[Sca-cooks] Starter went 'Pffft'

[Chris Stanifer]

--- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:

> I think I've found the problem.

> Apparently, according to English Bread and Yeast Cookery, English bakers 
> make sourdough by making a tame yeast sponge and sitting it out until it 
> goes sour.
> 
> Americans, however, do a three step process, where they start with the 
> flour-water slurry and wait for it to bubble, then make a sponge, etc.
> 
> In other words, Americans require WILD YEAST to make a sourdough, while 
> the English are content to wait for wild lactobacilli to infect a tame 
> yeast sponge.


In both cases, they require the use and action of lactobacillic bacteria to produce a genuine
sourdough, not just WILD YEAST, as you emphasize.  A wild yeast starter is just that...a starter. 
It is not a sourdough until it sours, which means BECOME SOUR.


> One from Laura Ingals Wilder, writing of 
> her girlhood in the 1870s, having little to nothing to do with San 
> Francisco:
> 
> "But how do you make the sour dough?" Mrs. Boast asked.
> "You start it," said Ma, "by putting some flour and warm water in a jar 
> and letting it stand till it sours."


"...and letting it stand till it sours."  You'll notice she did not write "..and letting it stand
till it begins to bubble", which would be an indication that wild yeast had inocculated the
starter, and would support your misguided theory.  No, she wrote "until it sours."  Next...


> Writing in _The Little House Cookbook_, Barbara M. Walker says, "A 
> sour-dough starter is leaven that develops from microscopic WILD YEAST 
> and bacteria present in the air."

You'll notice she wrote "and bacteria".  This implies the presence of lactoblahblahblah bacteria,
a souring agent.  I noticed that you refused to emphasize the AND BACTERIA part of that quote...

> 
> >From _Real Bread_ by Maggie Baylis and Coralie Castle: "A 'starter' is 
> the beginning of all sourdough breads;


Yes...a 'starter' is the beginning of all sourdough breads.  Exactly what I have been saying this
whole time.  If it is not sour, it is NOT a sourdough starter...it is merely a 'starter', as your
own author affirms.  Check back through my messages...you'll see this point brought up at least 3
times, I think.  Further from the same author....


> it looks like thick pancake 
> batter, is basically flour and water (some call for dry milk, another 
> for potato water, etc.) that is set in a warm place where it will, you 
> hope, capture wild yeast spores out of the air and maintain them... the 
> older the starter, the more tangy its behavior."


"the older the starter, the more tangy it's behavior."  'Tangy' implies acidity or sourness, which
implies the presence of lactobacillic bacteria, which implies an intentional attempt to capture
same, and put them to use in a sourdough starter.  It is not the yeast spores, as this author
suggests, which cause the dough to become tangy.... and that has been proven already.


> 
> from _Bake your Own Bread_ by Floss and Stan Dworkin: "What is 
> sourdough? Actually, it's _free yeast_.... If you can encourage wild 
> yeast to grow in a favorable medium (such as a wet and warm mixture made 
> from milk and flour) they will multiply and act for you like prepackaged 
> yeast-- with the major difference that the taste is a 'sour,' winey, 
> rich flavor... 


The terms 'sour' and 'winey' in this instance implicate lactobacillic bacteria, though the author
is obviously ignorant of their presence in the starter, and assume it is the yeast which are
turning the starter sour.  Yeast doesn't do it... bacteria does.  We can't base a debate on the
ignorance of a single author, and we certainly cannot offer them up as 'experts', if they do not
even know the 'why' behind the 'what'.




> >From _World Sourdoughs from Antiquity_ by Ed Wood:
> "A true sourdough is nothing more than flour and water with WILD YEAST 
> to make it rise and special bacteria to provide the flavor...

Again, you have placed emphasis on the WILD YEAST...but totally ignored the SPECIAL BACTERIA TO
PROVIDE THE FLAVOR in the same line.  This is your fabled 'Ed Wood'... the one you have been going
on about this whole time.... and even he attests that it is the bacteria which provides the flavor
in a sourdough.  Here's a snippet from your own quote, which should dispell any further debate on
this subject.  I have changed your own emphasis, to emphasize the true crux of this argument:


 The 
> wild yeast make it rise, and *BACTERIAL HELPERS PRODUCE THE FLAVOR*. These 
> beneficial bacteria are primarily lactobacilli, so named because they 
> produce lactic acid, which contributes to the *SOUR FLAVOR*. And they 
> don't do it very fast. Experience has shown that the lactobacilli 
> require approximately 12 hours to fully develop the *AUTHENTIC TASTE OF THE SOURDOUGH*..."


So, there it is, in a nutshell.  Your own experts attest to the sour flavor and action of
lactobacillic bacteria on the 'starter', and a distinctly sour taste in the finished dough.  So,
we can finally put to rest this debate, and agree that a starter which is not allowed to sour, is
NOT a sourdough starter.  It is merely a 'starter', and a bread made with it cannot be termed a
'sourdough'.

William de Grandfort


=====
Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites me.


		
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