Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

[WJW]

A big shout out and "thank you" to Mike (Sablesprings), and Jonathon (Sevenacre), for sending me a portion of their sourdough cultures after my starter was tragically killed in a dishwasher accident.

Thanks again guys.

Bill

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

I too received a generous gift of Ischia starter from Jonathan this afternoon (he was on the way to the post office with Bill's starter and decided to consolidate trips). I have already inoculated two refresher starters with the sponge and have begun to see bubbles already.

I figure come next may, I will be able to post pics of a true neapolitan pie using the heirloom tomatoes (seeds from Russell - Utah Beehiver) and pizza dough made from the starter shared by Jonathan.

Thanks again to both of you.

John

[WJW]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Pretty cool stuff.

Both of the cultures I received are also bubbling along nicely and looking no worse for their travels at he hands of the US Postal service. Can't wait to post some pics and report on results.

Bill

[SableSprings]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

I don't know how Jonathan "packaged" his Ischia starter for Bill and John, but I thought it would be worthwhile to share my method.

First I laid out a piece of plastic wrap and sprinkled it well with flour. From my recently refreshed starter (taken to thick, pancake batter consistency), I spread a couple tablespoons on the flour, sprinkled more flour on top, and then lightly patted it down. After drying overnight, I pressed more flour in (flipping over a couple times). It looked/felt like a small piece of pie dough (1/8" or 2-3 mm thick) ready to flop in a tin. I put a business envelope and a quart ziplock bag on my scales, used a bench knife to make a small square (about 2"x2") of the dry, doughy starter and made sure it all weighed just below 1 oz (20-25 g). Into the ziplock went the starter square, into the envelope, one stamp and off to California via regular mail.

As I understand it, Bill got the starter in a couple days. As he noted above, both cultures are now bubbling happily away in sunny, Camarillo. Just thought this might be a useful method for sharing sourdough starters since sending "liquids" through the mail is not encouraged by the US Postal Service (...and dishwasher disasters, accidental spring cleanings, and "helpful" visitors throwing out smelly containers will continue to be an issue for family pet sourdoughs around the world).

[SevenAcre]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Wow Sable, that's way more elaborate than my approach (but I closely followed the Dragonfly Den so why am I not surprised). I just did a split, discarded half, and fed in the morning, then split it again when I got home from work. I fed both of those portions. One went back in the fridge and the other into ziplocks with a little flour--boxed and mailed. I left one corner unzipped to avoid gas build-up, and prayed they got there without exploding (too badly). I usually keep my sponge the consistency of a very wet, gooey dough. Fridge peanut butter, not counter peanut butter.

Glad it worked for you guys. -j

[WJW]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

I should have taken pictures of the two packaging styles. Sablesprings get's the award for high-efficiency packaging as the envelope it came in looked like it contained a single sheet of paper.....

...Sevenacre's gets the nod for what looked like it would be the longest lived should it get lost in the mail and take a week to get there....a big gob of starter with a bunch of loose flour included as food to get the yeasties through the journey.

Both methods were obviously highly effective as the two starters are both absolutely screaming along. I plan to bake this weekend so have been feeding both twice a day. As much as I hate to admit it...BOTH...seem to be exhibiting levels of activity that are as high or higher than my home grown starter ever did.

I received Sablespring's "chef Bill" starter on Saturday. It was about the size of a stick of chewing gum and half the thickness. I received Sevenacre's Ischia starter on Monday. Here we are on Tuesday evening and the two cultures are practically smoking. I will bake this weekend and report results.

Thanks again guys.

Bill

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Pretty cool stuff

I'll say! Jonathan's starter arrived in great shape, and despite the 400mi trip, took to the KAAP I fed it and acted like it never missed a feeding. I had inoculated two refresher starters (100%, 66% hydration) twice in the first 24hours, to see how the Ischia worked and was left with 270g of starters.

Rather than discard these precious concoctions, I combined them and conducted a second experiment. The first batch(regular-sized boule) was done ala Robertson's Tartine Country loaf in a house oven (combo cooker). The mini-boules came from the same batch of dough, but were cold-fermented for 12-hours in the fridge. I gotta tell you, the mini-boules left this house smelling really good!

Thanks again, Jonathan. I gotta say your shipment method came through with flying colors.

John

[SevenAcre]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Those are absolutely gorgeous breads! The big question is how was the flavor? Did the Ischia live up to the hype?

I proof my pizza dough in a $140 wine chiller I bought from Amazon. It allows me to closely control the temperature anywhere between 48 to 68 degrees, and I can easily fit a dozen doughs in it (16 if I use the smaller containers). The coolest thing is that it has two compartments for reds and whites which can be set at different temps. I'll proof a bit warmer for the pizza I'm making tomorrow, while setting the second compartment cooler for the pies I'll be making 2-4 days out. Anything past that and the dough can be a bit overpowering for my picky guests (even though I like a real sour dough). Of course, if it was up to my wife we'd use the top compartment for bread and the bottom would be designated vino.

-j

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Jonathan,

Thanks for the chiller rundown. I have been considering getting a wine chiller for fermenting, and the flexibility of your dual-zone unit has me salivating, especially since my wife is good with reds that don't have to be chilled

re: the Ischia loaves, I was tickled the starter worked its magic so soon after its journey. The bread tasted as expected, like it came from a young starter. I will say that the center of the large boule had a delicate creaminess and a wonderful texture that was just a pure joy to eat. Most surprising was to find the cold-fermenting batch in the fridge straining at the plastic wrap 'lid' 12 hours later. I am really looking forward to begin baking with it after building it to strength, especially in pizza. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

John

[WJW]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

So finally got around to doing a bake yesterday after a several month hiatus. The starters from Sevenacre and Sablesprings worked fantastically well. Both were extremely good. I did a total of twenty-eight loaves of approximately 1.5pounds each. Sevenacres's Ischia had great flavor and texture. Sablesprings "Chef Bill" was also great with a more pronounced sourdough flavor. Both great.

I was rusty. As you can see, my slashing technique was terrible. I did the two doughs in different bannetons...In the second pic... the loaf on the bottom left (with the pattern) is the Ischia. It was properly proofed I think. The loaf to the bottom right center is the Chef Bill. Maybe a bit under0-proofed judging by the expansion and near blow-out. Great flavor for both.

The bottom pic is lamb shanks done today with residual heat from the oven. I went out this morning to find the temp at 405 degrees F. The temp after the second and final bake yesterday evening was 490. Left the door open for approximately two hours to bring the temps down to about 280. Browned the lamb shanks first and then threw them in the oven for approximately five hours. Very, very good.

[SevenAcre]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Holy Cow! Forty plus lbs of bread in one bake from a backyard oven. It looks like you will be just fine for Thanksgiving. Glad we could help!
-J

[SableSprings]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Great Loaves Bill! Thanks for the follow-up on the "Tale of Two Starters". Glad they both performed well for you. I especially loved the layout pic of peels ready to load the oven. Out of curiosity, what do you do with all the bread you make in a batch? I suspect several loaves were sacrificed (along with a cube or two of butter) at your table on bake day...but do you sell the remaining loaves or give them away to friends or just throw 'em in the freezer (the bread not the neighbors) ...

I looked into getting an Oregon kitchen license to sell my bread, but the process is more involved than I was willing to do--after all this was my retirement project. I have a pretty loyal following of neighbors that are happy to have a free loaf or two delivered after my weekly bakes, but am curious about what you do with all those tasty carbs in boule form.

[WJW]

Re: Sincere Thanks Gentlemen.

Mike...

Glad you liked the post and pics. As far as the large bakes....I have found that my oven produces better results with large bakes. Fifteen or so loaves at a time is ideal. That puts enough steam in the oven to obviate the need to introduce steam to get good color. Also, I genuinely enjoy working with large batches of dough. Doing stretch and folds on a twenty to thirty pound lump of dough is fun. The process of cutting dough and forming loaves from a big batch of dough s fun. Obviously, practice makes perfect....so doing thirty loaves in a bake will advance ones abilities more quickly than doing three loaves.

As far as what I do with the bread...this last bake was typical...of the 28 loaves...two loaves were eaten by myself and several friends (along with a couple bottles of wine) within thirty minutes of coming out of the oven. Another eight to ten loaves were handed out (still warm) to neighbors. One was left on the kitchen counter for the following morning's toast and sandwiches. The remaining fifteen or so went into the freezer.

Nothing is sold although I have considered doing so at the local farmer's market. As you can imagine...I receive no complaints from the neighbors about smoke when firing the oven.