This is a place to put all the crazy bits of information I tend to collect and bother others with! Ohh - don't use the AOL addy to email me - that is my 'name' - emails come to eilismaura@yahoo.com

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

One day I will make my own bread --

and I will catch some local wild yeast to do it!!!


"How do you catch wild yeast?" you ask --

"Isn't wild yeast a protected species?" you then inquire --

"Is yeast a renewable resource?" our green newbie contingent asks boldly
(without knowing what a stupid question that is)


Lest you eat yourself up with worry here is some information courtesy of How Stuff Works:


"....before there was packaged yeast, bakers used sourdough starter to keep a supply of yeast alive and handy. They kept a pot of live culture in a flour/water medium, and "fed" it daily or weekly so that the yeast remained alive and active. To understand how sourdough starter works, let's look at how you can create a batch of starter using live yeast that is floating in the air!

To perform this experiment you will need:

  • A pottery crock, plastic container or glass jar, preferably with a loose-fitting lid
  • A wooden spoon
  • A piece of cloth
  • Some flour (preferably without any preservatives in it) and water
To start a culture, mix two cups of flour and two cups of water in a glass or pottery bowl (in the old days, a baker probably had a special clay crock for starter). Lay a cloth over the top and let it sit on the kitchen counter. It turns out that there is yeast floating in the air all around us all the time, and some of this yeast will make its way to your flour/water mixture. It will then start growing and dividing.

After 24 hours, you pour off about a cup of the mixture and feed it with another cup of flour and another cup of water. In a few days, the mixture will become frothy as the yeast population grows. The froth is caused by the carbon dioxide that the yeast is generating. The starter will also have a bacteria, lactobacilli, in it. This lends to the slightly acidic flavor of the bread by creating lactic acid! The alcohol that the yeast creates and the lactic acid together are the source of sourdough bread's unique flavor!"



Here are few sites to check out for more information:

Norwich Sourdough Bread Recipe | Wild Yeast

Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes. ... A More Sour Sourdough. Fendu, and a Bit About Spiking ... Wild Yeast blog, a fantastic resource for all bread ...
www.wildyeastblog.com
HowStuffWorks "How Sourdough Bread Works"
Catching the Wild Yeast. Baking Sourdough Bread. Lots More Information ... bread, you add a cup of this live culture to the dough to provide the yeast ...
recipes.howstuffworks.com
Sourdough Bread with Roasted Potatoes | Wild Yeast
... Wild Yeast inspired me with her entry of Roasted Potato Bread, but ... The Sour Dough. Toxo Bread. use real butter. Ye Olde Bread Blogge. baking communities ...
www.wildyeastblog.com
Sourdough - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... batter or a stiffer dough; as a general rule, more sour breads are made with ... Wild Yeast Blog - A blog covering all aspect of Sourdough bread as well as ...
en.wikipedia.org
Science of Bread: Basic Sourdough Starter Recipe
... make sourdough, bakers use a "starter," a piece of dough in which yeast is ... Grape sourdough starter, or biga, uses the wild yeast naturally present in grapes. ...
www.exploratorium.edu
Bake on the wild side: Part 1, the sourdough starter :: The Ethicurean ...
.. sourdough starter many years ago, I have exclusively used commercial yeast in ... might create a very sour bread like the classic San Francisco sourdough. ...
www.ethicurean.com
Sourdough Starter
Home Lifestyle Recipes Bread and Grains Sourdough Starters. Advertise on this site ... are that they will all be equally efficient in attracting wild (sour) yeast. ...
www.stretcher.com
Sourdough Starter
... you make a sour dough starter, you are actually attracting the wild yeast that are in ... of wild yeast(sourdough) starter became famous for the bread they ...
www.castbullet.com



5 comments:

Charlotte-Ann Photography said...

Oh no the infamous sourdough starter! When ever someone mentions that or friendship bread I run! hahaha So addictive :D

*starting to crave sourdough bread now*

eilismaura said...

hehehehehe

well I am not too familiar with sourdough or friendship bread BUT I was kidding Avie about her having 'real' food - starting with NOT having Wonder Bread!

. said...

OMG!!! YES!!! Sourdough starter!!! I wish someone would give me some! And NOT that DAMN friendship bread starter that someone gave me a few years back and I ended up with 150 loaves and 10 million ziplock baggies of starter in every corner of my kitchen!!! *angry*

eilismaura said...

ROFLMAO!!!

So read the sites, manage your own quantity etc -- and have a go at it!!

Charlotte-Ann Photography said...

Avie: Back away from the starter! You don't want it that badly! It's dangerous stuff the will take over your kitchen! And all your friends will avoid you in fear that you will give the starter :D LOL


eilismaura: Seriously now, it's good stuff, but it's a lot of work. Good post btw :D