[isaac]

hey guys.

i think that, unlike cooking (for the most part), true defanitions and understandings are hard to agree on with bread making. i talked with a bread chef today and we had a long tal kabout sour dough starters and pre ferments. he said that no one way of making a starter is the wrong way. he said that it boils down to what YOU want... how u want the sour dough starter to be. made since really.

when i was at the hotel doing my externship, we had an artisan bread chef. he was a really cool guy. one day we sat down and he told me all about pre ferments and sour dough starts. it was my true interduction to them. i grasped them really well. i understood what happened in the sour dough while it sits and grows. he told me one thing i will never forget "you need not to listen to books about sour dough starters. they will just confuse you." it made since. it HAS confused me. so i trace those conversations that he and i had and i think that it is nesasary, in a bakers like, to take a stance and to commit on the way you would like to creat sour starters.

thebighat said it best when he said that its really not HOW long you wait... its that you clearly understand what is going on in the container that holds your starter.

kimmie said it best when she said you just have to go out and bake. unfortenatly, that is tough for me but what i realized today as i was sitting in class is that i can at least make a sour dough starter. at least it will be totally ready by the time i go home for christmas. he he he

so, i thank you all for your advise. even though it confused me and left me pondering late at night (which was interesting) at times, i am truely gratefull that i have all you guys to help me.

thank to all.

 

[kimmie]

Any time, Isaac.

It was challenging but fun. I hope you will enjoy La Brea!

...and good luck with your starter.

 

[w.debord]

Issac you'll find that same problem all through-out cooking. Theres several ways to do most things. It becomes more crucial when your doing baking or pastries because a false move can mean a lost product where as the rest of the kitchen can usually recoup a false move.

We have a number of pastry chefs here and although we agree on alot each person does things a bit differently. That's all apart of the education process. If you notice pastry chefs talk recipes more than cooks at food sites. There's alot to learn and your life time won't be long enough to obtain everything.

When you become a pastry chef you learn to try many recipes for each item before you claim one recipe to be your recipe. Each time I make something new I cross reference it with other recipes so I can see if there's any obvious flaws before I waste my time making something. There are no definative answers just opinions. Then you judge your-self and wonder if your opinion is close to others opinion......

The titles of pastries keep being used loosely it's become hard to even talk about the same product with clairity.

Glad you figured it out.....there are no exact answers. But at least there is a range of answers for each topic. Life will never be boring in this business. There's always always much to learn!