Hi Everybody,

Inspired by Samartha Deva's great Web Page http://samartha.net/SD/,
I've been baking my own sourdough rye bread for about six months
without a hitch. I was able to culture my own starter the very first
time I ever tried and was consumed by experimenting Sarmartha style.
One of the things I changed was the flour, mainly because of the
price, as it did not seem to affect the taste and result. Then one day
I had to go away for two months. I left my culture in a tightly closed
jar in refrigerator, but upon my return it appeared dead. Smelled
nice, like pure rye vodka and was all discolored. Of course,
encouraged by my original success, I immediately started a new
culture. Everything was identical to my original first (temperature
30C, amount of flour, water etc.) except the flour itself. After two
days it was all moldy and reeked of a paint remover. I removed the
mold, stirred in some more flour.... and the result was equally
disastrous no matter how long I waited.
Finally, in desperation, I turned to the original flour that I used
with immediate success the first time I tried.
Hosannah!!! I worked again for me, like charm after only approx. 12
hours in my cultivating box.
Apparently, not every flour is suitable, at least not for starting the
culture. However, once the starter is established, making sourdough
with different flours is not a problem.

Nabuco wrote:

> Hi Everybody,
>
> One of the things I changed was the flour,

> Finally, in desperation, I turned to the original flour

************************************************** *****

OK so what is the name of the flours you use so all will know.

Joe Umstead

Joe > wrote in message >...
> Nabuco wrote:
>
> > Hi Everybody,
> >
> > One of the things I changed was the flour,
>
> > Finally, in desperation, I turned to the original flour
>
> ************************************************** *****
>
> OK so what is the name of the flours you use so all will know.
>
> Joe Umstead

Dear Joe

The reason for not giving the name of the flour in the original
posting was that I now live well off-shore, i.e. in Sweden. It is
labeled as ecological, full grain and stone ground rye flour. I have
purchased it at the largest retailer in this country.
I guess I lucked it out a bit with this flour, as I could have picked
one that would never go sour, just as easily. And consequently, I
would join the ranks of those bitterly complaining about their luck
and asking endlessly for more advice.
So my secret of SD, good folks, is to find good flour and culture it
for something like 12 hours at about 90F. Once you have established
good starter, you can probably switch to any rye flour, as I did, and
still produce consistently good results. Flour and temperature is all
it takes. It goes without saying that non chlorinated water is
mandatory.
Paradoxically, obtaining good, fresh and ecological rye flour should
be far easier to an insistent recreational baker in the US than
anywhere in Europe where finding anything off the beaten track
foodwise becomes increasingly next to impossible.
Finally, as a complete novice, I want to stress the inspiration and
advice I got from Samartha Deva's bread web page. There are many web
pages devoted specifically to SD baking, in particular French and
German, but none of them comes even close to his.