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