January 10, 2015 - 10:39am
Sourdough Starters
Hello
I have purchased some starters out of San Francisco in order to make sourdough French bread. My question is if I start using this starter for my breads in Sacramento (100 miles away) won't my starter or bread become Sacramento sourdough because of the air or bacteria mixed in from Sacramento?
Thank You
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If, and only if, your starter is an authentic SF starter, then you would need to imitate the conditions of its originating source to keep it true. That would mean climate, the flour used to maintain it, water, and most likely, keep it in an environment where it wouldn't get contaminated by outside wild yeast spores. That's a lot of trouble and unneeded expense.
Once you get a starter home, the yeast spores on the flour that you use to feed it will start to compete with the original yeast spores. Considering that you'll be feeding away on a regular basis, the new flour spores will be the eventual winners. Even those yeast spores will be put into competition unless you obtain a ridiculous amount of flour from the same lot to feed it into eternity or your earthly demise. Again, an unneeded expense.
The best thing you can do is to keep your starter healthy and happy by following common sense procedures to keep it alive. If you can just ignore where it came from, keep your starter healthy, and enjoy the craft of baking, I think you'll be a happy baker.
Thank You
Jim