[Sca-cooks] Fermentation Sponge Question
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sun Apr 1 19:23:00 PDT 2007
Aldyth asked:
<<<< Does anyone have experience in whether starting the sponge with
certain
kinds of flour determine what kind of sponge it will ultimately
become? For
example using a lower gluten flour versus a higher gluten flour.>>>
The biggest determinante is not what the sponge is made of, but what
yeasts are present in the environment in which you are creating the
sponge. Are you just putting the sponge in the open and letting
whatever is floating around the room invade the sponge? Or are you
inoculating it with a particular yeast? The latter is what you are
doing when you add ale barm or some yeast from a previous batch of
bread to your sponge.
Some yeasts are likely to do better in some sponges than in other
sponges, however since most will probably work in any sponge, the
biggest factor is going to be the one that gets the best head start.
The micro-environment around the sponge will affect the winner to
some degree. This is why San Francisco was known for its sour-dough
bread. And why a friend in my barony, who is an avid brewer, could
not leave orange juice uncovered in his kitchen for any length of
time, or it would start fermenting. His kitchen had a lot of yeasts
he had used in brewing floating throughout his kitchen. I believe
folks have also mentioned intentionally not brewing vinegars and
beverages in the same area.
I believe this is talked about in the yeasts-msg file in the
Florilegium, which I mentioned earlier in this thread.
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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