Archive-name: food/sourdough/faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1996/10/01
Version: 1.0
URL: http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/sourdoughqa.html


Subject: 1. Introduction and Where are the FAQs? This FAQ is a collection
of excerpts from past postings to
rec.food.sourdough. They answer frequently asked questions.

The objective of this FAQ is not to duplicate information that is
easily available in the several excellent FAQs; FAQ.starter.doctor,
FAQ.sourdough, FAQ.basic_bread, and FAQ.recipes and other archived
information already in existence at the FAQ archive sites pointed to
and hot linked by URL;
http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/sourdoughfaqs.html

This URL has additional information on starter sources and a growing
number of links to resources other than the archive sites.

If you are using an ftp client the ftp archive site only is located
at;
'sunSITE.unc.edu' path
pub/academic/agriculture/rural-skills/food/sourdough/. This way
appears quite limited in number of connections permitted. I recommend
using the http server at unc if you can.

A hypertext copy of the latest version of this FAQ is at URL;
http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/sourdoughqa.html

In addition to being posted in rec.food.sourdough, rec.answers, and
news.answers monthly this faq, along with FAQ.Starter.Doctor, is also
archived at rtfm.mit.edu (18.181.0.24) in the directory
/pub/usenet/news.answers/food/sourdough/ as 'faq' and 'starter'. This
is useful if you do not have web access: the rtfm.mit.edu archival
site permits both ftp and email retrieval of these files. To obtain
these faqs, first try ftp to rtfm.mit.edu and look under that
directory. If ftp does not work from your site, then try the mail
server: send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with:

send usenet/news.answers/food/sourdough/faq or
send usenet/news.answers/food/sourdough/starter

in the body of the message.

Contributions to this FAQ gratefully received.

Authors are noted in the last section (99). The authors' first names
are at the end of each of their contributions.

------------------------------

Subject: 2. Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Where are the FAQs?

2. Table of Contents

3. What is the protein or gluten content of various flours?

4. What are some books on bread?

5. What is gluten and how does kneading develop it?

6. How do wild and commercial yeast differ?

7. Can I make bread without salt?

8. How do I stop my sourdough bread from flattening?

9. Can I use chlorinated water with my starter?

10. Does temperature of the starter have an effect on flavour?

11. What is diastatic malt?

12. What is meant by % hydration of a dough?

13. What is a sponge?

14. What is the difference between 'Classical' and 'Modern' sourdough?

15. How do I make soft buns?

16. How should I feed my starter for best results?

17. Are all starters the same?

18. What about Nancy Silverton's latest book?

19. How do I get that great crust?

20. How much starter do I need?

21. Sourdough Science 101 or How are the sourness and leavening of
starters related?

22. What is the Microbiology of San Francisco Sourdough?

+23. What about Ed Wood's latest edition of his book?

99. Authors

------------------------------

Subject: 3. What is the protein or gluten content of various flours?

Cake flour is typically 7-9% protein; pastry, or cookie, ~9-10%; all
purpose, 10-12%, bread, 12.5-13.5%, clear and high gluten, 14-15%;
gluten "flour" actually refined gluten), 45%.  The protein consists of
~80% gluten, and the gluten of cake flour is weakest, and bread and
high gluten flour the strongest, and the intermediate ones
increasingly stronger. Gluten is more of less made up of equal parts
of gliadin and glutenin.

Gluten strength definition and measurement are not entirely well
understood, even by cereal chemists.  Generally, you want the most
protein and strongest gluten for bagels and breads that also use other
poor or non-gluten flours such as rye or oat; moderately strong for
all wheat bread; weaker for pastries and cookies; still weaker for
cakes such as pound cakes; yet still weaker for "high-ratio," rich
cakes;  and weakest for angel food cakes.  One of the quality tests
for soft wheat flour is the "cookie spread test, which is one measure
of this.  There are also farinographs, elastographs, and whatnot to
further attempt to measure this elusive property.  Fortunately, with
most flours, increasing protein content goes along with increasing
gluten strength.

-Jeff

------------------------------

Subject: 4. What are some books on bread?

I happen to be passionate about bread and own approximately 25 books
on bread and have closely read numerous others.  I will try and give
you a tour of some of the books on bread, one
introductory/intermediate, two current books focussing on "artisan"
type breads and a few in the specialized to advanced category to give
you a flavor of some of the books out there.

The Laurel's Kitchen Bread book - A guide to Whole-Grain bread making
by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders and Bronwen Godfrey is perhaps one
of the best introductions to bread making.

The books is aimed at people who want to bake with whole-grains but
there is no reason you cannot use the principles with whatever form of
flour you choose.  She begins with a loaf for learning, thoroughly
explains the principles of what you are trying to achieve (for example
most books say something vague like "knead till elastic"  she give you
an objective end point - when dough is sufficiently kneaded you should
be able to stretch the dough paper thin (insufficiently kneaded dough
will tear or break long before you can stretch it this thin).  She
covers a wide variety of breads and methods, explains the effects of
various ingredients and additives and has some unique material - for
example she extols a Flemish "Desem" starter.  She has tables to help
you find recipes that fit into your schedule and adapt recipes to any
baking schedule you choose.  Everything she says is accurate (no small
feat if you consider some of the stuff below). From the point of view
of sourdough she is not a purist & in the context of a general book on
bread I have no major quibble with that.  The only flaw if you can
call it one is there are no glossy pictures to inspire you.  This is
an issue because unfortunately many modern books have awfully good
pictures that illustrate some important points (e.g. what does an
"open" crumb vs fine crumb look like etc).  It is sparsely referenced
but has a few very authoritative references (Pyler "Baking Science and
Technology" for example). A must buy for anyone learning to bake.

The next three books focus on artisan type or regional breads:

Joe Ortiz in the Village Baker says that in a trip to France he got a
recipe  for "pain ordinaire" and thought finally he had the long
sought "secret recipe" only to discover that it was identical to the
one he was already using!  To him the lesson was the  process was the
important part not merely the ingredients and a good loaf was  the
result of successful mastery and manipulation of every step from
choice of ingredients to mixing to baking.  I think this is a good
criterion to use to judge the current crop of  bread books ( as well as
older ones) - does the book give you sufficient information to
understand the process so you can manipulate it to suit your own needs
and tastes.  I think the Ortiz book is very successful in this regard.
It is really a condensation of several French masterpieces (cited in
his bibliography) and is thus is a valuable resource for someone who
is interested in Raymond Calvel or Lionel Poilane opinions on bread
but cannot read the French originals. He explains the 3 basic kinds of
dough (sponge, straight and sourdough).  The importance of a  number
of variables and their effects like water (how wet the dough is)
yeast, mixing conditions, temperature, wheat and how they end up
altering the product.  There is an incredible amount of information. Some
of the info is laid out directly.   Other parts will need lots of
work on your part - he tells you a certain  manipulation will affect
say crumb but doesn't tell you why or in what direction   - it does
serve as a basis for experimentation however.  I suspect he is not
always clear about explaining the whys because he is an empirical
baker. Having read some of the more Technical books by Pyler,
Pomeranz, Stear etc I have come to understand the reasons why
particular manipulations work.  In short this book  glorifies the
method and is invaluable if this is what you want.

No baker will agree with all his opinions on what a desirable approach
to bread is, for example he recommends building sourdough starters
relatively firm which is unlikely to pack the maximum flavor one can
out of a sourdough (there are several good reasons to have a firm
starter if one is only interested in good leavening).  The other
negative to me is that approximately a third of the book has recipes
scaled  up for the professional. This is an interesting curiosity but
a waste to most  home bakers.  It has a good bibliography with classic
primary sources. One could learn a lot from this over a long time -
every rereading should uncover something new which could serve as the
basis for experimentation. Not all of his opinions are correct, and
there are technical missteps but since I am saving my venom for Daniel
Leader I will pass on to him.

Bread Alone - Daniel Leader and Judith Blahnik.  I am lukewarm about
this book.  It is a very slick presentation that will seduce you with
the romance of bread baking.  It strings together a number of anecdotes in
a racy style that is good entertainment.  You will come
out  longing for a brick oven that he very skillfully mystifies and
glorifies.  It  has pictures of very attractive loaves that are highly
motivating.  It extols the virtues of organic flour (a passion I
share). Many of the recipes are on  the trendy end - Country style
loaf with figs and cognac and hazelnuts.  The  same with cilantro and
cornmeal and coarse pepper etc.  By the way he adds an additive like
cilantro and cornmeal and considers this a new recipe in my book these
should be considered variations.  The book is very heavily padded with
these variations and in actuality is very lean.  I am not particularly
 impressed because only my imagination limits what concoctions I can
come up  with i.e. the hip recipes should not motivate you to buy this
book.  In fact it is the hipness that irks me.  For example, he uses
french terms for commonly  used baking terms.  Thus a sponge is a
poolish, a sourdough is levain and so  on.  In no place does he
explain the parallels and studiously avoids the common english terms. This
is a slick way of packaging old wine in new bottles.

He is factually wrong in a number of places.  For example, he says
that  sourdough fanatics falsely treasure starters and he will
demystify the process.  He gives directions on starting your own
starter and suggest adding yeast " as  a magnet to attract the wild
yeasts" -pure bull!  Similarly he has a recipe for San Francisco
Sourdough but uses the homemade starter.  San Francisco Sourdough is
not a process but requires  the presence of a true starter with the
characteristic organisms of San Francisco Sourdough - Candida milleri
and  Lactobacillus sanfrancisco.  It is as likely that the ""Hearty
Burgundy" of  Ernest and Julio Gallo resembles the wines of Burgundy France
as a homemade starter will have these particular organisms. (To
be fair to Daniel Leader almost all books on bread commit this mistake
in the obligatory "San Francisco Sourdough" recipe).

On page 42 he says flour is "bromated" with potassium! (For you non
scientists potassium bromate is used - with the bromate doing the
brominating not potassium!  Then on page 50 he has the strangest
definition of first rise and second rise I have ever seen - he claims
the yeast feed on free sugar in the first rise and the yeast release
sugar from starch in the second rise.  In truth there is very little
free sugar in flour and once depleted the yeast are dependant on
release of sugar from starch to continue to do their thing.  When
exactly this happens depends on the dough formulation, fermentation
time and temperature etc etc. In fact in his lean long fermented
poolish the yeast are very definitely living of starch & no rises have
occurred at all!  It is simply stupid to use his definitions.  I heap
so much venom because he is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of
America, professional baker etc. and should have a better command of
the facts. I would not nitpick if I found stuff like this in Marge
Schlee's "Baking with Schmecks appeal !"

Another aspect of the book that I dislike is that he repeats the most
basic  information for each step for every single recipe (many of
which are variations in the form of an addition to a basic dough). For
example he has three  standard paragraphs on baking that tell you
your rack should be in the center  of the oven.  Do not spritz the
electric light bulb etc.  This repetitious  stuff occupies at least
half the printed pages of the book - the book thus has  the mere
appearance of heft but is in fact quite thin.  (Others may like this
because you can start at any recipe in a non linear fashion).  It has
no bibliography and is lean on technique.  To me the book is more
sizzle than steak - it is worth reading but owning?

The Italian Baker - Carol Field.  In the Joe Ortiz vein.  A
masterpiece on Italian Bread.  Carol Field is less authoritative than
Ortiz in some respects - she is a cook book author with 5-6 published
books on the history of Italy and Italian foods.  Her cookbook author
roots show through occasionally.  For example on page 41 talking about
yeast she says: "Bakers, who have noses like doctors or pharmacists,
insist you can cut into the yeast and smell if it's right.  The really
expert say that if you set your ear right next to it, you can hear the
little "tic-tac" of its growing."  While poetic this is pure nonsense.
 Fortunately, there is not much drivel like this in the book.  The
reason I like the book is she tells you what the character of the
dough is like - wet, firm etc.  All too often this is ignored in most
books on bread when in fact it is one of the major ways of controlling
the nature of the loaf you produce.  The minor negative is she repeats
mixing information by hand, mixer and food processor for each recipe. This
is generally unnecessary except in some rare cases.

Il Fornio - Author? Light version of Carol Field.  In fact owner of Il
Fornio  chain Carlo Veggetti was the person that arranged the meetings
with regional Italian bakers  for Field's own research.

Elizabeth Davids "English Bread and Yeast Cookery".  Available in an
English version with imperial and metric measures and an American
edition with a conversion to volume based measures (cups vs weights). The
books is divided into two parts - "History and Background" and the
second "Recipes".  This is an interesting book to a scholar because it
traces several historical roots of English Bread - it is not as some
people think an encyclopedia on bread in general.  It is written in a
humanistic style & its virtue lies solely in its research into the
historical aspects of English bread and breadmaking (bibliography of
200+).  This aspect of the book makes a fascinating read with
interesting plates and illustrations.

Its practical utility is a different matter.  For example, she has a
chapter on French Bread, goes on to enumerate the difficulties of
making french bread and the difference between French and English
flour and then throws up her hands and says despite all I've said if
you want to bake French Bread consult Mastering the Art of French
Cooking by Julia Child et al. !  She then goes on to trace the roots
of French Bread in England from 1654 to the twentieth century via
10-12 historical recipes. Clearly this is aimed at a pedant not an
amateur. Most of the recipes are historical in nature and make
interesting reading but it is not a good place to start to learn how
to bake bread. Please note I am not saying there is nothing of
practical utility (there is a lot) it is just buried in a lot of
material.  Despite the praise universally heaped on this book (much of
it is deserved) I feel it has an equal number of deficiencies that are
glaring. For example, she has a section on Malt, declares she hates
the taste of it in bread, goes on to say some bakers like it for good
rises & leaves one thoroughly confused.  She neglects to mention how
and why it works and the distinctions in malt (Malt can be diastatic
or non-diastatic. Non diastatic is simply added as a sweetener,
diastatic malt breaks down the starch in dough to yield sugars on
which the yeast can feed.  Having some around in long fermented breads
is very important).  It seems amazing to me that she will spend
chapters on the "Assize System" & then neglect to tell you something
of great practical importance.  Similarly, her basic recipe for bread
has almost no mention of kneading at all!

The Breads of France - Bernard Clayton.  Bernard Clayton has been
looked upon as the doyen of American Bread for reasons I cannot
fathom.  The material when published was new and novel. Unfortunately,
the book is sort of pointless since there appears to be no correlation
between his description of a bread and the recipe that follows.  For
example, he has a recipe for the famous Poilaine loaf (actually
describing a bread made by the father of the now equally famous Lionel
Poilaine), says it is made from whole wheat and then uses next to no
whole wheat in his recipe! It is therefore pointless to buy a book of
this sort. His complete book  of breads has a vast array of recipes
again in a boring style.  Essentially both books are recipe
repositories & the recipes are of dubious authenticity. The tedium in
the Breads of France is relieved by a few photographs and vignettes of
the bakers or history behind some of the breads.

Special and Decorative Breads a two volume set by Roland Bilheux,
Alain Escoffier, Daniel Herve and Jean Marie Pouradier (Volume 1) &
Volume II is authored by Alain Couet and Eric Kayser.  There is some
overlap between Vol 1 & II, Vol 1 mainly focuses on traditional breads
while Vol II has Viennese pastries, Croissants Brioches etc.  This is
a translation of a French original has much distilled wisdom and
incredible photographs of ornamental and decorative breads. It has
very concise information that is generally very precise - they define
the exact hydration for stiff (58-60%) to soft & sticky (65-67%)
doughs with five intermediate steps. This is useful because they
either explicitly say the dough is mixed at xx hydration or if they
use a word like moderately firm you know precisely what they mean.   Its
negative - very specialized all recipes are scaled for a
professional baker i.e. yield 25-100 lb of dough and major $$ each
volume is about $70.    I am glad I own them but they are so
specialized that they may not be worth the $$ but it is a very good
set of books to thumb through if only to improve your presentation.

World Sourdough from Antiquity: by Ed Wood.  Out of print but may be
available in some libraries.  A very cynical view would suggest this
book was probably published as a  marketing vehicle for the starters
that he sells through his company Sourdough International. A more
generous view would be that Dr. Wood genuinely wants to spread the
sourdough gospel.  I do not know what motivates him but in fact I feel
that the Woods have provided a tremendous service to the community by
amassing these starters.  Simply being able to buy a "fast" starter vs
a "slow" starter allows you to refute the view of Leader or Joe Ortiz
that starters are not substantially different. The book gives a
reasonable explanation of several aspects of baking with sourdough. It is
probably the best book on sourdough for a non technical
audience.   Treasure trove of recipes from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi
Arabia i.e. the area where all bread making probably originated (and
less interestingly since this material is almost universally
available, The Yukon, France, San Francisco, Austria, etc).  He uses a
number of grains and flours in his recipes demonstrating his awareness
of what a true country bread is and a certain adventurous spirit with
respect to ingredients.  It has been built up so much on this group
that it will probably prove underwhelming - it is the best non
technical book on sourdough but is not necessarily the best book on
bread in general.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 5. What is gluten and how is it developed?

What people call gluten is the formation of linkages between glutenin
and gliadin.  The "development" of dough consists of the formation of
these bonds.  These proteins have SH groups on them than can be linked
into S-S groups.   Just letting the sponge sit allows the reaction to
proceed which is why the French call this "long kneading" i.e. you do
nothing and the gluten is partially, developed.  This is why, in a
post to Bruce Hudson on sponge type breads I said that dough could be
developed mechanically, (by kneading), chemically (by mixtures of
oxidants and reductants) or fermentatively.  Very few people realize
that you can develop dough in all three ways:  they learnt kneading
was very important and are fixated on it.  In fact kneading is
absolutely essential only for straight dough breads.

Kneading, develops gluten by stretching out the proteins, & increasing
the rate at which, the molecules collide and the reaction occurs. Kneading
also forms an ordered cohesive mass. The reaction remains
essentially,  a chemical reaction.  The virtue of kneading is the mass
is very uniform and the gluten can be developed very extensively
(homogenous and extensive cross-linking) to give very strong loaves -
which will rise spectacularly and have good mechanical strength so you
can make free form loaves fearlessly.  Most straight dough recipes
develop all the gluten by kneading.

Many sponge type breads fall into the category where a lot of the
development is achieved by fermentation which allows less or in Jeff's
case no kneading. Allowing the gluten to develop by fermentation,
simply means that you give the dough sufficient time to let the
chemical reactions occur spontaneously i.e. the linkages will form
slowly over time.  The lattice of cross-linked gluten that forms is
not necessarily, as strong or as fully developed but this is
undoubtedly what Jeff is aiming for: French country bread is
characterized by an uneven crumb - by minimizing mechanical mixing he
keeps the mass non homogenous. The simple actions of the original
mixing, punch downs, shaping etc. also add a dimension of mechanical
development.  Relying solely on fermentative development means the
gluten will not be completely developed, the loaves will be weaker
i.e. you might have a hard time making a large free form loaf with it.
 By combining some fermentative and mechanical development you can
dramatically, alter the range of textures of your bread:  there is an
infinite spectrum of how long you ferment and how long you and how
intensely you knead.  By controlling these two you produce
dramatically, different breads.  This is one of the secrets to the
whole range of  "French" breads.  Jeff is at an extreme when he uses
no mechanical development at all.  Since he seems to make mainly
baguettes this is easy to do - you do not need a very strong dough to
hold its form in a baguette. I would be interested to know if your no
knead doughs allow you to form large free form loaves.

Several dough improvers including the so called natural conditioners
like ascorbic acid (Vitamin C, you will see that it is added to nearly
all commercial flour) are oxidants that facilitate the reaction. Similarly,
the french add fava bean or soy bean flour which has a
lipoxygenase which oxidizes flour i.e. takes SH groups and make them
S-S i.e. forms linkages and also bleaches the carotenoid pigments for
a whiter crumb.  These conditioners have a dramatic effect on the rate
of the reaction and the extent to which the reaction occurs.  I learnt
this very dramatically, when I bought my grain mill:  Flour that you
buy has been aged or brominated (to oxidize the flour which as
explained above forms gluten strengthening cross links & bleaches the
carotenoid pigments).  Freshly  milled flour does not have the benefit
of these "improving" i.e. gluten strengthening actions.  I noticed
that my dough would "fall apart" when kneading very very quickly. This was
because the flour was not sufficiently oxidized when freshly
milled.  This was fixed by adding vitamin C and  freshly milled soy
bean flour (I simply added back oxidants! It is still not as strong as
the strongest flour I worked with.  No additions will allow you to
turn out a decent loaf too - you just need to know how to handle it).

In some commercial, operations the dough is developed by a long list
of chemicals (check any supermarket bread label) that are essential
oxidants or reductants and thus facilitate the reaction.  This
combined with a very intensive short 1 min mixing develops the dough
completely!

Just as the cross-links can form so can they break down.  This is
referred to as the dough becoming "slack" - very long fermented doughs
become slack because the cross-linking process reverses itself.  In
addition there are a number of chemicals naturally, present in dough
or from breakdown of yeasts that promote the breakdown of the
cross-links.  This is one of the reasons you cannot hold the dough
infinitely long in a fermentation to improve its flavor.  In fact the
reason why dry yeast should be reconstituted at 104-114 F is because
at lower temps the yeast lyse and release glutathione which affects
the oxidation reduction reactions and reverses them leading to slack
or weak doughs.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 6. How do wild and commercial yeast differ?

The yeasts role in a sourdough starter is to leaven the bread (i.e.
produce gas).  Commercial yeast is very good at this job since that is
all it was selected to do.  Common bakers yeast that most normal
people have access to is slightly acid sensitive and most sourdough
yeasts are moderately acid resistant.  Commercially on a bakery level
you can obtain yeasts that are acid resistant and a host of other
desirable properties (freeze tolerance, sugar tolerance etc.).

In a laboratory environment a common medium for a laboratory form of
bakers yeast is Yeast nitrogen base whose pH is 5.4!  Most sourdoughs
have a pH at the end of the fermentation of around  3.5 - 4.2.  Since
the scale is logarithmic this is  relatively large difference.

The acids produced by lactobacilli definitely slow the yeast down (be
they commercial or sourdough).  The natural yeast are obviously more
tolerant of acid.  You could overcome the acid sensitivity by adding
more yeast or proofing longer.  This is not to say I advocate doing it
- I am merely pointing out it can be done.  You have to be judicious
in how much yeast you add since too much will cause the bread to be
overwhelmingly yeasty in flavour.

Another aspect of  leavening sourdough breads is that the gluten is
attacked under acid conditions through the action of several acid
proteases.  Thus the ability of the individual cells of the gluten net
to hold gas is compromised. If you let your dough develop to such a
point it will obviously rise very feebly no matter what your source of
leavening is - wild or commercial since any gas produced will simply
leak away.

One of the pleasures of sourdough is understanding the rhythms of both
the yeast and lactobacilli and holding them both at just the right
level - optimal acidity, optimal flavour (I suspect when most people
here say they want their bread more sour what they actually mean to
say is more flavour full - a very sour bread can be excruciatingly
unappetizing) and optimal leavening.  This is achieved by manipulating
the starter to maximize the number of organisms, varying the "wetness"
of both starter and dough and controlling time and temperature of all
stages.

I should point out that if you do play with commercial yeast there is
a very good chance that you will pollute your starter and you
obviously do not want to add it to the starter i.e. should you use it
you definitely need to develop a procedure to maintain the starter
uncontaminated.

Commercial bakeries oftentimes use yeast as a leavening in a sourdough
not because they do not know better but because they require very
predictable rises - they may have hundreds of pounds of different
breads developing at different rates and have to hit the oven in
fairly tight windows.  A commercial leavening in this context can be
controlled far easier.  Obviously an equal number of bakeries develop
the bread naturally but this requires more skill, time and ultimately
for the baker $.

To address the original point of this thread though: a starter made
from commercial yeast performing better than an established starter (I
believe Russian from Sourdough International).  If I remember
correctly, the poster mentioned they had obtained the starter second
hand.  Based on my experience with home started vs purchased starters
I suspect that the starter you obtained is probably far from the
original sold by SI.  I have had the most consistent results with
legitimate "established" starters.

I should point out however that I have noticed a deterioration in some
starters over time - I have not figured out the root of the problem
since I was not careful enough to pinpoint exactly when the change
occurred but I have found a starter that I loved evolving into a dud.
Obviously this means contamination/loss of a favorable lactobacillus. I
was originally very careful when I bought the starter and would
boil the water used to feed the starter (and let it cool!) & once it
was established decided it could fend for itself.  In hindsight I
think this may have been an error in judgement: the boiling apart from
getting rid of any other unfriendly beasts probably also got rid of
chlorine etc.  I suspect that this could have been one of the things
that did my lactobacilli in.  Flour obviously has organisms that you
cannot get rid of and this is potentially another source of
contamination: lactobacilli have several bacteriophages and produce
bacteriocins that could have killed my treasured lactobacilli (the
reason I think I have lost lactobacilli complexity is because the
bread rises fine but the flavour is middling). The starters from SI
have predictably activity peaks & the Russian is very fast, you could
use this as a test to see if what you have is still legitimate.  I can
vouch for the fact that the Russian, Austrian and Bahrain rise as
described in their literature.  Also since the Russian rises so fast
you may be tempted to bake the bread before the lactobacilli have had
a chance to do their magic.  Among the above three starters I like the
flavours of the Austrian the best.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 7. Can I make bread without salt?

Salt is of course very important in a dough.  There are several
proteins in flour that together form gluten during mixing.  Some of
these proteins are more soluble in salt water than fresh water. Therefore,
addition of salt helps to form a stronger gluten network. Commercial
bakeries often add salt at the very end of mixing because
it keeps the dough loose so that it will develop more quickly and also
does not inhibit the yeast during that brief period.  Bread, however,
can be made perfectly well without salt.

-Troy

------------------------------

Subject: 8. How do I stop my sourdough bread from flattening?

A very important aspect of making sourdough is the amount of starter
used in the recipe and how long it has been since the starter matured.
Typically, about 20-40% of the total flour should come from the
starter. The higher the percentage of starter, the less proofing time
it will stand. In other words, if 40% of the flour comes from starter,
you may only be able to proof 3-4 hours before the loaves flatten
excessively, depending on the starter and degree of maturity.  I've
never used Carl's starter, but since people like it I assume it has
fairly low levels of enzymes which make it more tolerant to various
baking procedures.  Different lactobacilli have different capacities
to degrade flour and to make acid and therefore they act differently
in bread.

The standard methods to keep bread from flattening excessively include
reducing water, increasing kneading or adding ascorbic acid (100-200
mg per 5 pounds of flour), making sure the starter is not overly
mature, and doing some of the fermentation as a "bulk" fermentation. Bulk
fermentation simply means that after mixing the dough you let it
sit for 2-3 hours at proofing temperature before shaping the loaves. That
will give the bacteria/yeast time to make flavor and gas without
having to worry about the loaves flattening.  Then the loaves are
shaped and a final proof of 3-4 hours results in a fantastic loaf with
a more interesting internal and external texture. One other important
reason why sourdough loaves may flatten is that
the starter is not fresh enough.  When you feed your starter use the
smallest amount of old starter that you can while still getting a very
active ferment by the time you need to mix your dough.  If the old
starter is very active I would use only 5-10% by weight as an
innoculum.  Starters that are not fresh produce extremely slack
doughs.  The type of flour you use will help, but will not completely
overcome the problem.  If 20-30% of the flour in your dough comes from
starter you should be able to proof a free standing loaf for many
hours without flattening. I typically mix a dough, let it sit for 3
hours, shape into loaves, and give up to 5 hours of final proof with
little flattening.

Water content for this type of loaf is 56-60% on flour.

-Troy

------------------------------

Subject: 9. Can I use chlorinated water with my starter?

No. If you have chlorinated water, dechlorinate it first.  The quick
way is with a carbon filter.  You can also boil it or just let it sit
out uncovered 24 hrs, provided that your water treatment plant
chlorinates with free chlorine (as ~85% do), and not with the stable
form of chlorine, chloroamine.  This cannot be boiled or evaporated
out.

Dechlorinated water is not just some yogurt and granola health food
nut idea, it is very important for the health of your culture and the
success of your sourdough baking.  A microbiologist friend of mine
confirmed this observation with laboratory techniques.

-Jeff

------------------------------

Subject: 10. Does temperature of the starter have an effect on
flavour?

Sourdough cultures from Europe tend to have many strains of
lactobacilli. Temperatures under 86 F favor L. brevis which produces
both lactic acid and acetic acid.  Temperatures above 86 F tend to
favor L. plantarum which is homofermentative and only produces lactic
acid.

Other factors play a role in the acid profile: degree of hydration
(soft doughs favor lactic acid formation while stiff doughs favor
acetic acid).

The way the starter is built up into the final dough will affect the
absolute number and type of organisms and consequently the flavor
profile of the bread. German bakers have very complicated schedules
where they vary both stiffness of the dough and temperatures to build
their starters and thus alter the flavor of the bread.

I have no idea what organisms are present in the original posters
culture but if he is lucky playing with temperature and hydration and
different cultures may allow him to produce the flavor he wants.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 11. What is diastatic malt?

Malt can be diastatic or non-diastatic. Non-diastatic is simply added
as a sweetener, diastatic malt breaks down the starch in dough to
yield sugars on which the yeast can feed.  Having some around in long
fermented breads is very important. -Roland

Mills will typically put in 1/10% malted barley flour (barley because
barley malt is cheaper than wheat malt) to provide diastase (enzyme),
which converts the starch in damaged starch granules to sugars that
are utilizable by the yeast over an extended ferment.  The use of more
diastatic malt than this can result in slack, sticky dough, and will
not improve yeast action.  Malt is not made from cooked grain, but
rather sprouted grain. -Jeff

Diastatic malt powder is powdered malted grain, usually barley, but
wheat, and rice may also be malted.  "Diastatic" refers to the
diastatic enzymes that are created as the grain sprouts.  These
convert starches to sugars, which yeasties eat.  Maltose, a simple
sugar that yeasties love is usually made in abundance by the enzymes.

Diastatic malt powder is available in some health food stores as well
as homebrew supply shops.

You can make your own:  sprout a cup of wheat berries by covering them
with water in a jar for 12 or so hours, dump out the water & rinse
with clean water, and place the jar in a darkish, warmish, place. Rinse the
berries every day with clean water and return to their
place.

In 2-3 days they will begin to sprout.  When the sprout is as long as
the berries themselves, dump them out on paper towels, dry them off,
and set on a cookie sheet in the sun for a day or so to dry out. Then
put the cookiesheet in a 100F oven for an hour or three.  Do not let
the temp get above 130F or the enzymes will be destroyed.

Then grind the dried malted berries into flour, and use it in your
favorite recipe at a rate of approx. 1t. per loaf.

I did this for the first time last week, and the bread made with is
has a lovely wheaty note that was not produced in the past when I used
brewer's (barley) malt.

-George

------------------------------

Subject: 12. What is meant by % hydration of a dough

"Bakers Formulae" are based on the weight of flour which is assigned
100%.  Any other material being added is expressed as a percentage of
this.  Thus water may be at 55% to 60 to 65% of the the flour.  If you
think in metric terms it is very easy each 1000 grams (1Kg) of flour
would need 600 grams of water for 60% hydration etc, similarly salt
may be added to 1-2% etc etc.  So a bakers % is actually a very
slippery definition and not "correct" in scientific terms but they
understand each other.

The % hydration matters both when you feed/build your starter and in
the final dough.  Studies show the maximum acid is built at 90%
hydration (during feeding/building).

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 13. What is a sponge?

A batter or soft dough containing all of the water, but only part of
the flour and (usually) none of the salt. The starter (or,
conservatively, part of the starter) is mixed into it, and thereafter
it is incubated (at some temperature between freezing and heat death)
until it gets frothy, at which time the dough is completed with
additional flour, salt, and usually some kneading.

-Dick

------------------------------

Subject: 14. What is the difference between 'Classical' and 'Modern'
sourdough?

In days of yore, all bread was sourdough.  So, it wasn't called
sourdough unless it was real sour.  The way to make it real sour was
to let a sponge sit for many extra hours, preferably warm.

Many people do that today when making sourdough bread.  You can call
it "souring the sponge".  The process favors the acid forming bacilli,
and lowers yeast activity.  If you goof and the yeast activity gets
too low, you can always throw in some bakers' yeast for the final
rise.  You also can get some rise by blowing the loaves up on a hot
stone, in spite that a real sour sponge may not have much leavening
activity.

Denizens of yore had no access to bakers' yeast, nor did they have
modern bread flours.

Today's bread flours, as well as having uniformly high gluten content
(typically 13%), also contain diastatic enzymes and dough
conditioners.  The enzymes liberate sugars from starch allowing the
rise to go on much longer than otherwise would be expected. Dough
conditioners can have profound effects towards helping the gluten to
hang together long enough to support a phenomenal rise.

The result is that a kind of modern sourdough bread is now possible
that the yore people could not have anticipated.

A long rise allows that sourdough bread may be very light, and may be
baked quite effectively in bread pans in an ordinary oven (without a
stone).  For this bread, a "sweet" (high yeast activity) (sourdough
yeast, that is) sponge is used.  Acidity and flavor which typify
sourdough bread develop during the rise, not primarily in the sponge,
as is the the case in the alternative classical method.  More and more
people are doing it this modern way.

But it is not clear to most people that two strategies are under
discussion here.  People on track B should learn how to avoid advice
from track A people, and conversely.  (Advice givers cannot be
controlled, since a new bunch is born each week.)

How to recognize:

Type A: "Let the sponge proof in a warm place for a long time". "A
sour (tangy) starter is needed." "Use King Arthur (no additives)
flour." "Use all purpose flour." "Punch it down (N) times, let it
double, slash, and toss it on a hot stone." "May be necessary to add
some dry yeast."  (Per most bake books, FAQs here, and sourdough
packet instruction sheets.)

Type B:  Starter is kept frothy, or activated to the frothy stage
before seeding the sponge.  Sponge is developed to the frothy stage,
no longer.  Use bread flour (malted, bromated or whatever).  Bakers'
yeast is never used.  Very little or no punching down.  Slash (coupe)
before the rise.  Volume quadruples, maybe quintuples, before the
bake.  Special attention needed to avoid deflation if transferred to a
hot stone (but easy in tins). Special attention is needed to avoid
drying out during the long rise (which might be 12 hours in a cool
room).

-Dick

------------------------------

Subject: 15. How do I make soft buns?

The easiest way to get very soft silky buns is to use lots of pastry
flour (half pastry/half all purpose or bread) & plenty of fat in the
form of butter. This produces melt in your mouth types of buns. People are
generally obsessed with gluten content in wheat - if truth
be told you can make bread with pastry flour i.e. a gluten content of
8% or so.  Naturally, the character of the bread is different.  You
generally, want to match the character of the bread with the character
of the flour.  Generally, people are very obsessed with high gluten
flours which do indeed produce lofty loaves but if not worked properly
can also produce rubbery loaves.  Elizabeth David is one of the few
authors on bread, incidentally, who advocates looking for flavour in
flours rather than simply high gluten content - a lofty loaf is a good
loaf only from certain points of view.  Incidentally, buns and the
like that I have baked with substantial amounts of pastry flour have
had no problem rising to normal respectable levels.

One advantage of high amounts of gluten is the concept of "tolerance".
Tolerance means ability to withstand abuse - abuse like overkneading,
overfermenting, overanything.  High gluten flours have higher
tolerance.  This means that you have to be slightly more skillful in
using low gluten flours.  I would recommend using a yeast dough rather
than a sourdough as a starting point if you are going to try to make
buns with large amounts of pastry flour.  The reason is you have to be
very careful not to overferment this sort of dough and it probably
easiest to make a straight dough.  I have used sourdough and got
breads as soft as a kiss.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 16. How should I feed my starter for best results?

Continuous culture of the sourdough starter vs the stop start approach
of a home baker is really the big difference between a home baker and
a commercial operation and most home bakers do nothing to compensate.

The continuous approach in a bakery is exemplified by the starter
culture being doubled every 6-8 hours 365 days of the year (almost). The
home bakers approach is to store the culture and use it
intermittently and so it is worth examining what exactly happens
during this storage process.

The notion of the yeast sporulating on storage etc. is virtually
guaranteed to be wrong for almost all starters. No wild strain of
yeast can sporulate as is frequently stated in books on sourdough, the
FAQ etc. wild yeast most commonly are aneuploid or polyploid and thus
they either do not sporulate or spores have very low viability. Also
no spore would germinate in the 8-12 hour proof given to it in a bread
making regimen.  Both the lactobacilli and yeast are simply dormant in
a stored culture and a certain fraction is continuously dying as
elaborated below.

Both the yeast and lactobacilli are inhibited by the acid produced.  As you
store a culture the organisms die - lactobacilli at acid pH die
at the rate of 90% a week when stored at room temperature.  At cooler
temperatures the rate is slower (4 weeks needed at 4 degrees for 90%
mortality). Because the starting culture usually has a large number of
organisms (in the order of 10E7 - 10E9 (10000000-1000000000) per gram
of dough in an active culture with the lactobacilli being higher than
the yeast) this very high death rate is not immediately perceived -
the culture is progressively enfeebled.  At neutral pH the death rate
is slower (incidentally this is the logic why you feed and proof your
starter for a very short time before you return it to the fridge - the
proteins in flour neutralize some of the acid improving survivability
and all the nutrients are not depleted so the culture can grown at a
slow rate in the fridge).

If you do not use a culture continuously but store a culture in the
refrigerator over time only 10%, 1% or less of the culture will be
alive depending on how frequently you use it, what the acidity of the
culture was when you stored it etc.    Simply, feeding the culture
with a equal volume of flour water does not bring the number of
lactobacilli up to the maximum number possible - a two fold dilution
does not really relieve the acid inhibition adequately, and instead of
10000000 organisms/gram you may have only 1000000 or less.  The
culture is thus never really vibrant - it is simply limping along.

What I do therefore is to do a very large dilution when I pull the
starter out of the fridge say 1/2-1 tablespoon to 1-2 cups flour and a
similar amounts of water.  This dilution relieves the acid inhibition
and allows the culture to actually divide and grow back towards the
maximum possible.  12 hours later I refeed (double the previous
amount) and repeat this until I have the amount of starter I want
built up.  I always try and adjust this so that there are at least a
few doublings of the starter before I actually incorporate it into a
dough.  I have used starters from Sourdough International exclusively
so cannot comment on the success of this approach with non-traditional
starters (i.e. anything that is fed on something other than flour and
water). This regimen gives a starter with excellent properties, with
respect to souring, leavening etc.   This is slightly more work than
most people usually do but you will be rewarded by an improvement in
flavor, dough characteristics, etc.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 17. Are all starters the same?

No. I think starters are different, a good starter should be
treasured.  Fortunately, the very valuable work of Ed Wood makes it
most simple to prove.  All you have to do is to try the Russian or
another "fast" starter from Sourdough International vs a slow starter
from them.  The behavior of these starters is very very different with
respect to rate of leavening, and ultimate levels of acidity produced
and anybody willing to spend a few $$ can verify this.  I also think
that starters are discernibly different with respect to flavor.  In
fact the classical San Francisco sourdough does have a signature
flavor that no other sourdough I have tasted resembles (I do not have
the SI San Francisco culture so do not know how their version of it
behaves with respect to the signature flavor).

I am also skeptical of grape based starters, etc.  I know Nancy
Silverton and other celebrated bakers advocate this but I can see no
logic in it.  Grapes indeed have yeast and lactobacilli on them.  The
problem is these particular varieties of yeast and lactobacilli have
never been recovered in any sourdough starter that has been examined
from any place in the world.  These organisms are undoubtedly specific
to grapes as certain other lactobacilli are specific to yogurt.  There
are hundreds of strains of yeasts and equally large numbers of
lactobacilli. These organisms develop niches where they thrive.  To
transplant an organism from one natural environment to another is not
a formula for success.  It is like taking a polar bear and putting it
in the desert.  There are hundreds of cheeses made based on very small
differences in starter cultures and processing. These people are
undoubtedly celebrated bakers but to them a yeast is yeast and a yeast
on a grape is a "wild yeast" and they have no understanding of any of
the nuances.  I do not claim to know what exactly is resident in their
starters and whether any organisms they introduce from the grape
actually survive and are viable over time (years as opposed to weeks).

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject: 18. What about Nancy Silverton's latest book? or 'Stalking the
Wild Yeast'

Ringo is, I think, a fine drummer, my household plumbing is a
masterpiece, and all those ice-skaters on TV twirl great. The less you
know about some craft, the less critical you are about its practice.

Of course, the more you know, the more judgmental you are. I've been
working at sourdough bread baking for a decade; and it has taken me
that long to fight through the misleading sourdough lore. Separating
useful techniques from superstitious ritual has been tough. Standard
bread books are either full of falsehoods ('Beard on Bread' is a
particularly bad example) or misleading and hazy.

So I finally get it right, right enough to be able to teach others,
and what happens? Nancy Silverton publishes 'Breads from the La Brea
Bakery', (Villard, 260 pages, $30), a book that really gets it right,
is clearly written and has an abundance of clever recipes that I
wouldn't have come up with in another 10 years.

Her sourdough creations cover an enormous range: Country White,
Challah, Walnut Bread, Olive Bread, Chocolate-Sour Cherry, Pretzels,
Raisin Brioche, Focaccia, Normandy Rye, Izzy's New York Rye,
Whole-Wheat Boule, Potato-Dill and on and on. This is not just a great
book on sourdough, it is the only book -- an artisanal well of
information and guidance in the craft of great bread baking. When much
store-bought bread is factory whipped wheat candy, when bread machines
are a commodity item, when real bakers are only just beginning to make
a comeback in some urban areas (and even in Carrboro), it is solace to
possess such a valuable 'vade mecum'.

It is sad though that we need such a book. In a well-ordered world,
good bread is no further away than the nearest baker. Only in recent
years have we in Triangle had good bread available at all. Even in
Paris, where bread and pastry is traditionally left to the
professional, a glossy magazine recently lamented the decline of
decent bread and the rise, so to speak, of factory breads sold in
"bakeries"; more astoundingly, it heretically offered instruction on
how to make good bread in the Parisian home.

Although Silverton's directions are clear and superbly organized, the
multi-step, 2-3 day procedures may at first look overwhelming. (See
page 58 for Silverton's hints on time-efficient ways to make bread.)
After a few practice loaves things will get simpler, and you be
rewarded with great bread. Leavened bread is a simple food that has
been around since at least Egyptian times, and its basics are simple.
That's what makes the achievement of great bread such a fascinating
exercise. Flour, water, salt, beasts (bacilli+yeast) and time are
bread's basic ingredients.

Salt is crucial for both taste and texture. Good quality sea salt is a
nice luxury. High quality flour makes a surprising difference. For
basic bread baking (sourdough or otherwise), a good all-purpose,
unbleached, unadulterated flour is called for. In the Triangle area,
the most easily available high-quality flours are King Arthur
(Hannaford's has it at a reasonable price) and Lindley Mills flour, a
local product carried by both Wellspring and Weaver Street.

Beasts. I say beasts because the defining characteristic of a
sourdough bread is that its leavening is a symbiotic culture of
lactobacilli and wild yeast. "Wild yeast bread" might be a better
name, since "sourdough" has led some to think that the sourer the
better; like those who rank peppers or Indian restaurants by how hot
they are. Bread made from a flour, water and commercial yeast slurry,
let to mature for two hours to a day, is not sourdough. That technique
and its variants is called in France 'poolish', in Italy 'biga', and,
in American, 'the sponge method'. It is a very very good way to make
bread. It is not sourdough.

Sourdough cultures contain wild yeasts and certain friendly, i.e.,
symbiotic, lactobacilli. The symbiosis is manifold and complicated:
the bacilli produce lactic acid (a 3.5-4.2 pH environment) that its
companion yeast can thrive in, but in which commercial yeast dies;
produce antibiotic agents that are hostile to other organisms; and
metabolize maltose, which wild yeast cannot. The biochemistry is quite
complicated and a far cry from the oversimplified picture of yeast as
a mere belcher of gases. If that's all yeast, or sourdough cultures
did, then there would be a lot more good bread around than there is!

It is possible to make your own sourdough culture. The underlying idea
is to start with flour and water and, one way or another, let it sit
until a stable culture develops and then feed it into health. The
Silverton book has good, though intimidatingly long, instructions. It
is much simpler and surer to buy a culture from a reputable source; it
is fortunate that there is one. An obsessive guy named Ed Wood
travelled the world collecting old sourdough cultures from
multi-generational bakeries and worked out a way of drying them for
resuscitation. Sourdoughs International (PO Box 670, Cascade, Idaho
83611, (208)382-4828, fax: (208)382-3129])carries cultures from
France, Austria, Bahrain, Russia, San Francisco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and Yukon.

SIDEBAR

The basic bread process

Preparation, Mixing, Kneading, Fermentation part one (first rise),
Fermentation part 2 (proofing), Baking, Letting Cool.

The above sequence is, of course, a standard bread making sequence.
The sourdough part is buried in "Preparation". Sourdough starters are
built up in stages. For home baking, where the culture may go a week
or two between uses, this is particularly important. (In traditional
bakeries the 'chef', a lump of dough from the day's bake, starts the
next day's starter.).

The stored 'chef' is taken out of the refrigerator and coaxed back
into life with a series of additions of water and flour, roughly
doubling the amount each time. The staged feeding keeps the increase
in yeast and bacilli in correct proportion. Then the dough is made
from a portion of now vigorous starter.

One item that people used to commercial yeast might overlook is
temperature control. The starter and dough are best at under 80
degrees F. Your flour will be at room temperature and kneading will
add about 10 degrees. There is also about twice as much flour as
water, so your cold (dechlorinated) tap water will almost never be too
cold! And in the summer, you will need ice cubes.

Kneading develops the gluten (gluten is a protein in the endosperm of
wheat which, given the right conditions, forms itself into long
elastic strands that give bread its cellular structure -- the
"pockets" that hold the gases that give baking bread its loft) and
introduces the necessary oxygen. After rising in baskets, free-form
loaves are turned onto peels and slid onto hot stones in the oven. All
breads need to rest, uncut, after coming out of the oven. There is
still stuff happening in there.

A well made sourdough will keep from 4 days to a week on the counter,
wrapped in a towel or in a paper bag. Refrigerator temperatures hasten
staling, and plastic promotes mold and destroys crust.

-David

------------------------------

Subject: 19. How do I get that great crust?

It is difficult to reproduce the effects of a commercial hearth oven
at home. The properties of a good oven include thick baking stones on
the bottom preferably heated with gas fire for more even heat
distribution than electric coils.  The oven should have heating
elements at the top of the oven and controls for setting the heat
intensity in all areas of the oven.

The most important difference between baking bread in a commercial
hearth oven and at home, is that the commercial oven has steam tubes
which deliver large amounts of steam at a reasonable pressure.  Steam
gelatinizes the starch and protein on the exterior of the loaves
without forming a hard shell.  After the steam is removed, the
gelatinized layer dries out forming a thick crunchy crust.  With no
steam, it is more difficult to keep the exterior of the bread from
forming a paper thin shell.

Another important difference is that the commercial deck oven is not
very tall from top to bottom which makes the heat more intense than in
a home oven.  The thickness of the baking stones also acts as a heat
sink to deliver maximum heat to the bread before the crust begins to
form resulting in better volume.  In a home oven, a thin layer of
steam surrounds the bread and prevents efficient transfer of heat to
the bread.  Convection ovens work better.

A few things can be done at home to better simulate a true deck oven.
Get a good thick baking stone and of course put it in the oven long
before you intend to put bread on it.  Put the stone as close to the
top of the oven as you can still leaving room for the bread to rise. That
will give more intense heat.  To simulate quality steam, spray
the bread well with water just before baking.  I use another strange
gadget that works very well.  I take aluminum muffin tins and poke
tiny holes in the bottom of each well.  I fill the tins with boiling
water and place them on the bottom rung of the oven about a minute
before putting the bread in to develop initial steam.  The water will
drip onto the bottom of the oven and create steam.  Remove the tins
after the first 5-10 minutes or the bread will develop an undesirable
crust.  Also, I heat my oven about 50 F higher than i need because the
water evaporation cools the oven.  Depending on the oven this method
works pretty well.

-Troy

------------------------------

Subject 20. How much starter do I need?

I think the important point in the Silverton procedure is to
frequently feed the starter so that it as active as humanly possible. I
think she committed a major screw up by stressing the volumes so
much.  Thus it would be perfectly OK to start with 1/2 a teaspoon of
starter and add 1/2 teaspoon water and flour and on the next feeding
double this to one teaspoon, then two teaspoons, 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup etc
until you have the amount of starter that you need for your recipe and
a little extra to store.  The doubling procedure is standard practice
in most sourdough recipes but there is no law saying you have to
double.  In fact, some German recipes start with a massive dilution
(one in 100) for the first feeding and then use the normal doubling
until the required amount of starter is built up.

A single teaspoon of active starter (or starter stored for a few weeks
at most in the fridge) will have tens of millions of
yeast/lactobacilli.  It is thus not difficult to rebuild the starter
from seemingly vanishingly small amounts. A thick head of bubbles will
tell you that you starter is chugging along.  Of course this assumes
you have a good starter to begin with - if you do not have a decent
starter then the frequent feeding regimen recommended by Silverton
will rapidly lead to death of your starter(?) because there simply
were not enough organisms to double at the same rate at which you feed
them.

The important point if you start with small volumes is that the
starter can dry out relatively easily - you have only 1/2 teaspoon or
one teaspoon of water to evaporate in the early steps.  Thus you
should take steps to ensure that the starter does not dry out - make
it a bit more wet than normal, for the first few feedings cover it
with a wet towel or place it in a glass which in turn is placed in a
rubbermaid container filled with a little water.  In the cold weather
I use small coolers that I fill with water at the right temperature
(85F) and then float my starter on rubbermaid boats in there - this
serves as an incubator and also keeps it relatively humid.

I am astounded that a celebrated chef like Silverton could suggest a
recipe that would end up with 7 pounds of starter that you have no use
for!  This convinces me that all cook book authors seldom actually
test their recipes or check for appropriateness for their audience -
Silverton's recipe would be fine for a bakery but ridiculous for the
average Joe or Jane that the book was written for.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject 21. Sourdough Science 101 or How are the sourness and
leavening of starters related? Don't let the subject scare you off.  My
kids tease me that since I
left teaching (biology among other subjects), I have to find other
people to listen to me.  They are the usual targets.  I'll try to be
gentle - and practical.

There have been several posts over the last little while asking the
same question in different ways - how are the sourness and leavening
of starters related?  Some starters seem too sour, or not sour enough,
or have lost their sourness, or are sluggish or too active (not a
problem for most) and folks want to know how to manipulate this.  It
also has been pointed out that lactobacilli are anaerobes, but this
needs expansion. Here are some thoughts on this.

I am a homebrewer, and have read a good bit about yeast growth. Baking and
brewing yeast are just different strains of the same
species, but wild yeasts are different species, and some are even
different genera, so this may not apply to all, but I suspect it does.

Cultured yeast needs oxygen to reproduce, so once it has depleted the
oxygen in a starter/sponge/dough, it has pretty much reached the
population it's going to have.  After this, it shifts its metabolism
to anaerobic.   Assuming that wild yeast are much the same, this means
that letting a starter or sponge sit longer is not going to result in
much more yeast, and therefore will not increase its leavening power. It
will become more sour (see below).

Lactobacilli are facultative anaerobes (as opposed to obligatory
anaerobes), so they will continue to metabolize and reproduce *either
with or without oxygen*.  However, they only produce lactic acid once
the oxygen is depleted, resulting in a more sour starter/sponge/dough
the longer you let it sit.  I don't think you need to worry about
excluding air - the surface above the sponge or whatever is full of
CO2 from the yeast, so very little oxygen is going to diffuse into the
sponge, especially if you have it covered, and this will keep it from
drying out, too.   Of course, during this time, the gluten will
deteriorate the longer you let it sit.

What does this all mean?  If you want a maximally active culture, whip
all the air you can into it each time you build it.  I add the water
first and whip this thin batter to a froth with an electric mixer,
then mix in the flour.  This results in maximum yeast reproduction. Then,
as soon as it has used up all this oxygen, I build it again.  Of
course, it's hard to tell just when this is, but I generally let a
sponge go until it just begins to fall.  If you want a more sour
bread, let either the starter/sponge/dough go longer.  I find that
with high protein flour such as bread or hard whole wheat, the dough
can withstand two full rises before shaping into loaves, resulting in
more flavor (not just more sourness, but that, too).

I hope this little science lesson has practical benefits to your bread
baking.  If anyone knows more details about how wild yeasts and
lactobacilli interact, I'd welcome hearing it, especially if I'm
wrong.  I suspect the symbiosis of some cultures may change things,
but this works with my Poilane (originally) starter.

-Jeff

------------------------------

Subject 21. What is the Microbiology of San Francisco Sourdough?

Several studies have been conducted on the natural microbiological
flora of sourdoughs from around the world.  In terms of understanding
the basis of the symbiosis between yeast and lactobacilli the most
successful studies have been by Sugihara and colleagues.  Despite the
existence of several varieties of yeast and lactobacilli they showed
that the dominant yeast was a non spore forming variety of
Saccharomyces exigus called Torulopsis holmii and now reclassified as
Candida milleri sp. nov.  The dominant lactobacillus was a new species
christened Lactobacillus sanfrancisco sp. nov.

Yeast and bacteria occur in a ratio of 1:100.  The unique symbiosis is
explained thus: Though most strains of yeast can metabolise the sugar
maltose Candida milleri cannot.  Dough abounds in maltose which is a
released from "damaged starch" through the action of amylase enzymes.
Thus maltose is freely available to the lactobacilli which have an
absolute requirement for this sugar and they cannot utilise other
sugars present in dough.  The yeast can utilise all other sugars
present in dough thus the two critters do not compete for a carbon
source.  In addition, the lactobacilli have an enzyme maltose
phosphorylase which while assimilating maltose releases glucose into
the media to give the yeast a small boost.

The lactobacilli also secrete an antibiotic cycloheximide which
"sterilises" the dough since it kills many organisms but of course
Candida milleri is resistant to cycloheximide.

Lastly, Candida milleri is moderately tolerant to the acetic acid
which the lactobacilli produce. I should also note that the
nutritional requirements of the lactobacilli is complex - they require
a number of amino acids and fatty acids which may be derived from dead
yeast cells.

Spicher in Germany characterised German sour rye. He found the
dominant yeast species were Candida krusei, Saccharomyces cerevisiae,
Pichia saitoi and Candida milleri.  The Lactobacilli included L.
brevis, casei, fermenti, pastorianus, bucheneri, delbrueckii,
leichmannii, acidophilus, farciminis, alimentarius, brevis
var.lindneri, fermentum, fructivorans and Pediococcus acidilactici!
(This zoo of organisms present naturally in Rye flour is the reason
why it is so easy to start a good sourdough culture from rye for
example see "manuels starter" in the Laurel's Kitchen bread book.)

Pure culture studies showed that he could reconstitute a starter that
was close to the original with the yeast Candida krusei and
Lactobacillus brevis var. lindneri. The basis of the symbiosis is not
well understood to the best of my knowledge but is probably similar in
principle to the one described above for San Francisco sourdough.

On a final note, I should point out that pure cultures of
Lactobacillus sanfrancisco are grown on defined media, harvested and
freeze dried and supplied to bakeries around the world to make instant
sourdough!

Should there be sufficient interest in this sort of information, I can
post periodic updates on the scientific lore of breadmaking.

-Roland

------------------------------

Subject 23. What about Ed Wood's latest edition of his book?

Ed Wood's new edition of his authoritative book on sourdough,(World
Sourdoughs From Antiquity, Ed Wood, 1996, ISBN 0-89815-843-5, Ten
Speed Press, $16.95 paperbound, approximately 9" x 7") is an
attractive book, well laid out, with 185 pages and 8 pages of colour
photos. Some of the colour photos could be helpful to the novice in
learning some of the techniques of bread making. Other colour photos
are from the National Geographic project on ancient sourdough and are
interesting for their historical content.

The book opens with Ed's experiences in investigating with others on a
team how man made his first leavened bread in Egypt, a project
supported by the National Geographic. These experiences and
discoveries were the subject of an article in National Geographic in
1995.

Ed continues with an expert and thorough introduction to sourdough
cultures, their care and feeding, theory, and of course, the making
and baking of sourdough bread.

The book has a good index and around 120 pages of a wide variety of
interesting sourdough recipes, roughly one recipe per page, of
standard and exotic breads, together with pancake and waffle recipes.
This makes for a good book to have on hand both for the novice
learning and the experienced sourdough hand looking for something
different.

There is also a chapter on baking sourdough in bread machines.
However, I agree with Ed that making sourdough in bread machines
involves more art than science. No bread machine on the market that I
know of is really designed for sourdough.

Ed's company, Sourdoughs International, which sells sourdough
cultures, is on the web, at http://www.cyberhighway.net/~sourdo. Email
sourdo@cyberhighway.net or their snail mail address is PO Box 670,
Cascade ID 83611.

-Darrell

------------------------------

Subject: 99. Authors

Troy     -Troy Boutte  tboutte@delphi.com

Dick     -Dick Adams  dick.adams@channel1.com

David    -David Auerbach  auerbach@unity.ncsu.edu

George   -George Kavanagh  george.kavanagh@wang.com

Jeff     -Jeff Renner  nerenner@umich.edu

Roland   -Roland Salandha  rsaldanh@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

Edited by Darrell Greenwood.  Darrell_Greenwood@mindlink.net


--
---------------------------------------------------------
Darrell Greenwood        Darrell_Greenwood@mindlink.bc.ca
My Web homepage..  http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/



