Catch your own sourdough culture.
Keep it in a large crock, open so it can breathe.
Good sourdough needs a real tangy culture.
Feed it once a week, or every six months if you keep it in the fridge.
Let your starter/sponge get real sour.
Lots of different stuff in the dough makes more interesting bread.
A little rye flour makes it rise better. Should add barley malt in any =
case.
Mix your dough very lightly, if at all (because sourdough is =
self-kneading).
(or use a bread machine).
Use only distilled or deionized water.
Sourdough bread has big holes, and you'll need a really loose dough for =
those.
Never let dough, starter, or preferments come in contact with metal.
You will need some way to measure pH (acidity)
and to weigh constituents to the nearest gram.
You'll need to use lined bannetons, and to have some peels on hand
(or a Dutch oven if you are baking in the boonies).
Otherwise special baskets, Pullman forms, etc., and special flours
to prevent sticking if you use linen linings.
Let your dough rise in the refrigerator.
Punch it down several times as it rises.
Bake on a masonry slab, at least a pizza stone.
You may wish to preheat your stone -- it makes better crust.
Start with a very hot oven, and adjust the temperature as the bake =
proceeds.
Flop your risen loaves onto a peel, and shove them onto your stone/slab.
Use olive-pit grindings, or finely cracked grain, to make them roll off =
of the peel.
You need to get steam into your oven to start the bake.
(If you cannot get enough steam in with an external generator, as may be
made by plumbing a pressure cooker, you may need to buy a commercial
deck oven, or build a masonry oven out back into which water can be
thrown in copious quantities when the time comes. Otherwise, you can
throw a few ice cubes into your oven as the dough goes in.)
Let you bread cool until the crust gets crackly, and then store it in
a paper sack
Test it out on your wife and kids. Publish their commentary at r.f.s.

Those are some of the things that I do not do, nor believe. But frankly =

I am not making Poil=E2ne loaves, nor Boudin nor Acme, nor anything =
close=20
to what is shown in picture books about baking.

But it is not too bad. And it is done in an old Kenmore gas oven.

For instance, see=20
http://www.prettycolors.com/bread%5F...e%5F3-9-04.jpg
which is scan of a center slice through a 1-3/4 lb. sourdough boule.

Email me for details (special advice on what advice not to take).

--=20
Dick Adams
firstname dot lastnameat bigfoot dot com

Kenmore electric range, although i do confess to using a stone, i really
like pizza baked on the stone heated to about 500F

http://68.0.93.39:8008/gallery/Misce...es/Picture_002
used 40% rye, makes really really good reubens...







Dick Adams wrote:
Catch your own sourdough culture.
Keep it in a large crock, open so it can breathe.
Good sourdough needs a real tangy culture.
Feed it once a week, or every six months if you keep it in the fridge.
Let your starter/sponge get real sour.
Lots of different stuff in the dough makes more interesting bread.
A little rye flour makes it rise better. Should add barley malt in any case.
Mix your dough very lightly, if at all (because sourdough is self-kneading).
(or use a bread machine).
Use only distilled or deionized water.
Sourdough bread has big holes, and you'll need a really loose dough for those.
Never let dough, starter, or preferments come in contact with metal.
You will need some way to measure pH (acidity)
and to weigh constituents to the nearest gram.
You'll need to use lined bannetons, and to have some peels on hand
(or a Dutch oven if you are baking in the boonies).
Otherwise special baskets, Pullman forms, etc., and special flours
to prevent sticking if you use linen linings.
Let your dough rise in the refrigerator.
Punch it down several times as it rises.
Bake on a masonry slab, at least a pizza stone.
You may wish to preheat your stone -- it makes better crust.
Start with a very hot oven, and adjust the temperature as the bake proceeds.
Flop your risen loaves onto a peel, and shove them onto your stone/slab.
Use olive-pit grindings, or finely cracked grain, to make them roll off of the peel.
You need to get steam into your oven to start the bake.
(If you cannot get enough steam in with an external generator, as may be
made by plumbing a pressure cooker, you may need to buy a commercial
deck oven, or build a masonry oven out back into which water can be
thrown in copious quantities when the time comes. Otherwise, you can
throw a few ice cubes into your oven as the dough goes in.)
Let you bread cool until the crust gets crackly, and then store it in
a paper sack
Test it out on your wife and kids. Publish their commentary at r.f.s.

Those are some of the things that I do not do, nor believe. But frankly
I am not making Poilâne loaves, nor Boudin nor Acme, nor anything close
to what is shown in picture books about baking.

But it is not too bad. And it is done in an old Kenmore gas oven.

For instance, see
http://www.prettycolors.com/bread%5F...e%5F3-9-04.jpg
which is scan of a center slice through a 1-3/4 lb. sourdough boule.

Email me for details (special advice on what advice not to take).

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 16:09:12 GMT, "Dick Adams"
wrote:

Litany snipped...

Those are some of the things that I do not do, nor believe. But frankly
I am not making Poilâne loaves, nor Boudin nor Acme, nor anything close
to what is shown in picture books about baking.

But it is not too bad. And it is done in an old Kenmore gas oven.


You have, most inadvertently, I'd wager, hit the nail on the head
about bread baking...

People bake bread for their own pleasure in the baking process and for
the good food it can bring to the family.

Each of us has certain ways of baking, each of us has certain
end-goals in mind, each of us prefers some bread/methods/flours/temps,
etc and swears their method and bread is best.

There is pretty wide latitude in what constitutes "good" bread. That
you prefer a Kenmore range and tin baking does not make your bread any
less appealing to you and yours and that is as it should be, but to
somehow imply that others who accomplish their loaves in a manner
other than your own, or with fancier equipment or a methodology that
is comforting to them and yet still produces what *they* like, is
just plain wrong.

I have tremendous respect for the expertise of the bakers on this &
the ABR groups. I have learned a lot from them, but what I have
learned best, is that there is no one method that works for all and at
all times.

If a person bakes on a Garland, it doesn't imply a snob or an
inferior baker. If one prefers bread that has butter and sugar and
comes from an ABM when the morning alarm rings, it doesn't mean the
person is not serious about their bread baking or worthy of inclusion
in discussion. If a person is an absolute tyro and drops in here
looking for advice and the camaraderie of other bakers, it doesn't
mean that the person is an idiot.

I would truly be more comfortable with an open and friendly exchange
of ideas among bakers of all levels of expertise, than a bunch of
criticism and lack of welcome from a "know it all," for the older I
get (and I am no spring chicken,) the more I realize that there is
*always* something to learn about a topic, even about one I already
think I know a lot about.

Boron

"Boron Elgar" wrote in message =
...

[ ... ]

I would truly be more comfortable with an open and friendly exchange
of ideas among bakers of all levels of expertise, than a bunch of
criticism and lack of welcome from a "know it all," ...=20

"Boron" puts one in mind of the fabled wife who, upon hearing her man=20
proclaim "You know, the trouble with women is that they take everything=20
personally" replied "Well *I* don't!".

I simply offered to tell how to do some bread in a simple way. That =
does
not seem to be an occasion for getting all huffy and ruffled up.

---
DickA

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:17:13 GMT, "Dick Adams"
wrote:


"Boron Elgar" wrote in message ...

[ ... ]

I would truly be more comfortable with an open and friendly exchange
of ideas among bakers of all levels of expertise, than a bunch of
criticism and lack of welcome from a "know it all," ...

"Boron" puts one in mind of the fabled wife who, upon hearing her man
proclaim "You know, the trouble with women is that they take everything
personally" replied "Well *I* don't!".

I simply offered to tell how to do some bread in a simple way. That does
not seem to be an occasion for getting all huffy and ruffled up.

---
DickA

Just trying to add the sexist stuff for fun & giggles, then?

Boron

Dick,

I just lurk here, my main interest lies elsewhere, but I just had to thank you
for brightening a dull day.

To pick out just one item, the need for live steam in the oven, It never ceases
to amaze me that otherwise sane people will heat up a heavy duty fan oven to
flat max with the biggest, thickest bakestones they can cram in, a massive
thermal sink, and then think that a few spritzes from a plant mister will make
the slightest difference.g

John