The Bread Thread!

[frustratedearthmother]

Those yeasts are nasty! It was pink and smelled bad within a week.

Ewwwwww!

 

[Beekissed]

So the wild yeast in the you are trying to get to infect your wheat is Lactobacillus? It's a matter of chance capturing wild yeast from the open air. There are numerous kinds of wild yeast in the air and some types are not good for you at all.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough

I think one would be more successfully using a starter like this.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/sho...MI0vHKktLK4QIVUbbACh2jHQM6EAQYAyABEgIp3_D_BwE
View attachment 10584

Nah...the LABs will soon take over the mix, even if one were to capture something less than desirable. Been done this way since time began, CC, and you can't really argue with success....but leave it up to mere mankind to decide THEY know better than God how to make a sourdough starter.

Same with doing FF for chickens. All the people who think they know too much were expounding that the bad bacteria would form due to the anaerobic nature of LABs, said they can not have any O2 to reproduce...but they all take that for the LABs CAN'T have the presence of O2 and reproduce. They forget that they don't NEED O2 to reproduce and the presence of FREE O2 can inhibit growth, though LABs are aertolerant anaerobes, so they CAN tolerate O2~ but keeping something in a wet, moist culture, such as a pickling crock, an FF bucket, etc. keeps the bulk of LAB production under the moisture layer and away from FREE O2.

The argument went up and down that way for some time until a microbioligist came on BYC and set the record straight once and for all. She took the FF samples to her work lab and ran testing on the presence of bacteria, molds, yeast in the FF. LABs won the day and the others cannot fully survive where LABs thrive. The acetic acid that is a byproduct of their feeding on the grain also inhibits the growth of "bad" bacteria.

The so-called "mold" on top of pickling ferment, FF that sits too long without stirring, etc.? It's yeast, not mold, and only forms on TOP of the SCOBY, where it comes in contact with free O2. It does NOT form "tendrils" down into the pickling ferment...the large presence of LABs, lactic acid, acetic acid and salt prevent "bad" bacteria from entering that mix.

So the much touted LABs sold commercially to make sure your sourdough will only have LABs only are for those who don't want to believe that the old ways are still the good ways and that THEY know better. PT Barnum says there's one born every minute.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I, for one, have no aversion to doing things differently than my ancestors did, lol. Yes, the old ways work for a lot of things but if there is a safer more efficient way of doing things - I'll at least give it a try.

 

[CrealCritter]

I am way outside of my league here... I've never even baked a loaf a bread, let alone sourdough -:lol

I kind of can relate though since I do make some malted liquid bread. Although I've never brewed a sour I do know its fermented at high temperatures in a low PH environment to lato ferment.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

But, you do know yeast!

I used to bake bread - yummy! But, my one attempt at sourdough only wasted a bunch of flour. Guess my wild yeasts weren't feeling cooperative, lol.

 

[CrealCritter]

But, you do know yeast!

I used to bake bread - yummy! But, my one attempt at sourdough only wasted a bunch of flour. Guess my wild yeasts weren't feeling cooperative, lol.

Kind of... take a ginger bug, for example.
It is a colony of Saccharomyces florentinus and Lactobacillus hilgardii. In other words, it is a spontaneous fermentation that occurs when ginger, sugar, and water are left to their own devices on your counter top. I image sourdough is the same general principal.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@wyoDreamer - whole wheat sourdough sounds relish. Yum!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

All this talk about sour dough: old fashioned vs. buying a culture has me wanting to so a SD culture here, just to say I've succeeded. Bee, would you advise me to try with the white flour I have on hand (it's not very fresh) or buy some organic WW flour at my health food store? And, once I get my culture going, does it matter whether I use white or WW to feed it? My typical forays into bread products are usually about 3/4 white, and I add 1/4 heavier grains. Typically WW, oats, corn, or 6 grain (usually a combination of those).

 

[rodeogirl]

I would love to have a sour dough starter but sadly mine never turn out.

 

[Beekissed]

I had made a good sourdough starters many times before attempting it in Wyoming. It was just the one attempt that went so wrong. Somehow I just caught the wrong yeast on that attempt.

I am going to attempt to use the starter I have now on homeground whole wheat and see if I can get some sourdough whole wheat bread that is edible. I would like ot be able to make bread from whole wheat without using any white flour. Right now, my attempts are producing a very, very heavy loaf.

Could be WY has an arid climate that doesn't hold much yeast to capture? I think it's easy for us here in these damp and humid mountains, as yeasts abound. Could be why some of the best sourdough back in the old days were among the old trappers and gold miners, as that is normally done in the mountains and along rivers, where there would be yeasts aplenty.