of that tasteless baker's yeast crap. Plus, with the price of bread getting ever-higher these days, it'll also hopefully save me money in the long run -- and for the better stuff!
I've always enjoyed cooking/baking, but recently it's gotten to be an obsession. Maybe because I've recently gone back to my diet of two years ago when I lost all that weight, so I'm having to cook at home a lot, or maybe that interest has finally ratcheted up to become an obsession the way WoW or fanfic used to be obsessions!
Who or what are these new pets? you might ask. They are sourdough starters! I have learned SO MUCH about bread and bread making, particularly about "wild yeasts" versus the packaged yeast that you get in the grocery store. The biggest difference between the two is that the latter is made for one-time use, while wild yeasts go into starters, which can live forever if you take care of it. I honestly had no idea that there were different yeast types and that each yeast culture produces a completely different-tasting bread. Commercial breads not so much, because they're all using that specialized strain of "active dry baker's yeast" that's been developed to 'perfection' over the years, but this totally explains why bread from different bakeries taste different/have different texture, and maybe even why we can't get the same kind of bagels and pizza on the west coast that New York has (though of course other factors come into play, such as water type, humidity, elevation, etc.)! Bakers guard their (successful) starters like gold, as you might imagine.
You can actually catch wild yeast on your own and develop your own culture. You just need to set out a mixture of flour/water and wait to catch two organisms -- the right yeast and the right bacteria that will live with it in symbiosis to develop a working culture. The problem is that you don't know that this particular yeast or culture will create bread that tastes any good. Maybe one day I'll create my own culture and name it after my town or something, but I wanted my first sourdough starters to have the best possible chance to thrive and be good. I ordered mine from www.sourdo.com and got Ed Wood's book as well; he's basically made sourdoughs and yeast development his life's work.
I ordered three yeast cultures from the site -- starters from a bakery in France, one from an island in Italy, and another one from Italy that comes from a 200-year-old bakery. Ancient yeast! Currently in my living room!
Why is it in my living room, you ask. Well, the yeast comes to you in dry form. You have to follow some very specific steps to activate it and get it to a working state. I went to Lowe's and bought the stuff necessary to make a "proofing box." Unfortunately I went through all the steps and my cultures still got contaminated, like this guy's. About 18 hours into the first proofing period I noticed that the hooch had settled to the bottom or middle of each culture (it's supposed to be on top), which is one of the signs of contamination. Plus they were very foamy and strong smelling, so it was 3 strikes, you're contaminated. The cool thing is that when I emailed help@sourdo.com, Dr. Wood himself replied specifically to talk about what was going on with my cultures!
It has nothing to do with the quality of the cultures purchased from the site; every culture has a chance to get contaminated through organisms that are already present in the flour you use (I'm using King Arthur all-purpose flour, which comes from hard wheat, aka has strong gluten). When this happens you have to "wash" the culture. You have to do this every 6-12 hours, typically for 5-6 days. You have to wash it and feed it each time, and hope that the good organisms win out over the bad.
All the washing and feeding takes a lot of flour, especially for three cultures, and I'm only on the second day. Sigh. It would be a little disheartening to see almost no activity going on (like, did I just totally kill it?), if not for reading about the guy above and Dr. Wood's Classic Sourdoughs book that says it is a process that will take several days. Here's to hoping that I see some positive results by day 5!
It's a lot of work and effort, especially to start. The activation period, when it doesn't go perfectly, can be a pain. And thereafter, just like a real pet (we are dealing with living organisms, after all), you have to 'feed' the culture every time you use it, so that it always multiplies and replenishes itself, and when you've let it go too long without using, you have to re-activate, but I think it will be worth it. Delicious, healthy, natural bread, made the old-fashioned way, and none of that tasteless baker's yeast crap. Plus, with the price of bread getting ever-higher these days, it'll also hopefully save me money in the long run -- and for the better stuff!
I've always enjoyed cooking/baking, but recently it's gotten to be an obsession. Maybe because I've recently gone back to my diet of two years ago when I lost all that weight, so I'm having to cook at home a lot, or maybe that interest has finally ratcheted up to become an obsession the way WoW or fanfic used to be obsessions!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 02:14 am (UTC)This reminds me - when I was little, my mom totally had "starters" - they were like, underground, my grandmother got them from a friend who knew a guy. There were two starters, one was for an Irish Soda bread or something, and the other I can't recall -- my mom will probably remember.
Anyway, we totally had awesome bread for like a year using these starters, and then I think they got killed in the '94 earthquake or something. Had totally forgotten about it 'til now!!
Awesome that you can actually order them! Mmmmm bread. You know how I feel about bread and its many varied nuances.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 05:21 pm (UTC)Awww that those starters died, that would have been a neat family heirloom, assuming of course that your grandmother's descendants had any interest in baking. :))
The best thing about ordering them of course is that you get cultures you wouldn't normally be able to get -- like the real 'authentic' San Francisco sourdough, stuff from bakeries in France/Italy, etc. If the current cultures I'm working on are a bust, I'm going to order the SF one and then maybe try to catch my own yeast/bacteria!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 05:15 pm (UTC)Anyway, way more background than you needed, but I have to say, it IS very scientific and fun! I always liked science experiments in school ... I just didn't like tests, lol.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 05:17 pm (UTC)I'm on day #3 of 'washing' and nothing is happening yet. Maybe, like many other living things in my care (mostly plants), I have killed my cultures. Cry.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 08:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-16 04:26 pm (UTC)