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Sourdough (rec.food.sourdough) Discussing the hobby or craft of baking with sourdough. We are not just a recipe group, Our charter is to discuss the care, feeding, and breeding of yeasts and lactobacilli that make up sourdough cultures. |
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Ingredient quality was Purchasing SD starter in Australia
On 2/1/05 8:22 AM, "Charles Perry" > wrote:
>=20 >=20 > Kenneth wrote: >>=20 >>> Have you tried comparing Poil=E2ne loaves made with "his" levain and your= own? >>=20 >>=20 >> ... that is a great question, and I have not... >>=20 >=20 > I hope you do and share the results. My potential son-in-law > claims that the quality of ingredients is of much greater > importance than any particular strain of levain. and tells > stories about the bakery business in France to make his point. I > am not sure that I agree with his claim, but it is a matter of > great curiosity to me. >=20 > Regards, > Charles When I moved to the upper mid-west several years ago, I found a more divers= e selection of baking ingredients than I had been exposed to. I was used to (and happy with) purchasing KA flours. In Wisconsin, I found I could buy a more regionally distributed brand called Dakota Maid. What intrigued me at first was the mill dating on each bag. The flour was often less 2 weeks old= .. It "seemed", very subjectively I admit, that the finished breads began to have "fuller" flavor. I decided that I must be aging the doughs longer (it is colder in Wisconsin than Georgia so I had slower rises). I began buying grains in the bulk aisle of our food co-op and milling them. Again, it "seemed" like the breads had fuller flavor though dough aging was definitel= y unchanged (same starters, I might add). Finally I took the step of buying from the local health food distributor. This required commitments to large quantities: 25 pound minimums for wheat and rye, 40 to 50 pounds for barley= , kamut, and spelt, and I could choose provenience: as in county A in Minnesota or Valley B in Montana. Fortunately, I have teenage boys and coul= d absorb the buying scale. The grains were organic and came with the marketing spiel about sustainable agri-practice, etc... What I did notice was: the big bag grains, every variety, were LARGER than their counterparts from the co-op bulk aisle. The= y were also less broken and cracked as well. I found they, meaning red winter and white spring wheat and the rye, would all readily build starters too. The family bread critics and neighbors "believed", subjective again, that the breads were better. For a while I amused myself thinking I had somehow had a baking gestalt. In hindsight, it seems likely that I had lucked into better material to wor= k with. Cereal grains come in quality grades. I had just never seen them or been able to buy selectively. Will |
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Will wrote: > > In hindsight, it seems likely that I had lucked into better material to work > with. Cereal grains come in quality grades. I had just never seen them or > been able to buy selectively. > One good thing about living in this part of the country with the miserable long grey winters is the availability of good flour. One store has the fresh dated Dakota Maid flour and another has machines where you can grind your own red or white Montanna Wheat for really fresh whole wheat. I only get out my own grinder for rye nowdays. The co-op should be able to order good grains as well as the health food store if you can find someone there who doesn't give you a blank stare when you use words such as quality. Regards, Charles -- Charles Perry Reply to: ** A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand ** |
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