Those interesting emails just keep right on coming! Tara wrote in just this morning to say: I have written today to come to the defense of the delicious salt-rising bread [you wrote about in your] Non-Starter post…I am a microbiologist (well, almost… I have a few more weeks of my masters) and one of the […]
READ ONA gentleman by the name of Carl wrote in to ask: I read your recent blog entries about starters from your blog with great interest. One thing that puzzles me is that you did not mentioned anything at all about what the temperature should be when you start a starter. Should the temperature of the […]
READ ONOn the subject of brick ovens, I got this very interesting note from a fellow by the name of Mexico Bob: A few years ago I was in the City of Veracruz, Mexico and I went to visit the house of Hernan Cortez at Antigua which is a few miles north. He built this house […]
READ ONI received a communiqué from one Father Stephen on Saturday, taking issue with my use of mild profanity in one of last week’s posts. It read like so: Et tu, Joe? “Though Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one bad M.F. microbe,….” Oh Joooooooooe! It seems there are fewer and fewer places we can go without the “cool” […]
READ ONMy pride and joy…and I’ll be even prouder and more joyous if I can ever figure out how to use it! What was wrong with my Maytag again?
READ ONWhat do I do if my starter won’t grow? It happens sometimes. You use distilled water, you feed regularly, but you can’t seem to reach that ultra-bubbly critical mass. As long as it looks good, smells good and you’re seeing at least a few pea-sized bubbles every day, you’re probably on the right track. The […]
READ ONOne of the big variables in the world of bread starter recipes is moisture. Some can be extremely wet, up to 60% water, others somewhat dry, in the realm of 35% water. Is there any practical difference between them? For the purpose of getting a starter culture going, the answer is no. Though I’ve had […]
READ ONThere are a lot of well-meaning bakers out there who publish elaborate recipes for exotic-sounding starters, many of which are based on organic fruit. Why? Because as I mentioned previously, many types of fruit are covered in naturally occurring yeasts. Grapes, plums, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, mulberries, elderberries…all are awash in fermenting fungi. Not by coincidence, […]
READ ONIf you’re wondering what I meant when I said that I generally let my starter ferment for five days to make sure I “clear all the suckers out” it’s because starter bowls can occasionally grow some funky stuff. Actually, maybe I should take part of that back. They always grow some funky stuff, but occasionally […]
READ ONA good friend from the ol’ hometown, Chef Tim, writes in to ask: Are all commercial yeasts the same, meaning will they not only act the same but produce the same flavors? Is there anything on the market that bridges the gap between the simple convenience of commercially made yeast and the flavor-producing goodness of […]
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