|
| My experiences are from almost fifty years ago. I used to always keep a sourdough going when we were living in Fairbanks. It was interesting to me that when we moved down to the farm, the sourdough seemed to act very differently than in Alaska. The key is to treat it like a living thing - which it is, of course. Once you get the dough started - with potato water, flour, and a bit of yeast, as I remember, feed it regularly. I would try to feed it every two days. I would take out enough for pancakes or bread, and replace a like amount of flour and water. In this way, the dough should really get active, and, at least in Fairbanks, if I wasn't careful, it would overflow the large container when it got to working. If you want to slow it down, only feed it every three days. Some of the bugs will die off, I think, and it will be slower to respond to the added flour/water. If you feed it every day, it should get really active, and overflows will be common. Now, if you feed it every day, the dough will not get very sour at all. Three or more days and the sourness is much more pronounced. Leave it too long without feeding it and it dies - and, gets too sour to be very good.
Refrigerating it, of course, slows everything down a whole lot.
When you take out a batch to eat, if you add soda like many recipes tell you to do, it will get real bubbly. But, it loses its distinctive sour flavor. My opinion is - if you want to eat sourdough, why would you do this? Likewise, if you take it out to use soon after you feed it - like one day rather than two days - it will have little of the distinctive sour taste.
But, remember, it is easy to kill it and turn it unpalatably sour. And, you cannot really get it back after that - at least, in my experience. Be careful if you feed it daily and get it really active too, as if you then forget to feed it soon again, the bugs will die. You have to treat the bugs like the living things they - at least - seem to be. Don't overfeed them, and don't let them starve. Keep them happy!! (G)
Hope this helps. I love sourdough. And, they are much easier to digest than regular pancakes - especially when you inevitably overeat. | |
|
sour dough starter
