FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Why are these Bakers Catalog starters not self perpetuating?

(Anna Ault) wrote in message om>...
> Kenneth > wrote in message >. ..
> > On 13 Nov 2004 16:41:01 -0800, (Anna
> > Ault) wrote:
> >
> > > It is possible to maintain the starter you make from the little
> > >envelopes they send you - that was how I made my first starter. Now,
> > >the flavour did change a bit after a month or so, but that happens to
> > >starters in my hands.
> >
> > Howdy,
> >
> > I believe that you would have had the same result if you
> > used flour and water and none of the KA "starter."
> >
> > All the best,
>
>
> I doubt that, if what you mean is that I would have had the same
> results with making a straight flour and water starter and baking with
> it. If I mix up a paste of flour and water on Sunday night at 7 pm, I
> cannot expect it to leaven bread at 10 am on Monday. With the
> addition of 1/4 tsp of the KA LA-4 powder, it does (and makes a
> tolerable good bread, at that.)
>
> Per the packet of this stuff I have in my fridge, it contains
> Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Saccharomyces
> cerevisiae (type San Francisco). Those are all the ingredients
> listed.
>
> Now, if what you meant is that after a month or so I would have had
> the same result of the flavour changing -- absolutely. That happens
> to me all the time. It's part of what I like about baking with
> sourdough.
>
> AnnaEA

Hi Anna,
Does enough of the original taste persist to make you think that your
starter is maintaining the original cultures from the Lalvain product?

S. cerevisiae is of course baker's yeast, and the less surviving of
this the better, but the L. brevis and L. plantarum colonies, which
should provide the flavor in the culture, could be enjoying a new home
with compatible wild yeast species!

--Lisse