Flour Water Salt Yeast
Happy New Year All!
For Christmas I received a copy of Forkish's "Flour Water Salt Yeast". This weekend I baked a loaf of the Field Grain #2. I followed formula and timings pretty much right on. I haven't cut the loaf yet so no crumb shot. However despite being a fairly high hydration loaf, it was not too bad to work with. I am very satisfied with the baked product.
What leaves me scratching my head is why he recommends making that huge bucket of levain and telling one to dump the "spent fuel". I find it hard to believe that someone whose business is FWS would toss a large quantity of the same. I almost feel insulted at the suggestion that that's what I should do. Needless to say I worked with my own starter and built the levain in an amount that did not require a huge sacrifice of flour and water.
Comments
Like his formulas, ignore the ridiculous 'spent fuel' instructions. (Maybe he's a minion of Big Flour and gets a cut of the profits.)
My septic system's loss is my gain, and Ken will never know.
same as what he uses to make his bread - must be spent fuel bread too!. I suggest that we pay no attention to his levain builds too. People really are starving all over the world and I do not want to be contributing to it. But, as a bread libertarian, I say Ken can do what ever he wants no matter how wasteful and ridiculous he looks,
Glad you figured out Ken so fast - It is amazing how great your bread looks when not following his levain build :-)
It appears to me that most of the comments regarding FWSY levain maintenance are that there is too much shrinkage. I was looking to bake one of the hybrid doughs, and from reading the formula I see the Tartine levain method will provide a sufficient quantity without the wastage. Which leaves me scratching my head as he says he used to bake with Chad.
Does it produce a greater concentration of yeast? I'm new to bread baking, perhaps someone with greater knowledge could shed some light. Thanks.
Ps. Your loaf looks lovely. I can only hope mine comes out half as good.