Sunday, 6 December 2009
FOLIC ACID IN FLOUR?
You may not be aware that the UK government is proposing legislation that would make it mandatory for all flour mills to fortify flour with Folic Acid. I am against this additive in flour. You can read the entire argument at http://www.fostersmill.co.uk/page7.htm . If you are against this proposal you can sign a Downing Street petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/folic-acid-mills/
Thursday, 3 December 2009
CONTAMINATION
I’ve often been told, “my sourdough's dead”. Sorry folks, it’s virtually impossible to kill it off. You can keep it almost indefinitely at room temperature, in the fridge or even freeze it. It’s still alive and well, simply dormant. If kept at room temperature it’s at its most vulnerable, so you have keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t start to grow mould. If it does, scrape off the mould and refresh. How many times? Until you get to the consistency you want and the acidic smell is bearable. Say 3 times. If it’s been kept in the fridge or freezer all you need do is allow it to return to room temperature and refresh it a few times, as above.
However, contamination is another matter. My sourdough loaves went tasteless about a month ago, no tangy aftertaste at all. The loaves, whether baked after being in the proofer, or retarder overnight, certainly rose. But the taste was zero. I realised that “mother” (or the leaven if you prefer) had been contaminated with commercial yeast. There are several possibilities of how this happened and I’ll come back to that in a moment. Curiously, Chris R contacted me and reported the same problem. Not surprising as I’d recently given him some leaven.
Fortunately I had a very dormant pot of “mother” sitting in the fridge, untouched for more than 3 months. It smelled pretty high and some water had separated from the flour. Back in July I’d been given some stone-ground flours, by the miller at Foster’s Mill, and wanted to try them out. I’d converted some of my existing, and at that time untainted leaven, by taking a portion of it and refreshing it 3 or 4 times with the Foster’s Mill flours and by doing so diluting my existing leaven to a minimum in the refreshed leaven. I then made some very tasty loaves using the Foster’s Mill flours and leaven. Holiday time came so I stored the remaining Foster’s Mill leaven in the fridge. Luck was on my side as the stored Foster’s Mill leaven was uncontaminated.
Here are a few tips to keep commercial yeast from contaminating your precious leavens:
o Never use a utensil to mix a sourdough leaven after it has come in contact with commercial yeast
o Never remove excess leaven from a mix that also contains commercial yeast and put it back in the leaven container
o Never take excess water out of container that contains yeast and put it aside for future use
If your leaven(s) are in perfect condition I suggest you store a portion of each in the freezer. Should any of your leavens in regular use get contaminated you’ll have a backup supply. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Carl
2 December 2009
However, contamination is another matter. My sourdough loaves went tasteless about a month ago, no tangy aftertaste at all. The loaves, whether baked after being in the proofer, or retarder overnight, certainly rose. But the taste was zero. I realised that “mother” (or the leaven if you prefer) had been contaminated with commercial yeast. There are several possibilities of how this happened and I’ll come back to that in a moment. Curiously, Chris R contacted me and reported the same problem. Not surprising as I’d recently given him some leaven.
Fortunately I had a very dormant pot of “mother” sitting in the fridge, untouched for more than 3 months. It smelled pretty high and some water had separated from the flour. Back in July I’d been given some stone-ground flours, by the miller at Foster’s Mill, and wanted to try them out. I’d converted some of my existing, and at that time untainted leaven, by taking a portion of it and refreshing it 3 or 4 times with the Foster’s Mill flours and by doing so diluting my existing leaven to a minimum in the refreshed leaven. I then made some very tasty loaves using the Foster’s Mill flours and leaven. Holiday time came so I stored the remaining Foster’s Mill leaven in the fridge. Luck was on my side as the stored Foster’s Mill leaven was uncontaminated.
Here are a few tips to keep commercial yeast from contaminating your precious leavens:
o Never use a utensil to mix a sourdough leaven after it has come in contact with commercial yeast
o Never remove excess leaven from a mix that also contains commercial yeast and put it back in the leaven container
o Never take excess water out of container that contains yeast and put it aside for future use
If your leaven(s) are in perfect condition I suggest you store a portion of each in the freezer. Should any of your leavens in regular use get contaminated you’ll have a backup supply. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Carl
2 December 2009
TWO TALES OF SOURDOUGH
Tale the First
On arriving in Italy in May I immediately set about refreshing my three sourdoughs which, after more than 72 hours in the car were totally dormant. Within hours of refreshment two leavens started to show definite signs of revival. One, the 100% hydration white leaven, looked inert. But, having told you on numerous occasions that it’s virtually impossible to kill off a leaven, I didn’t panic. However, two days later it still seemed inert, if not as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. At this point I went into semi-panic mode. I refreshed the inert 100% hydration white leaven again.
As a back up I decided to take a small portion of the stiff white/wholemeal (68.97% hydration) sourdough and convert it to 100% hydration white. I added water to the portion of sourdough and dissolved the sourdough as thoroughly as I could. I let this mixture rest so that most of the wholemeal flour and some of the white flours sank to the bottom of the container. I poured the cloudy liquid through the finest sieve I had available, hoping to eliminate as much wholemeal much as possible, and weighed the liquid. To this I added an equal amount of white flour. The result looked a bit stiff so I added a bit more water. After a few hours it started to show signs of life. I left it a few more hours and refreshed it with equal amounts of flour and water. By the next day is was bubbling away happily. Each time I refreshed it any remaining wholemeal flour was reduced. I could relax.
In the meantime, and I can’t explain why, the original 100% hydration white leaven I’d brought from home. sprang back to life.
The point of this tale is that 1) it really is difficult to kill a leaven and 2) you can convert another leaven to replace it, although it will forever have an ever-decreasing amount of the host leaven in it.
Tale the Second
Every Sunday I refresh, as per my instructions to you, my stiff 68.97% hydration white/wholemeal sourdough three times in preparation for making bread the following day. On Monday I made the dough and before long realised either that I’d done something completely wrong (it does happen!) or the sourdough wasn’t doing its job – the dough seemed totally lifeless, dead. After 5 hours proofing in the bannetons nothing had happened. I baked some of the loaves and they looked terrible. I allowed the remaining loaves to continue proofing and after about 8 hours they seemed ready to bake. The result was just about acceptable, but not good.
I refreshed the leaven again and left it at room temperature, but nothing happened. That night I refreshed it again and put it somewhere warm (28oC/82oF). Overnight the leaven doubled in volume. I refreshed it again and returned it to the same warm place. Again, it doubled in volume over 8 hours. The next time I refreshed it leaving it at room temperature. The wild yeasts in the sourdough were clearly active again.
The point of this tale is, don’t throw your “dead” sourdough away. It may not be dead, it might just need some tender loving care.
There are two 100% sure ways to kill the wild yeast in your sourdough leaven 1) in a hot oven(!) or 2) with a strong anti-bacterial spray.
Here endeth the tales…
Carl
25 June 2009
On arriving in Italy in May I immediately set about refreshing my three sourdoughs which, after more than 72 hours in the car were totally dormant. Within hours of refreshment two leavens started to show definite signs of revival. One, the 100% hydration white leaven, looked inert. But, having told you on numerous occasions that it’s virtually impossible to kill off a leaven, I didn’t panic. However, two days later it still seemed inert, if not as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. At this point I went into semi-panic mode. I refreshed the inert 100% hydration white leaven again.
As a back up I decided to take a small portion of the stiff white/wholemeal (68.97% hydration) sourdough and convert it to 100% hydration white. I added water to the portion of sourdough and dissolved the sourdough as thoroughly as I could. I let this mixture rest so that most of the wholemeal flour and some of the white flours sank to the bottom of the container. I poured the cloudy liquid through the finest sieve I had available, hoping to eliminate as much wholemeal much as possible, and weighed the liquid. To this I added an equal amount of white flour. The result looked a bit stiff so I added a bit more water. After a few hours it started to show signs of life. I left it a few more hours and refreshed it with equal amounts of flour and water. By the next day is was bubbling away happily. Each time I refreshed it any remaining wholemeal flour was reduced. I could relax.
In the meantime, and I can’t explain why, the original 100% hydration white leaven I’d brought from home. sprang back to life.
The point of this tale is that 1) it really is difficult to kill a leaven and 2) you can convert another leaven to replace it, although it will forever have an ever-decreasing amount of the host leaven in it.
Tale the Second
Every Sunday I refresh, as per my instructions to you, my stiff 68.97% hydration white/wholemeal sourdough three times in preparation for making bread the following day. On Monday I made the dough and before long realised either that I’d done something completely wrong (it does happen!) or the sourdough wasn’t doing its job – the dough seemed totally lifeless, dead. After 5 hours proofing in the bannetons nothing had happened. I baked some of the loaves and they looked terrible. I allowed the remaining loaves to continue proofing and after about 8 hours they seemed ready to bake. The result was just about acceptable, but not good.
I refreshed the leaven again and left it at room temperature, but nothing happened. That night I refreshed it again and put it somewhere warm (28oC/82oF). Overnight the leaven doubled in volume. I refreshed it again and returned it to the same warm place. Again, it doubled in volume over 8 hours. The next time I refreshed it leaving it at room temperature. The wild yeasts in the sourdough were clearly active again.
The point of this tale is, don’t throw your “dead” sourdough away. It may not be dead, it might just need some tender loving care.
There are two 100% sure ways to kill the wild yeast in your sourdough leaven 1) in a hot oven(!) or 2) with a strong anti-bacterial spray.
Here endeth the tales…
Carl
25 June 2009
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