Paul Gilbert wrote:
> As a chemist who hates the English system of measurement when I stumbled
> upon this group I thought I had found the holy grail!
>
> Question 2) A local supermarket produces quite acceptable sour dough bread.
> I smiled real big and got a loaf of unbaked sour dough bread for the price
> of a finished loaf. I brought it home, chopped it up into 8 pieces, put
> them in baggies and threw them into the freezer. I have subsequently
> unthawed one of them, restarted it with 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of
> flour. Subsequent interactions on this theme have given me a very fast
> rising starter, but the bread has no sour taste. Reading all of the
> literature it seems that I am not letting the dough rise long enough. (2 hrs
> first rise and something less than that for the second). The dough almost
> triples in bulk during this time at room temp. Should I cool the dough or
> has freezing it killed the bacteria component of the starter?
>
As a chemist, rather than an (experienced) artisan baker, you failed to
take into account false advertising. Most supermarket sourdough is not
what the denizens of this newsgroup are talking about. Most of that
stuff is raised with commercial yeast, and flavored with "sourdough"
additives. True sourdough need not be sour, at all. It is made with sour
or old dough, or a cultivated starter. In reality, the public has been
trained to expect sour flavor, when it's not necessary at all...

Dave