"Dick Adams" writes:
<<In my hands, attempts to affect the flavor or acidity of the final bread
by manipulating preferments have led only to sour bricks.>>
I have had a fair amount of success in affecting flavor and sourness by
manipulating preferments. One method that I find works particularly well is
a variation of the "old dough" method.
Create a starter and make your dough. Reserve a small portion of this dough
to create a new starter (say 10% old dough by total starter weight). When
this "new" starter is active create another dough using around 10% starter
by total dough weight. If you bake this dough you will have a mild, but
flavorful loaf. If you wish to have a more sour loaf, then hold this dough
over until the gluten begins to break down (for starters that refrigerate
well it can be held in the fridge for up to 2-3 days). Then use a large
portion of this old dough (say 25% by total dough weight) to create the
dough for a significantly more sour bread. Just be sure to calculate for the
salt that remains in these starters when you make your dough.
In essence what you will be doing is creating a cycle in which your "mild"
dough is used to create both a starter for your "mild" dough, and is also
aged and used as *the* starter for your "sour" dough. It's a bit of a
circular pattern. And I've never created any sour bricks with this method.
Trevor
"Dick Adams" > wrote in message
...
"Joe Doe" > wrote in message
...
> ... Carl's starter behaves like SDI Russian - potent
> leavening less potent flavor. Ed wood comments that because of this
> (early peak in leavening) you need to let the dough age and add some
> flour to reinvigorate the leavening power.
I remember Mrs. Wood saying (writing) something about letting the
refreshed starter get beyond peak and then adding some flour to
get it going again before proceeding to the dough. Then there was a
two starter method by Barb Beck, where she combined an over ripe
starter with and active one. In my hands, attempts to affect the flavor
or acidity of the final bread by manipulating preferments have led
only to sour bricks.
Several persons have mentioned the similarity between SDI Russia
and Carl's.
> Even if I do this, the flavor is not blow your socks of complex.
I am not sure that I am ready to agree that "complex" is a flavor.
> I do not have 100% confidence that I would get the same starters that I
> bought 10 odd years ago if I repurchased from SDI so have not yet gone
> this route.
It would be interesting to find out. I understood that they kept their
cultures
together in the same fridge and refreshed semiannually. There seemed to be
a conviction that synergy and/or symbiosis would keep the cultures from
melding. I would not be good for making that determination because
nothing I got from them came to life in the first place, and I am not an
expert anyway in remembering flavors. So I am nominating you.
--
DickA
P.S. to Darrell: the Beck references at
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html
appear to have become obsolete.