by Wissahickon on Sat Aug 01, 2015 10:57 am
I've been maintaining three separate sourdough cultures -- San Francisco, Ischia, and Yukon -- that I obtained from Ed Wood at Sourdoughs International in Idaho. But I can't bake as much as I'd like to these days, and find that maintaining three cultures has gotten to be too much. I'm thinking of combining all three separate leavens into one culture, to cut down on maintenance and also reduce the amount of flour I'm using to maintain the three cultures. I've read Sandor's comments on this subject in Art of Fermentation, but still hesitate to dump all three into one jar. I notice that all three cultures tend to behave a little differently, and smell and taste a little differently too -- or so I think, since it's hard to control for such things. So I'm wondering if anyone has some thoughts on the value -- or not -- of maintaining sourdough "purity". I'm also thinking of using my hands to mix the cultures, whatever I do, since I read in Daniel wing's book that clean hands are the main source of beneficial bacteria in sourdough cultures in any case -- that, and what's in the local air and the flour that's used. One more thing -- I want to add that I've valued the Ischia culture especially highly, since it originated in southern Italy, and may have been the strain used to make the original pizzas. That part of the world is where my maternal grandparents were from, and so I imagine that when I bake with the Ischia culture, I'm working with the same or very similar yeasts that my grandmother may have worked with when baking bread or pizza in her mountain village in Italy, which was not far from Naples and not far from where the Ischia culture was isolated and propagated. I don't absolutely believe in this connection, but it tickles my fancy, and as readers of this post would know, working with living cultures as I do (not only sourdough, but water and milk kefir, heirloom yogurt, rejuvelac, etc.) can be inspiring, imaginatively. Anyway, I'd appreciate having your thoughts. Thanks!