Jeff Miller wrote:
> Samartha wrote:
>
>> As example, two starters, one self-grown, the other grown
>> from a German Sourdough bread "package" - had all the
>> ingredients, flour, a yeast package and "dried sourdough" as
>> one ingredient.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Both starters were happily doing their job making great bread.
>
> Were there any significant differences between the two starters in terms of
> the time it took to rise, flavor, bread color, etc?

Trying to backtrack and find info - was 2003. The records I find were of
the failures.

They were/are FG rye starters and the breads I make are mixed/grain
rye/wheat breads.

In that context, significant differences - definitely not. Maybe the
self-grown were a bit milder i. e. less pronounced taste. From a
sourness performance perspective they were very similar, as I remember.

If I find those records again - pH comparisons when growing, I will post
them.

But the two self-growns lost their ability to stay sour in the fridge
and came out with pH ~ 5.2 whereas the other's came out with pH ~ 3.8,
whites lower.

The other's: Carls, SDI SF, another "white" and my "package grown" held
up with identical treatments i. e. neglection to a degree that mold and
funny color (pink) coatings swam on the hooch. Carl's and SDI SF were
white, of cause.

Very interesting, as I see now:

I had 12 starters (duplicates of same kind 3 x SF, 2 x another white,
etc) and tried reviving them after the disaster for a couple of month.

There were two self-growns and one where I mixed all starters.

With the exception of the two self-growns and the mix all, all starters
came out of the fridge (after ~ a month) with a pH below 4.0 (3.39 ..
3.81), the two self-grown had over pH 5 and the all-mix also had a high
pH: 4.15 sticking out of the crowd.

So - a conclusion from that could be that there was something of that
sour-killer from the self-grown in that all-mix...

Whatever it was - I could not get it out and having this non-sour
"feature" made me toss them.


Samartha