not sour sourdough
 

I have been baking bread with the Oregon Trail starter for several
months now, but I haven't really figured out how to get my bread to
turn out sour. I've tried letting the sponge sit for 24 hours before
use. I've also tried allowing the dough to rise a full three times
before baking. So far, no luck.

Is it because I'm using only wheat flours? If I convert my starter
over to rye flour, and start making rye breads, will the sourness
likely increase? Any other tips?

Thanks for all help!

Sincerely
Aaron

Aron,

The acid producers - lactic acid bacteria grow best at warmer temperatures
i. e. 90 F for Lb SF - DA posted an URL recently:

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/64/7/2616/F1

If you would grow your starter more closer to this temperature, more acid
producers would grow.

Don't overdo it with growing all the time that warm, this will deplete the
yeasts if it happens too long (2 - 3 days).

See if that helps. Even if you don't know for sure if you have the LB SF's,
it's still worth a try.

Samartha


At 08:16 PM 1/25/2005, you wrote:
>I have been baking bread with the Oregon Trail starter for several
>months now, but I haven't really figured out how to get my bread to
>turn out sour. I've tried letting the sponge sit for 24 hours before
>use. I've also tried allowing the dough to rise a full three times
>before baking. So far, no luck.
>
>Is it because I'm using only wheat flours? If I convert my starter
>over to rye flour, and start making rye breads, will the sourness
>likely increase? Any other tips?
>
>Thanks for all help!
>
>Sincerely
>Aaron
>_______________________________________________
>Rec.food.sourdough mailing list

>http://www.mountainbitwarrior.com/ma...food.sourdough

===
remove "-nospam" when replying, and it's in my email address

Aaron wrote:

> Is it because I'm using only wheat flours? If I convert my starter
> over to rye flour, and start making rye breads, will the sourness
> likely increase? Any other tips?

Well not rye starter, per se, but perhaps incorporating some in your
dough may improve matters.

I gave a friend a few blocks away a piece of my starter. I make white
flour breads for the most part (1/4 cup whole wheat to 2-3/4 cups white,
plus 1 cup starter) and they're fairly mild. He makes whole wheat flour
breads and they are *very* sour.

B/

"Aaron" > wrote in message=20
...

> I've tried letting the sponge sit for 24 hours before
> use. I've also tried allowing the dough to rise a full three times
> before baking. So far, no luck. Is it because I'm using only=20
> wheat flours? =20

It is a mystery. You have reportedly conducted two procedures=20
each of which, in my hands, and with Carl's starter and with others,=20
would produce sour bricks.

With reference to the diagram at=20
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/di...rowthcurve.GIF
which depicts yeast growth in sourdough (and many other things)
incubating the sponge long enough so that the curve flattens should
favor bacterial activity as it lags (by my theory) yeast growth. Dough
from that, being deficient in yeast activity, would not rise well.

Punching down (deflating, reshaping, etc.) of the final dough, on the
other hand, done three times, would, I'd suspect, might past the
curve bend-over for dough without having much gas left to sustain
the rise.

My experience is with bread flour, but I do not see that WW flour
would behave differently, except for not rising so well, for several
reasons. Some might say it has more buffering capability on account
of higher ash, but that's a bit beyond my ken.

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname> at bigfoot dot com
___________________
Sourdough FAQ guide at=20
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughfaqs.html

"Samartha" > wrote in >
> The acid producers - lactic acid bacteria grow best at warmer temperatures
> i. e. 90 F for Lb SF - DA posted an URL recently:
> http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/64/7/2616/F1
> If you would grow your starter more closer to this temperature, more acid
> producers would grow.
> Don't overdo it with growing all the time that warm, this will deplete the
> yeasts if it happens too long (2 - 3 days).
> See if that helps. Even if you don't know for sure if you have the LB
SF's,
> it's still worth a try.
> Samartha

Interesting,
I wonder if the old Sourdough Minors had sour tasting bread or just used
the leavening of the sourdough starter. It would be hard to control the
starter
temperature in those conditions. I read where some 49ers were down on
their luck and the only thing they could afford was a sack of flour that had
gotten wet and turned into stone. They bought it and pulverized it and said
it made the best bread they had ever eaten..
Ernie