I'm looking for some active SD culture, of course, we are otherwise
very culture-minded here. I've baked a little before, but never
managed to create a real sour loaf...

I'd be delighted if someone would be willing to share a culture with
me, ideally it would be pretty robust to be able to handle a beginner
and generate really sour bread. If it has an interesting and long
history, all the better!

I can be reached at (please remove digits from email address to
prevent spam) .

Many thanks,
Noam Livnat

> Noam Livnat

I live in SF, unfortunately my active culture is long gone. You can
make it yourself quite easily. This is a recipe from Alaska Sourdough
cooking book:

2 cups thick potato water
2 tbsp. sugar
2 cups flour
OPTIIONAL: 1/2 tsp. yast

Boil potatoes w/jackets on until they fall to pieces. Lift skins out,
mash potatoes making a puree. Cool. Add more water to make up the 2
cups if necessary. Richer the potato water; richer the starter.

Add all ingredients, beat until smooth creamy batter. Then cover with
a cotton dish towel or cheesecloth. Set aside in a warm place to
start fermentation.

Yeast spores live in the air. I do this step in a wide bowl so the
little devils can just fly right on in. It may take a couple of days
for it to get all bubbly.

When you need to refurbish, add 2 cups water to 2 cups flour and 2
tbsp sugar to the original starter. Again, let it sit warm for a
couple of days.

On 16 Nov 2003 15:31:35 -0800, (Joan) wrote:

>I live in SF, unfortunately my active culture is long gone. You can
>make it yourself quite easily.

How can one make a SF SD starter from scratch unless they make it in
SF?

(Joan) wrote in message om>...
> > Noam Livnat
>
> I live in SF, unfortunately my active culture is long gone. You can
> make it yourself quite easily. This is a recipe from Alaska Sourdough
> cooking book:
>

Thanks for the info. I have tried this before without much success
when I lived in SF. My batter didn't catch any of the useful yeast,
and instead it just grew fuzzy and suspect...

>How can one make a SF SD starter from scratch unless they make it in SF?<

one can't really, Bob. The best SF starter used to come in a packet called
San Francisco Sourdough starter, it cost about a buck fifty, but I haven't
been able to find it lately. (Now, before everyone writes in all hot and
bothered about my use of the word "best"- to qualify I was a rank beginner,
and this packet made up really tasty bread for me.) It really worked well to
use a fresh batch of SD yeast with each batch of bread, one got the best
flavor that way, instead of keeping it as a starter in the fridge, or
freezer. I have tried making a local sourdough starter, though, with San
Antonio yeast, and it worked out ok. Healthy, strong, with a good winey
smell. The best though turned out to be the starter for the barm on the
Lionel Poilane loaf. You start with a 1/4 cup cracked rye, and some whole
wheat flour, water, and yeast, and let it cook up until bubbly and double,
(it also gets very slack), and then keep throwing away half and making more
until it doubles and bubbles within a 6 hour period. The yeast shows up very
strong that way, and it has a wonderful winey odor. I used the barm method
in Maggie Glazer's book, I think. Wonderful text. I bet the library has it,
if you don't.
The rye is what makes the wonderful sour dough.
For real SF there are some great yeasts out there, I know King Arthur sells
several, and there is some website which has something like 15 or more,
including an egyptian one? I think.
gw

You're thinking of Sourdough International
http://www.sourdo.com/

-----------------------

gw wrote:
>>How can one make a SF SD starter from scratch unless they make it in SF?<
>
>
> ...there is some website which has something like 15 or more,
> including an egyptian one? I think.
> gw

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 14:32:28 -0800, Robert Marshall
> wrote:

>You're thinking of Sourdough International
>http://www.sourdo.com/

Or Mr. Baker