SC - Bread Making from Platina

[Decker, Terry D.]

> We have ways to make sourdough starters, but my next question is this.
> Once on this list it was said that sourdough wasn't period.  Am I
> mistaken?  If I am correct, what else could be used for leavening that
> would be period?
> 
> Murkial
> (the new bread making fool)
> Christi Redeker
> Digital Equipment Corporation
> Colorado Springs, Colorado
> Christi.redeker at digital.com
> 
Sourdough is perfectly period.  In fact, it is probably how the Egyptians
first got leavened bread.    

The starter for my Pain de Campagne produces a fairly sour leaven.  Letting
it set out and collect a few native yeasts might make an interesting
sourdough starter.

If you had 1/4 to 1/2 cup of ale barm, you could use that as a leavening
agent to make a batch of bread and then use the batch of bread as the leaven
for your industrial strength baking.  I haven't done this--yet.  My main
brewer hasn't made any ale recently.  (Wonder where I could get a 5 gallon
stoneware crock?)

If I were trying to be authentic, I would work with ale barm, which was used
across northern Europe in period.  I am of the opinion that professional
bakers learned to cultivate yeast in period, but I think the hypothesis is
unprovable.

Bear 
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