"williamwaller" > wrote in message =
news:mailman.8.1080920073.229.rec.food.sourdough@m ail.otherwhen.com...

> I think the beauty of working with "sourdough" starters is there =
really is
> no single answer to this question.

But some answers are better than others.

> 1) The easiest... Go to Ed Wood's web site and buy his most sour =
culture.
> 2) Migrate your starter's refreshments from white or wheat flours to =
rye.
> 3) Choose to build from retained, mature dough rather than sponge.
> 4) Use your sense of smell to evaluate the fermentation process. =
Knowing
> when a dough is ripe is essential practice.

"ww" may still be having some trouble with his sourdough. (He seems to =
have
been sucked in by the 'sour starter --> sour bread' myth.)

> 5) Work on a very basic bread (a la Laurel Robertson's Desem example) =
until
> you have nailed down the idiosyncrasies of your grain supply, water,
> micro-climate (proofing box, refrigerator, basement, etc...), oven, =
and
> starter behavior.

Won't hurt, but can be omitted.

6) Stay away from bananas, figs, apricots and other wonderful
what-have-you's unless you've got Betty Crocker's private phone number. =
My
personal feeling is these amendments are better on top of bread rather =
than
in it.

Good!=20
=20
7) Be sure your "benchmark" bread isn't a highly engineered, atypical
example of the naturally leavened world.

What is a "highly engineered, atypical example of the naturally leavened
world?

--=20
Dick Adams
<firstname> dot <lastname>at bigfoot dot com

P.S. What's your bread look like, ww?


=20