Stiff vs. liquid sourdough- effect on final dough

Rockfish42, I definitely agree with the first part of your post.

I think issues of sourness are more complex than a short answer like this can do justice to.

Best wishes

Andy

Not much, because you still have the same hydration in the end. Although Peter Reinhart has said that stiff starters are known to have more sourness, but professionals mainly do it because it is less labor intensive when doing large batches. A stiff starter is just basically a levin, but when you do a stiff starter you are basically cutting out the levin fermentation time (which can become handy if you don't have much time). It all depends on the sourdough recipe.

Hi diverpro94,

Stiff cultures are definitely easier to manage in commercial bakeries; lifting and tipping huge containers of liquid starters can be a pain.

However, choice of starter will depend on a number of factors; as you allude to.

I'm confused by what you mean in the last part of your reply.

As far as I'm concerned, a stiff levain will work more slowly than a liquid one.   In a commercial bakery the leaven will be in constant use andin large amounts too, so it is likely to be very active.   A bakery tends to be a nice warm environment too.

We used a stiff leaven to ensure it did not prove too quicky.   We did make Pain de Campagne in 3 batches over every 24 hour period, requiring 150kg of leaven  for each batch.   A liquid culture would have been too rapid a fermentation.

Best wishes

Andy