As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I was looking for a pork marinade when I came across pages of epiphanies about sourdough starter and become puzzled in the purveyors and profits of this stuff.
I'm not gong to speak as God in this, but I will state that these people who had bread rising from sourdough did not have sourdough, because sourdough does not leaven or rise in conversion of gluten. My sourdough is named Dudley. It is from the Townsend Whelen and Brad Angier book about living in the wilderness.
Dudley was a sourdough who lived in the Peace River Country of Canada. His recipe was simple, in some flour, warm water, sugar and expose that to the open air (not bugs) and whatever nature had blowing around for yeast, is what you got to work the sugar and the flour to the same thing corn silage is in souring to keep for cattle feed in natural fermentation which makes things easier to digest.
As Dudley explained it, you put baking soda into your bread mix while making it, as that is what produced the gases that gave some lift to the bread.
The bread I was looking at had huge gaping holes in it, like French bread with a milk base. That is yeast rise and not a chemical reaction of a base and acid creating gases.
I know my Gram had old sponge recipes. That is an active yeast lump of potato water, sugar, flour and warm water that needs to be fed frequently, and is a sweet dough starter.
I do feed Dudley, depending on when we used him. What I take out is a thick pancake like batter of whole wheat flour and I put that same amount back in, about 1 cup of water to 1 cup of whole wheat flour. I pour sugar in before I add the new mix to make an island. I don't measure as that is Dudley.
I have written before that Dudley behaves and has only gone volcanic a few times in some wild yeast must have entered, but it never lasts because he is sour. I have had some molds growing on the top lid, which I wipe off. At present he has a "skin" of off white which if you open the lid and smell is yeast. I have had that before, but it usually runs its course. At present he is more sour than I like, but that is Dudley as he is a living creature, and in most instances he is a rather aged wine flavor in not being that sharp.
As I have stated, yeast does get in there, and has been a few times commercial yeast as I used the same bowl to make regular bread and sourdough, but that stuff never lasts in that acidic environment which is Dudley.
Dudley has surprised me in I used to get sick if I ate the same things for long periods of time. Since TL came to the Brier, we have had Dudley at work for years and eat that bread for breakfast 5 days a week and he never bothers me in the least.
This ain't Dudley. This is an active sponge.
Just like penicillin is a wild yeast that thank God was captured, there are lots of wild yeasts. I have no idea what Dudley is really, but it is a dominant strain that behaves, naturally selects over other yeasts commercial and wild and I treat him as part of the family, because he is alive.
I just keep him in a gallon glass pickle jar with a plastic lid on the gas stove with a pie tin under him, in case he gets rambunctious, which rarely happens as I do not add things like leftover bread or pancakes to him, a the old sourdoughs never wasted things in the wild. If your flapjacks had coon grease, maple syrup or saliva from a plate, it all went into the jar. That is why their starters were volcanic and sometime they had to tame them down with baking soda to change the PH.
So as expert as I am on Dudley, I think these other people have sponges and are selling them as sourdough. I'm a purest and the original Canadian said sourdough rises with baking soda, so that is what sourdough is. I honestly like a regional baker's English Muffin Sourdough better than Dudley as he is sharp, you know when you bite into Dudley that it is sourdough as he has a tang as ripe as vinegar. TL likes him that way, and even volumes of baking soda in the recipe is not going to marginalize him that much.
I guess the old boys up north used to knock together 100 loaves at a time in the fall and bake them up as they would keep. That is the thing in the bread we make, I never have trouble with things getting mold on them.
This is the kind of stuff you are going to have to remember in a meltdown as yeast is going to disappear. You are going to have sponges and sourdough for what you will call bread. I guess in your world of no salt or flavors, maybe even then I will appreciate the tang of Dudley as it will be better than tasteless food.
I'm going to wrap this filler up as it has been a long day and it time to rest in the Lord as Dudley does allot of resting in he never overworks too hard in his bed on the stove.
Nuff Said
agtG
