Friday, January 25, 2002


one of the most intriguing things about making bread is when you realize the power of the obvious: it's alive!

that charming lump of dough, rising sweetly in its towel-lined wicker basket, is actually a stew of harsh darwinism. naturally leavened dough, such as i make in the pain de campagne rustique, captures wild yeast from the air, the flour itself, and obviously me, as i knead it. this wild yeast lives happily in the dough, leaving space for a symbiotic relationship with lactobacilli. unlike commercial baker's yeast, which has been scientifically created to dominate the dough environment and leave no space for other organisms. this is why commerical-yeast breads lack that depth of flavor you see in many naturally leavened breads: there are no lactobacillus friends to add their deliciousness to the dough.

to achieve the light, tasty french bread of our dreams we need to encourage the wild yeasts and their lactobacillus friends. however, the dough environment these enjoy is also sought after by other beasties -- nasty bugs like salmonella, entero bacteria, mold. we have to create an environment in which the good wild yeast and lactobacilli crowd out the nasty beasties, killing them, and preventing them from growing in our bread.

usually, the bread takes care of itself, and the good yeasties flourish. however, sometimes the nasty beasties seem to get the upper hand. this happened to me last night.

i took a look at my starter and saw it was lightly spotted with white, feathery mold. at this point, many people would have thrown the starter away. however, it is often possible to rescue your starter (part nine) if the mold is only sprouting here and there on the surface skin of the starter. whether you want to do this is your own choice. do you want to start again or do you want to invest another 24 hours in a starter you may yet have to abandon?

what i did was to take a thin knife and shave/pour off the moldy skin that floated on the surface of the starter. i then tossed everything except 1 or 2 tablespoons of starter from the very bottom, an area completely untouched by the mold. i put this in a new, very clean glass bowl. the previous bowl i wash well and rinse twice with boiling water. to the new bowl i add 5 oz. water and 5 oz. flour, mixing well. i cover this with plastic wrap and set over my oven's pilot light for another 24 hours.

if after that time, i see bubbles, rising, etc. smell the good wet-dog smell -- then the starter's saved. the good yeasties have triumped over the bad beasties. however, if i see more mold, get a sour, nose-curling scent. . . then it's over. time to start from scratch. so tonite we'll see what happens. . . in the race to colonize my starter who will win? can the yeasts and their lactobacillus create enough alcohol and tangy lactic acid to make the dough unhospitable to mold? or will the molds entwine the starter in their feathery embrace?

posted by fortune | 10:20 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments