As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Above is Dudley, my sourdough starter. You rarely see sourdough starter like this, for the reason some people feed yeast every day and call it "sourdough" as it raises bread as it has yeast in it. Few use traditional sourdough as I do, in which the leavening agent is baking soda reacting to the acid in the sourdough. You get tight loaves that do not raise a great deal, but this is sourdough.
Dudley is wild yeast. Whatever strain God gave me through setting him out for a few hours in the open air, I do not know, but he has always behaved in not being volcanic. He makes a sprite sourdough if you do not give him time to mellow out and age, and if he gets time to sit for a few months, he turns out thee most delicious wheat wine flavored bread. So the above photo is what is the 120 year old Balsamic Vinegar or the 200 year old brandy, as this is aged sourdough starter in it's pristine form. You do not get this stirring every day and feeding it.
I have written before of Dudley's problems, when I fed him cheap whole grain flour. He got the red tinge to it, which is what you get is the "stinks like hog shit" odor from sourdough as the PH is off. I was not about to throw a family member away, so skimmed off the red and poured off what was the top layer and started over again with whole flour, equal parts of water and an island of sugar in the starter.
Again mine sits too long sometimes and it gets problems, but I have found that if you do dump in enough sugar, or feed Dudley after a few weeks, he will render the sugar into alcohol and the PH will remain acidic so nothing grows in the form of bad yeast.
As you can see by the top light brown colour, I do grow yeast in this and it does smell like bread yeast, but I have never used that "sponge" in baking. Sponge is the German word for their pre yeast "dat gute enuff" baking as they had no yeast. They would use a mashed potatoe and make as slurry and in awhile this would become the yeast to raise bread.
I do not like waiting around for gluten to turn into dough, so I tend to just use the Dudely baking soda method as the old guy said, "Women fuss with it too much. Just knock it together and bake it".
I was talking to an Amish gal a month ago and she was using a flour out of Azure which was air blasted ground for lack of a better term. It has allot of luff to it's sails compared to crushed ground flour which makes a difference. I can not afford that kind of flour, so my artisan loaves are heavy and taste like only Dudley can flavor my kraut bread as that is what sourdough is, it is fermented wheat to break down the hulls so it is easier to digest.
So yes I am a sourdough snob. I am a purist. I have been at this long enough that I know what this nectar is and how to ferment it, and how delicious the bread is. It literally is like the wine I make, in new wine needs about 2 months to mellow out so it is not sharp. Sourdough bread if you taste that sprite sharp sour, which you do not get in store cultures or people who are nursing their starter with daily feedings, you get a bread like nothing available. That is God's Gift in I have a yeast probably like none other in the world in what Dudley is. It makes the nectar if given time, and then it turns out a bread upon Dudley's condition, a light sprite, a mellow sweet or this complex wine flavor which is mellow and sweet and acidic at the same time. More like the wines I made in the Riesling class.
Now you can be a snob too, as sourdough people all think they got the cat by the tail. They will lecture on their chit, and then you can say, yes but do you have the nectar for that special gourmet sourdough? They will blink and try to discount your nattering, but it will irk them and they will be bereaved that their child in the jar does not measure up to the royalty you have......or at least read of.
Nuff Said
agtG
