I'm new to this, so bear with me. Many of the starter suggestions list
very precise starter temperatures. Yet sourdough starters have
apparently been around for centuries, and I can't believe that earlier
cultures had the conditions to maintain precise temperature control.

I for one can't easily manage this, and the best storage place I have
is around 72 degrees. There must be types of yeast that can handle
this?

"phk" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> I'm new to this, so bear with me. Many of the starter suggestions list
> very precise starter temperatures. Yet sourdough starters have
> apparently been around for centuries, and I can't believe that earlier
> cultures had the conditions to maintain precise temperature control.
>

Not probably precise temperature control but I know they learned ways to
overcome their conditions for best storage. I know a lady that has had a
sourdough starter in her family since her mother got it in 1929. She told me
that since they didn't have a refrigerator (or even an icebox) they stored
their starter in a bucket that was lowered by a rope to right above the
water level in their cistern (water well), thereby keeping it cooler than if
it had been kept out on the counter.

> I for one can't easily manage this, and the best storage place I have
> is around 72 degrees. There must be types of yeast that can handle
> this?
>

Since this is the starter I use for my bread, I know that it "survived"
those times and even my occassional neglect in the modern-day
refrigerator...

Denny

--
I can be reached by sending to "my posting name"
at that free, Microsoft, electronic mail service.
..

On 23 Jan 2006 13:37:03 -0800, "phk" >
wrote:

>I'm new to this, so bear with me. Many of the starter suggestions list
>very precise starter temperatures. Yet sourdough starters have
>apparently been around for centuries, and I can't believe that earlier
>cultures had the conditions to maintain precise temperature control.
>
>I for one can't easily manage this, and the best storage place I have
>is around 72 degrees. There must be types of yeast that can handle
>this?

Howdy,

I'd offer two comments...

First, have you tasted the bread eaten centuries ago? <g>

But more seriously:

The issue is not holding the starter at any particular
temperature (within its range of viability).

The issue is knowing what temperature you have it at, so
that when you make some bread you love, you can duplicate
it.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

phk wrote:
> I'm new to this, so bear with me. Many of the starter suggestions list
> very precise starter temperatures. Yet sourdough starters have
> apparently been around for centuries, and I can't believe that earlier
> cultures had the conditions to maintain precise temperature control.
>
> I for one can't easily manage this, and the best storage place I have
> is around 72 degrees. There must be types of yeast that can handle
> this?

If you keep it somehow in a constant routine i. e. doing the same thing
over and over, the population will change and adopt to the higher
temperature. No problem. They are making sourdough in hotter climates
and industrial sourdough grow machines work with higher temperature -
with different creatures as normal traditional bakeries.

Your intestines are how warm? You have LB's growing in there.

So - your only problem is to figure out how much you have to feed it to
keep it happy at a higher temperature, so you don't kill it over time.

To keep things at a certain temperature came from maybe two reasons: To
achieve repeatable results and more knowledge about sourdough innards to
be more efficient. That's reflected in those data. That does not make it
wrong just because the knowledge was not available earlier. It's not
necessary to know a temperature scale for making sourdough bread.

If you "get the temperature wrong", you still can make good bread.

You can bet that folks doing sourdough earlier without digital
thermometers gathered enough experience over time to do it right.

Anyway....

Samartha