I'm new to this site but couldn't find discussion on this topic. If it exists, I'd appreciate a pointer in the right direction. Here's my question: if all starters are primarily flour, don't they all take on the character of the flour you use over time? I was given an Italian starter that makes bread that tastes very similar to the Pioneer starter I've been using for the past year. To keep my Italian starter truly Italian, wouldn't I have to use flour from its country of origin? Just curious. Thanks!
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Indeed!
I've always wondered why people would buy a starter that supposedly has certain characteristics when those characteristics are going to change as you nuture it with your flour and local wild yeast.
Even if you used Italian flour, your local wild yeast/bacteria are different to the ones found in Italy. Wouldn't your local yeast take over eventually?
Andrew
The way I understand it, the microbes (yeast & bacteria) in a particular starter are more or less stable because they exist in much higher amounts (billions and billions of cells in your cup of starter). So as long as the conditions remain 'favorable' for the starter microbes, they should be able to treat the incoming flour as food and whatever microbes are on that flour will be too outnumbered to get a foothold.
That's the theory anyway, although maybe in practice it's not so cut and dried.
I'm actually just re-awakening a dried "San Fran" sourdough starter from nybakers.com. Very curious to see whether there is any taste difference to my home-bred (Winnipeg) starter!
I would have thought it would take a while, but eventually a new population of yeast and bacteria could influence the starter culture. I'm sure the original would be still present to some degree, but would have new helpers in the melting pot.
I'd be very interested to hear how you find the taste when you compare your SanFran with the Winnipeg starters. Do tell.
Esta masa se lleva a cabo en varias etapas, cada una de las etapas genera una nueva masa a partir de la mezcla harina + agua a la que se le puede añadir una parte de la masa precedente o hasta la totalidad de la misma.
Masa "X" = harina + agua => amasado-reposo de 12 a 24 horas.
Masa "Y" = harina + agua + masa "X" => amasado-reposo de 12 a 24 horas.
Masa "Z" = harina + agua + masa "Y" => amasado-reposo de 12 a 24 horas.