[Sca-cooks] Accidental sourdough, krauting failure and random stuff

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Tue Dec 15 04:20:46 PST 2009


On Dec 15, 2009, at 5:49 AM, Volker Bach wrote:

> Random news:
>
> I was hoping to try to a recipe for flatbread made of soaked and  
> crushed spelt grains, but didn't have the time last Wednesday. The  
> soaked grains attracted a sourdough culture, so I pureed them, added  
> spelt and whole wheat flour and baked the result this morning. It  
> turned out surprisingly good. So far, this is the best result I've  
> had with wild cultures. Maybe winter is a good time.

They also say that kitchens build up the right spores too. Maybe part  
of the culture can be kept in a fridge and used in more recipes.

> The krauting went bad. I got the right fermentation judging by the  
> smell, but the top grew mould. I suspect the cabbage simply didn't  
> 'sweat' enough water. Maybe next time I need to add extra water from  
> the start.

Let's see success in bread but bad kraut.
My mother grew up with her grandmothers making homemade sauerkraut,  
but I can't remember ever making it with my
grandmothers.
It's one of those domestic arts that calls for space at the right  
temperature. Who has that coolish back room these days?

http://www.wildfermentation.com/ and http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/sauerkraut.html
offer some hints.

>
> And a final OOP question: does anyone know whether potato strains  
> have changed greatly in the past 40 or so years? I tried recipes  
> from the 1940s-1960s for potato-based dumplings, pie crust and  
> bread, and I always need massively more flour than the recipes say  
> before the dough starts becoming viable.. I bought 'mealy' potatos,  
> but they didn't feel very mealy. Is it just a matter of 'excrement  
> occurs' or is it down to the new strains? Mealy is out of fashion, I  
> gather. YIS
>
> Giano

The Botany of Desire program broadcast on television over here last  
month was pointing out that we are growing potatoes now for french fries
and MacDonalds french fries at that. This monoculture of course can be  
wiped out by one pest or one disease. That's the market.

One can find a number of articles on the internet that deal with which  
modern potato works best with which recipe.
http://germanfood.about.com/od/potatoesandnoodles/a/potatotypes.htm  
for instance.

I suspect if you look in the larger housekeeping/cooking encyclopedias  
of a few years/decades back, you might find a
section on the potato that will tell you which were being grown, their  
attributes, when in season and what recipes were best. If you take  
that information and go to a good produce market, you might find some  
of the older varieties. It might be worth asking.

The other possibility just suggested by web search is that all the  
older recipes need more flour because
flour was added as needed.
http://www.annamariavolpi.com/austrian-knoedel.html  says

"You might need a whole lot more flour than expected that depends a  
lot on the eggs and the remaining water in the potatoes."

I found several more pages of websites that say the same thing. It's  
not an uncommon problem.

Hope this helps

Johnnae







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