On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:45:04 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
wrote:

>
>"Boron Elgar" > wrote in message ...
>> On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:06:27 GMT, "Dick Adams" >
>> >I'd bet the the "SDJ" turns out to be quite like at least one of the others.
>>
>> And what would lead you to that conclusion?
>
>1. It is very difficult to rid your kitchen of all of the sourdough
>residues lurking in nooks and crannies. Even if you had no other
>cultures in process, that would consititute a huge source of potential
>contamination.


Which is true in any case, not just this one, and certainly discussed
here often enough and were it so difficult to keep cultures separate,
we'd all only have and be able to keep one. I usually have 3-4
distinct cultures that I keep around.

Certainly there has been no sourdough baking in that kitchen since
May, so something may be around, but I don't know what. My own direct
practices minimize any cross contamination.

>not clear if they related to the SDJ revival attempt, as that seemed
>to activate relatively late.

I'm guessing that had something to do with the age, size and hardness
of the granules, which retained their visibility until about 36 hours
after initial exposure to flour and water. Once they dissolved, I am
guessing the moisture penetrated them and they took off. The control
and each of the tired and true resurrections each had different rates
of coming alive, with the control being dead last and almost minimal.
The few bubbles I saw might have been due to my own stirring.

>
>2. The kind of spore formation that would preserve yeasts over
>many years is unlikely in bread yeasts, as those are usually, if not
>always, irregular in ploidy, and cannot therefore make it through
>the reduction divisions requisite to spore formation.

And yet, surprisingly, I have brought back 3 packets of this stuff at
various times. The cultures have all had a similar smell (of the puke
sort, that is retained all the time - no other culture I have or have
had smells anything at all like it), and the first two were certainly
similar to each other in performance and remained similar to each
other and different from other cultures around. So far, the 3rd
culture has the same puke smell. I cannot vouch yet for performance.
>
>3. The race to fame for latter-day SDJ revival has, as far as I know,
>never resulted in the distribution, by a responsible distributor, to a
>panel of judges competent to determine if the alleged revived SDJ was
>in any way different from the usual suspects.

Well, duh, honey. You're retired, go have yourself some fun. I
haven't had it under a microscope, but I could recognize it
blindfolded by its smell, just as I can Carl's, the Acme, my La Brea
and several other cultures I've purchased, been given or created. And
if any of them were put to use making the same dough and having the
same rise times under the same conditions, I could tell them apart by
that behavior, too. None of that makes me a chemist, just someone
sensitive to the behaviors of the cultures she owns and uses
frequently.

So far as I know, no one else has tried to revive the stuff and posted
here or anywhere else. Until someone else does, that makes me only one
to be able to talk about the culture. Go play with it yourself if you
like and then get back to me.

Boron