Dick Adams wrote:

> The Big Ugly for other sourdoughs is overdevelopment of preferments.
> Then stuff comes up which rots dough, and, among other things,
> severely compromises rising.

This piqued my interest. What kind of timeframe are you talking about
before a preferment is overdeveloped?

I've been experimenting with the billowy loaves recipe using Carl's
starter. Just lately, I've been leaving the final stage for 24 hours
before mixing the dough. Once I've done this, I find that I can leave
the dough to rise for about 9.5 hours before it starts to show signs of
degradation - the surface is begins to tear a bit and after baking the
crust isn't quite as brown, but the loaf tastes very nice and has a good
bit of sourness. So I wonder if I leave the previous stage for less than
24 hours then will I be able to leave the final dough rise even longer
for more flavour? I also like these long final rises as they lend
themselves well to baking a loaf first thing in the morning.

james