hutchndi wrote:
[...]
> Samartha also wrote: "With a good sour starter, you don't get bad
> stuff. The acidity protects from that."
>
> Do you mean a particular starter that makes a sour bread, or a starter
> that you maintain in a way that it stays in a sour state?

I think we are mainly talking here about the symbiotic conspiration of
LB's and yeasts called sourdough or starter. Don't know what pushups
would be necessary to avoid getting it sour.

Really, that's always sour, more or less.

I once had one container which had some kind of mold going on (my
neglect series). I refreshed it and after 2 month, it was again off.

All the other one's were below pH 4.0 - 3.74, 3.97, 3.81, 3.90, 3.60,
3.83, 3.58, 3.79, 3.81, 3.82 and the one with the mold had 4.90 - that
was on 2/10/04.

The one with the mold was still working when I refreshed it on 2/10 and
02/11 - it was doing similar as all the other one's.

On 3/19/03, they were all about the same, nothing stood out.

On 4/26/04, it stood out again - pH 5.27, all the other's except one
more were below pH 4.0. They still performed ok and got sour after two
or three refreshments.

So, I figured that something has gotten into the culture which was able
to be there and prevent the LB's from working properly. I continued to
neglect them because I did not have the time to keep up the maintenance.

Somewhere I read about food safety and that foods with a pH lower than
4.6 are generally safer, the

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
Consumer Protection Division
6 CCR 1010-2
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH
COLORADO RETAIL FOOD ESTABLISHMENT RULES AND REGULATIONS

1-202 Definitions
...
(ii). “Nonpotentially Hazardous Food” includes:
...
c. Foods with a measurement of acidity (pH) of 4.6 or below;


So - maybe that gives you some more info.

Samartha