i thank you all for your help.
long post=thread killer ahead.

in order

Zom-Zom is a murderer. and he neglected to be a kidnapper./cloner.
but i do hope he chimes in again.
as he sounds a good cook. mean one as well.

tar+feathers.
please don't have your girlfriend signup for me.
if she doesn't mind, you could pm me the forums she frequents, and i'll troll.
and i thank you for your confirmations of my theories.
explicitly relying on bacteria (bacterium?) as one of the main ingredients is truly remarkable to me.

zartoid.
i will refrain from buying a fancy loaf until my efforts have started to bear fruit.
i must stress that the only reason i'm even attempting this is that we're broke. and have only our wits to fulfill our snobbish needs.
next on my list, Buffalo Mozzarella.

MT. i'll give it a read.
thanks for the link.

kayte. sorry to hear it. perhaps you encountered that baguette/oil molester device i read about in another thread today.

and Mandroid2.0.
truly, i did a google:electrical search and your post did not come up.
i take the kerbling, and suggest $4 a pretzel.
give $.50per pretzel to the bar
don't forget the mustard.

Questions for you madam.
how many starters have you attempted? (did you jump straight to the fruits, or did you attempt a simple water/flour first)
what were the results of your experiments?

Questions for all.

What factors will determine the flavour/leavening of my starter?
is the bacteria that finally takes root just the lucky spermazoa(sp?) that day?

The smell of bread baking in a home is the most disgusting thing I can experience. Instant nausea. I don't have any problem eating bread but when it's baking I think about all the yeasties growing or whatever and it makes me sick.

I worked as a bread baker for a while at a few different bakeries in Boston. At the largest of these I baked in the AM and then shaped dough in the afternoon. I brought the unbaked sourdough smell home with me, my car and bedroom smelled really sour and yeasty. I was always too tired to take a shower before leaving work, and I wanted to get the hell out of there. always being tried is why I stopped working as a baker.

amos

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:Questions for you madam.
how many starters have you attempted? (did you jump straight to the fruits, or did you attempt a simple water/flour first)
what were the results of your experiments?

Questions for all.

What factors will determine the flavour/leavening of my starter?
is the bacteria that finally takes root just the lucky spermazoa(sp?) that day?

This was my first starter, though I'd dealt with variations my entire life due to my parents being insane with the cooking and baking and me watching them.

Most of the flavouring comes from the yeast native to your climate/elevation/etc. Sourdough really does taste differently in San Francisco than in Ohio.

You can produce a pretty decent fake sourdough bread through using sour cream and vinegar. You have to introduce those ingredients to the mix after the yeast has been activated, though. Vinegar tends to kill yeast.

ok, i think it's alive.

little bubbles are beginning.

i think i'm going to give the starter one more day of feeding. and then attempt a sponge.

what should the starter look like when it's ready to make the sponge.?
i've got theories, but i would like a go ahead order before i continue.

any words of wisdom?

Having a sourdough starter is incredibly rewarding. Seriously. And surprisingly easy. I think it's pretty hard to catch yeast out of the air if you live in a city, so in the recipe I followed you get it off grapes. You basically mix some flour with water, wrap a bunch of grapes in cheesecloth and squeeze the juice into the flour, and then toss in the whole wrapped bundle, and leave it on your counter. You have to feed it once a day, and then I think after a week or so (it's been awhile since I made it) there are a few days where you have to get pretty involved, dumping out most of it a few times a day. I could tell when mine was ready to use, because the yeast had gotten so strong that it actually lifted the plastic top off the container it was in and flowed all over the kitchen. (Actually, that part kind of sucked, but it was worth it.)

It's like having a little science project growing in your refrigerator. And the science is pretty awesome. If I remember correctly, the water breaks the flour down into sugars that the yeast eats; the yeast gives off carbon dioxide as a byproduct; the bacteria feed on the carbon dioxide, and create an acidic environment that repels "bad" bacteria so that the yeast can survive.

The biggest misconception I've found about doing your own sourdough baking is that people assume you make "sourdough" bread--that San Francisco kind. I think the word just refers to any naturally leavened bread. The breads I make taste nothing like the SF sourdough breads. I'd actually like to know how to make that kind.

There are all kinds of health benefits to eating sourdough, since commercial yeast was bred to rise really quickly, but as a result doesn't really engage in a fermentation process. (Again, sorry if my science is spotty.) Apparently, we miss out on a lot of the nutrition in wheat, but the sourdough process breaks it down or something so that we digest it better. Also, the lactic acid is good for you.

The one drawback of sourdough baking is that it's very involved. From start to finish, baking a loaf requires about 36 hours. Doing all the steps at the right time can be tricky if you don't work at home.

Has anyone tried to make any other fermented foods? I've been meaning to try making sauerkraut.

I wanted to make sauerkraut at the restaurant but was warned that the extremely powerful uh.. aroma.. would find it's way into the dining room. I know my Polish relatives had made it though, all you need is a crock, a board to fit it and some weight. Cabbage and salt too of course.

I'm not a murderer, it was more like neglect.

We had such badass bakers.. one was a hippie with a nice direct connection to organically grown "herbs" from Humboldt County, the later one was awesome as well, constantly smoking, moving like a cat and cranking Melvins, Dub, Beefheart all night long. I could never be a baker, I hate the hours.

zom-zom wrote:I wanted to make sauerkraut at the restaurant but was warned that the extremely powerful uh.. aroma.. would find it's way into the dining room. I know my Polish relatives had made it though, all you need is a crock, a board to fit it and some weight. Cabbage and salt too of course.

My Grandma, makes 4 different types of Kraut every fall... they are all awesome!

Tell us more.. I know I did get a recipe from Rog that I still need to try. Maybe I'll get a load of cabbage at the Farmer's Market this summer.

r0ck1r0ck2 wrote:what should the starter look like when it's ready to make the sponge.?
i've got theories, but i would like a go ahead order before i continue.

any words of wisdom?

If I remember correctly, it was the smell that really told me mine was ready. It should give off a very strong, kind of sweet smell. Also, there will be lots of bubbles, and it should be pretty thick, almost like cake batter, but stickier.

zom-zom wrote:Tell us more.. I know I did get a recipe from Rog that I still need to try. Maybe I'll get a load of cabbage at the Farmer's Market this summer.

Well I don't make it, but I have helped her make it from time to time, she normally makes 4, 5lb buckets full... The smell is pretty strong, my sister won't go near the house for a while after, but grandma has being making kraut since well before my sister was born...


She makes: Standard Kraut, Sweet Kraut, Red Kraut, and what she calls Clear Kraut.



The Standard and the Sweet are pretty self explanatory. The red kraut is actually kind of 1/2 cabbage 1/2 beets, she adds some sort of spices to it also. The Clear kraut is made earlier in the year and is made from baby cabbages (brussle sprouts) and some sort of onion/shallot and garlic...

I may be able to get a recipe from her, abotu 4-5 years ago I sat down with her and made her start writing all of her recipes down, I was worried they would be lost to the hands of time, I am glad I got the pickle recipes and the mince meat pies recipes out of her...