Hi everybody,
I would like some advise about how to sterilize flour at home. I have
got a couple of starters at home but they seem to have all lost their
individual flavours after some time. I have always been very careful
to avoid contamination with utensils etc, and they were definitely
different when I got them initially. So now I would like to sterilize
the flour in order to reduce the chance that local organisms thrive in
my starters.
Anyone uses any method? Does boiling flour work or does it ruin
everything?
Please let me know what you think
Thanks

On 8 Nov 2004 03:18:36 -0800, (maupas)
wrote:

Hi everybody,
I would like some advise about how to sterilize flour at home. I have
got a couple of starters at home but they seem to have all lost their
individual flavours after some time. I have always been very careful
to avoid contamination with utensils etc, and they were definitely
different when I got them initially. So now I would like to sterilize
the flour in order to reduce the chance that local organisms thrive in
my starters.
Anyone uses any method? Does boiling flour work or does it ruin
everything?
Please let me know what you think
Thanks

Howdy,

I did it by making a "home autoclave."

I put flour in a Ball jar, sealed it, put the jar in a
pressure cooker and "cooked."

HTH,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

Hi, do you do this because you too feel this is necessary to preserve
the original flavour of starters? Do you always use "autoclaved" flour
to refresh your starter? Last question...Doesn't the flour get
"cooked" in your autoclave?

I did it by making a "home autoclave."

I put flour in a Ball jar, sealed it, put the jar in a
pressure cooker and "cooked."

HTH,

On 11 Nov 2004 04:17:11 -0800, (maupas)
wrote:


I did it by making a "home autoclave."

I put flour in a Ball jar, sealed it, put the jar in a
pressure cooker and "cooked."

HTH,

Hi, do you do this because you too feel this is necessary to preserve
the original flavour of starters? Do you always use "autoclaved" flour
to refresh your starter? Last question...Doesn't the flour get
"cooked" in your autoclave?

Howdy,

Please don't top post. It makes it nearly impossible to
follow the thread...

No, I do not feed my starters with sterilized flour. When
there are billions upon billions of critters living in a
starter, there is no danger that they will be "taken over"
by the few that might be alive in the flour.

I did sterilize some flour because I was trying to culture
something (that was not a living culture) in flour and I
wanted to decrease the likelihood of contamination.

About the "cooking" of the flour: I simply don't know. I
thought about that but needed some sterilized flour for the
reasons that I described.

All the best,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

"maupas" in message =
m...
asked Kenneth about Kenneth's "autoclaving" procedu

I did it by making a "home autoclave."
I put flour in a Ball jar, sealed it, put the jar in a
pressure cooker and "cooked."

Doesn't the flour get "cooked" in your autoclave?

Assuming pressure regulation at 15 lbs/sq.in., the flour=20
sealed in a Ball jar within the pressure cooker would be
subjected to a dry temperature of ~250 degr. F. if the process
were continued to the point where the flour reached uniform
temperature. That might be a good way to ensure that the=20
temperature remains low enough so as to not damage the=20
flour, but the procedure has nothing at all to do with autoclaving,=20
which, by definition, requires wet heat.

(Well, it would be true that the flour would stew in its own=20
juice, amounting typically to ~14% moisture content, but that
misses the definition of autoclaving.)

"Kenneth" wrote in message =
...

Please don't top post. It makes it nearly impossible to
follow the thread...

Wake up, Kenneth! Whether top- or bottom posted becomes
irrelevant if replies are focused by editing.

Threads are much easier to follow if the extraneous material is
deleted. The full content of a thread remains essentially forever
in the Google archive after it has decayed from the news servers.

--=20
Dick Adams
firstname dot lastname at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html