On 2/1/05 8:22 AM, "Charles Perry" > wrote:

>=20
>=20
> Kenneth wrote:
>>=20
>>> Have you tried comparing Poil=E2ne loaves made with "his" levain and your=
own?
>>=20
>>=20
>> ... that is a great question, and I have not...
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>=20
> I hope you do and share the results. My potential son-in-law
> claims that the quality of ingredients is of much greater
> importance than any particular strain of levain. and tells
> stories about the bakery business in France to make his point. I
> am not sure that I agree with his claim, but it is a matter of
> great curiosity to me.
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> Regards,
> Charles

When I moved to the upper mid-west several years ago, I found a more divers=
e
selection of baking ingredients than I had been exposed to. I was used to
(and happy with) purchasing KA flours. In Wisconsin, I found I could buy a
more regionally distributed brand called Dakota Maid. What intrigued me at
first was the mill dating on each bag. The flour was often less 2 weeks old=
..
It "seemed", very subjectively I admit, that the finished breads began to
have "fuller" flavor. I decided that I must be aging the doughs longer (it
is colder in Wisconsin than Georgia so I had slower rises). I began buying
grains in the bulk aisle of our food co-op and milling them. Again, it
"seemed" like the breads had fuller flavor though dough aging was definitel=
y
unchanged (same starters, I might add). Finally I took the step of buying
from the local health food distributor. This required commitments to large
quantities: 25 pound minimums for wheat and rye, 40 to 50 pounds for barley=
,
kamut, and spelt, and I could choose provenience: as in county A in
Minnesota or Valley B in Montana. Fortunately, I have teenage boys and coul=
d
absorb the buying scale.

The grains were organic and came with the marketing spiel about sustainable
agri-practice, etc... What I did notice was: the big bag grains, every
variety, were LARGER than their counterparts from the co-op bulk aisle. The=
y
were also less broken and cracked as well. I found they, meaning red winter
and white spring wheat and the rye, would all readily build starters too.
The family bread critics and neighbors "believed", subjective again, that
the breads were better.

For a while I amused myself thinking I had somehow had a baking gestalt.
In hindsight, it seems likely that I had lucked into better material to wor=
k
with. Cereal grains come in quality grades. I had just never seen them or
been able to buy selectively.

Will