On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 16:02:28 -0500
"Dee Randall" <deedoveyatshenteldotnet> wrote:

>=20
> "Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message=20
> news:20050206133326.25986933@wafer...
> > On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 14:50:47 -0500
> > "Dee Randall" <deedoveyatshenteldotnet> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> > Isn't it the food that the yeast "eats" that gets used up, not the
> >> > yeast itself? Maybe that's what you meant.
> >> >
> >> > But it is an interesting question. How much rising is enough, not
> >> > enough, or too much? And how can I tell where it is?
> >> >
> >> You are right, my question is as you put it -- when does the
> >> food/flour/dough get used up by those yeasties (because there is only
> >so > much flour you can add to a formed dough ball.)
> >
> >
> > IT doesn't.
> >
> > Eventually, the dough sours, and theoretically, the yeast may die.
>=20
> Looking thru my notes: I don't want to quote verbatim what someone told
> me about the timing of this yeast 'going sour and dying,' so I will
> paraphrase:
>=20
> <beginning of paraphrase>That my bread had been overproofed because the=20
> yeast activity had ceased and that after about 2 hours, my yeast is dead
> and releasing foul gasses. <end of paraphrase>
>=20
> So basically my interpretation of the paraphrase agrees with what you are
> saying?


It's not for lack of food.=20

Any microorganism, given enough food and the right environment, will
breed and consume until it renders it's environment unlivable.=20

Yeast produces alcohol and CO2 but like anything else it can't live in
concentration of it's own waste products.=20

Yeast eats sugars, including sugars that are polymerized into starches.
Technically, it's easier for yeast to eat starch than sucrose (what you
call 'sugar'), but i digress.=20

By the time it's soured your dough and died, it's consumed only a tiny
fraction of the available sugars and starches.=20

Technically, some of it is still alive but dormant, and a small fraction
of it is alive and still producing, but you're getting to the thin edge of
the bell curve. The party is over and there's paper plates and beer bottles
everywhere.=20

Nothing wrong with soured dough. It's like cheese - cheese never really
goes off, it just turns into some other kind of cheese. Whether or not it's
something you want to eat and how exactly you're going to go about
preparing it for consumption is another question.=20

I typically let half a batch of pizza dough go sour. Sourdough pizza
crust is great with a nice sharp jack cheese and some saut=E9ed mushrooms a=
nd
garlic.=20