Samartha Deva wrote:

...The one's I got from Charles Perry are strictly used on wheat flour -
mostly white, some whole grain....

...That's hardly abusive. If I would put them on rye, it could be called
abuse but since I am not doing it, you don't have a case...

Well, I have no plan to get in the "whose bread, flour, or starter is better" type of discussions, but I will point
out, strictly for the benefit of newer readers, that basic sourdough white bread is generaly eaiser to master than
the whole grain breads. An often stated opinion that I share is that it is a good idea for newcommers to master one
recipe first and then move on to whatever other area of sourdough baking that holds their interest.

I reccomend without reservation the panbread recipe as a good starting loaf that is certanly good enough to stay with
as a standard. I have tested that recipe extensively and find it to be very robust. Robust in the sense that many
brands of flour and many variations in terms of mixing and timing will still yeild an acceptable loaf of bread. It
takes real effort to seriously screw it up.

Again for newer folk, if you are going to make a lot of rye bread, it does make sense to keep a seperate rye
starter. However, if rye is an occaisional thing, it is certainly possible to use Carl's or other white flour
starter. It just take a feeding or two to acclimate Carl's to rye flour. Here is how I make that transition.

I take one tablespoon of rye flour and one teaspoon or less of Carl's starter with enough water to make a batter.
When that bubbles up, I add 1/4 cup of rye and enough water. When that mix peaks out, I start over with one teaspoon
of the now rye starter. ( if it is very vigorous you might skip the start over step and just continue on) Then just
build to the amount of rye start you wish to keep or use.

Converting a white flour starter to rye saves several steps and time over making a rye sour from scratch. This is
not too difficult a procedure for the occaisional rye user since most rye involves building a start in steps anyway
and saves the trouble of keeping two styles of start on hand. It is not necessary to convert the start to rye if the
amount of rye is less than about 1/3 to 1/2 of the flour.

A start with the name of Carl should not be too uncomfortable wearing lederhosen. Call it Karl if it suits you.

Regards,

Charles

--
Charles Perry
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