[Sca-cooks] Starter went 'Pffft'

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Chris Stanifer:
>--- Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>>  The "sour" in sourdough doesn't refer to the taste, it refers to the
>>  spontaneous fermentation.  You are "souring" the starter.
>
>
>Please direct me to the references for this statement.  I believe 
>there may be some misinformation
>in it.

Hmmm. You've made a starter which has evidently picked up some 
airborne yeasts, which you hope to culture and use as bread 
leavening. You note that it's starting to bubble, but not yet sour. 
Am I remembering that correctly?

I think the point of Bear's statement is that the purpose of a 
sourdough starter, assuming you're using it to leaven, is that it has 
airborne yeasts cultured in it, and these yeasts, in the early stages 
of the culture, have not mutated and begun to produce sour 
by-products, nor have lactobacilli had a chance to get into the 
picture, which is why your sourdough isn't sour tasting yet. However, 
it is still sourdough, and a good way to get it to taste more sour is 
to use it a time or two.

An example along similar lines might be the fact that sauerkraut has 
had that lactic fermentation take place, whereas cabbage pickled with 
vinegar is just pickled cabbage, even though it is sour...

Okay, so the examples ain't helping. I tried ;-)

Adamantius

-- 






"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If they have no bread, you have to say, let them eat 
brioche."
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", pub 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04