[Sca-cooks] Sourdough (was Starter went 'Pffft')

[Stephen Bloch]

Thom Leonard, in _The Bread Book_, describes two very different kinds 
of yeast cultures that might at least loosely be called "sourdough". 
The San Francisco style is normally stored and incubated in liquid 
form at relatively high temperatures (say, 70-80F), and produces a 
sharp, sour flavor.  The French style, which Leonard prefers, is 
stored and incubated in solid form at lower temperatures (50-65F), 
and produces a "fruity" flavor.  To be precise, Leonard recommends a 
two-stage life cycle: the longer "chef" phase, which looks like a 
tennis ball of fairly firm dough, developing a dry and disposable 
crust on the outside; and the "levain" phase, a larger and softer 
ball of dough which is kept for no more than 24 hours before making 
bread and a new "chef".

I've baked with both of these, in different periods of my life: a 
liquid starter given to me for "Friendship Bread", and a chef/levain 
cycle which, from time to time, I've fortified with commercial dry 
yeast.  Sometimes the latter has turned out quite sour too, but 
usually at that point it's not working very well for rising anyway, 
and can be thrown away.  At other times, it really does smell 
"fruity".
-- 
                                     John Elys
          (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)
                                 mka Stephen Bloch
                                 sbloch at adelphi.edu