Carl's starter
 

Samartha wrote:

> As example, two starters, one self-grown, the other grown
> from a German Sourdough bread "package" - had all the
> ingredients, flour, a yeast package and "dried sourdough" as
> one ingredient.

[snip]

> Both starters were happily doing their job making great bread.

Were there any significant differences between the two starters in terms of
the time it took to rise, flavor, bread color, etc?

--
Jeff Miller

Carl's starter
 

Jeff Miller wrote:
> Samartha wrote:
>
>> As example, two starters, one self-grown, the other grown
>> from a German Sourdough bread "package" - had all the
>> ingredients, flour, a yeast package and "dried sourdough" as
>> one ingredient.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Both starters were happily doing their job making great bread.
>
> Were there any significant differences between the two starters in terms of
> the time it took to rise, flavor, bread color, etc?

Trying to backtrack and find info - was 2003. The records I find were of
the failures.

They were/are FG rye starters and the breads I make are mixed/grain
rye/wheat breads.

In that context, significant differences - definitely not. Maybe the
self-grown were a bit milder i. e. less pronounced taste. From a
sourness performance perspective they were very similar, as I remember.

If I find those records again - pH comparisons when growing, I will post
them.

But the two self-growns lost their ability to stay sour in the fridge
and came out with pH ~ 5.2 whereas the other's came out with pH ~ 3.8,
whites lower.

The other's: Carls, SDI SF, another "white" and my "package grown" held
up with identical treatments i. e. neglection to a degree that mold and
funny color (pink) coatings swam on the hooch. Carl's and SDI SF were
white, of cause.

Very interesting, as I see now:

I had 12 starters (duplicates of same kind 3 x SF, 2 x another white,
etc) and tried reviving them after the disaster for a couple of month.

There were two self-growns and one where I mixed all starters.

With the exception of the two self-growns and the mix all, all starters
came out of the fridge (after ~ a month) with a pH below 4.0 (3.39 ..
3.81), the two self-grown had over pH 5 and the all-mix also had a high
pH: 4.15 sticking out of the crowd.

So - a conclusion from that could be that there was something of that
sour-killer from the self-grown in that all-mix...

Whatever it was - I could not get it out and having this non-sour
"feature" made me toss them.


Samartha