I just returned from the Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and one local bread I
tasted was awesome! I was at one old grandma's house in a village near
Brusilov and had some of her sourdough bread and it was unbelievable.

I ordered some Russian culture from SDI hoping to somehow figure out how to
reproduce the taste. Quite a challenge since I don't have access to the
same flours, water etc. used in the Ukraine.

Anything I need to know about using, feeding the Russian culture? I have
been using SDI SF and Carl's for several years now. Any particular recipes
seem to work best with the Russian culture? How well does it work with
recipes containing rye flour?

Gene

--
Gene Benzing
Kansas City St. Andrew Pipes and Drums
http://www.kcpipeband.org

Gene,

aren't you going about this in reverse? A major part of your grandma's
bread is how she deals with the starter and you are asking here how to
do it. Don't get me wrong, I am not critizising. If you have access to
your grandma's bread making, why don't you try to find out more about
from her? This could be invaluable information. I tried finding out
about bread making where I came from, but all this knowledge died out
one generation ago, the only living individual old enough was a boy and
did not remember much.

Also, the SDI russin starter is "a" russion starter apparently rising
very quickly and being "mild". This does not necessarily mean that your
grandma was using the same kind of starter just because it's from the
same land mass.

With your starter, I would go with the description which comes with it.
That reminds me, I think, when I got the Austrian starter from SDI, it
said that the instructions are in the book, so go and get it (or
something to this extend). The SF starter I got from them had a little
booklet (copyrighted and not be be duplicated without....) giving
instructions.

Well, Ed Woods book (in case you don't have it) talks about the russian
starter being from a village north of Moscow.

I am trying something similar - recreating a particular great bread from
another country, and believe me, the starter culture is only one part of
the issue, actually I find it rather small compared to everything else
involved.


Samartha

Gene Benzing wrote:

I just returned from the Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and one local bread I
tasted was awesome! I was at one old grandma's house in a village near
Brusilov and had some of her sourdough bread and it was unbelievable.

I ordered some Russian culture from SDI hoping to somehow figure out how to
reproduce the taste. Quite a challenge since I don't have access to the
same flours, water etc. used in the Ukraine.

Anything I need to know about using, feeding the Russian culture? I have
been using SDI SF and Carl's for several years now. Any particular recipes
seem to work best with the Russian culture? How well does it work with
recipes containing rye flour?

Gene

--
Gene Benzing
Kansas City St. Andrew Pipes and Drums
http://www.kcpipeband.org

--
remove -nospam from my email address, if there is one
SD page is the http://samartha.net/SD/

* Gene Benzing 2003-10-25:
I just returned from the Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and one local bread I
tasted was awesome! I was at one old grandma's house in a village near
Brusilov and had some of her sourdough bread and it was unbelievable.

I ordered some Russian culture from SDI hoping to somehow figure out how to
reproduce the taste. Quite a challenge since I don't have access to the
same flours, water etc. used in the Ukraine.

Anything I need to know about using, feeding the Russian culture? I have
been using SDI SF and Carl's for several years now. Any particular recipes
seem to work best with the Russian culture? How well does it work with
recipes containing rye flour?

I know nothing about authentic Ukrainian (or Russian) bread, but I do
have experience with the two cultures you mention from SDI (Russia &
OSF) as well as my favorite Carl's. I find that the SDI Russia culture
acts more like Carl's and less like OSF. Carl's and Russia I find to be
very fast acting powerful risers. I find OSF to be slower, less
powerful but ultimately more sour. Personally I like Carl's for raising
bread but give OSF a slight edge when it comes to flavorful sourdough
soda pancakes. BTW, I generally prefer mildly sour bread so YMMV.

I think you could probably substitute the Russia culture for Carl's in
most recipes with little or no change in timing.

If you succeed in reproducing your favorite bread from the Ukraine
please let us know!

--
Steve W
s (dot) wal (at) verizon (dot) net