Keep in mind, sourdough bread was originally baked when there was no yeast available, such as during time of travel, exodus, what-have-you. I don't suppose it was meant to be an ideal bread, but, hey, that bacteria is more helpful to the digestive system than conventional wheat bread. But maybe I'm making that up.
I am also a fan of the sourdough. I usually choose it as my sandwich bread.
But, I was eating a BLT one day and the sourdough mixed with the vinegar topping did not mix well. I chose to leave vinegar off my next order and it was delicious. Never give up the sourdough.
Although what I've been craving lately is a decent French baguette, which as far as I can tell is not to be found in the United States. Soft on the inside, crisp on the outside, and the ingredients are: flour, water, yeast, oil, salt, maybe sugar. Why is this impossible?
BJC-- I can respect a person's tastes. If you don't like sourdough, that's fine. I don't like mushrooms or shellfish. I don't get people who do like them, but apparently there's something to like, as they show up everywhere.
What I can't respect is your attitude that people _couldn't_ or _shouldn't_ like the things you don't. There are plenty of words to describe your sort, and while the internet is (relatively) anonymous, I'll let your imagination fill in those blanks.
Bottom line: you've lost all credibility as a restaurant critic. You use your taste buds to judge others, not to enjoy life. You're a ******, not an epicurean.
Sourdough is awesome. Homemade sourdough is even more awesome. I have jar of starter that is quickly coming to life on top of my fridge. He was born Sunday March 21st and in three weeks or so when he's all grown up I'll be eating part of him in a tasty, tasty baguette!
@13 Check the West Seattle Farmer's Market. I got an AWESOME french baguette there last weekend. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the bakery but they'd be worth hunting down.
I just recently had me a double cheese burger with mustard and onions on sourdough roll from Red's Java House. One of the best greasy burgers around.
Also, you have not had a turkey sandwich until you have had it on a fresh sourdough roll.
Growing up in SF may have had some impact on my sourdough fascination.
I like sourdough in its place, but too many bakeries around here use sourdough starter for all of their breads. I'll grudgingly accept a sour base for olive bread, but walnut? Get the fuck out.
Too many impassioned comments here to top, but, yeah, not liking sourdough is the same thing as not liking food. Fermentation is the source of everything that is good and right about this world: not just sourdough, but sour cream, buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, ten thousand kinds of cheese, beer, wine, whisky, rum, brandy, vinegar, soy sauce. Regular dough -- do you know what disgusting things those yeast are getting up to in there?
Dear lord. Sourdough is THE BEST. In fact, the existence of sourdough wheat is the only thing that makes wheat bread even slightly worthwhile. I don't like my bread to be sweet. Bleah.
@ 30, what kind of buttermilk is fermented? It's just the leftover liquid after making butter, which is simply churned (or even shaken) heavy cream. No fermentation going on there.
@12: I didn't read the rest of the comments yet, Enigma, but I just had to come down here and ask you, "What the HELL are you doing putting VINEGAR on a BLT, ferchrissakes?!?" Best wishes.
I had never tasted sourdough until I visited the Northwest for the first time. I popped a slice into my mouth at a restaurant, my face turned green, and I whispered to my mom, "There is something really, really wrong with this bread."
And so there is.
@35, traditionally butter was cultured -- the cream was left to "ripen" and then butter was made from it. Hence the butter and the buttermilk were both a bit sour (in a good way, not in a rotten way). Sweet cream butter was actually considered sort of bland and wrong as recently as 100 years ago in the US. In Europe, cultured butter is still common.
Buttermilk in stores today is not the "the leftover liquid after making butter", it's basically just cultured milk as keshmeshi said.
If you would like to try something more like traditional butter and buttermilk, try this:
1. Buy a quart of heavy cream that is NOT ultra-pasteurized (pasteurized is OK, just not ultra-pasteurized. Smith Brothers will work. Twin Brook, at Metropolitan Market, is better).
2. Buy some buttermilk that contains LIVE cultures.
3. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the buttermilk in the cream. Mix. Put a lid on it.
4. Let the cream sit at warm room temperature for about 12-24 hours, until it thickens a bit like good creme fraiche. (If it smells rotten, something has gone wrong. But I have never had it smell "rotten." It smells like sour cream, usually. A good sour smell.)
5. Bring the cream to 60 degrees F. Then churn it. (I use a Kitchenaid mixer.)
6. Follow the usual directions for churning butter, found many places on the internet.
The result: lovely cultured butter, and real buttermilk that does indeed have a bit of tang to it from the culture.
Basically, since this milk is pasteurized and doesn't have any good bacteria in it (or bad, of course), you are inoculating it with the buttermilk culture so that it will have some GOOD bacteria. That stuff grows overnight and it is so happy to be there that it reproduces like crazy and basically crowds out any potential bad bacteria. Eventually it "ripens" the cream and you have good stuff.
I don't buy store butter any more. I make it this way.
But, I was eating a BLT one day and the sourdough mixed with the vinegar topping did not mix well. I chose to leave vinegar off my next order and it was delicious. Never give up the sourdough.
Although what I've been craving lately is a decent French baguette, which as far as I can tell is not to be found in the United States. Soft on the inside, crisp on the outside, and the ingredients are: flour, water, yeast, oil, salt, maybe sugar. Why is this impossible?
What I can't respect is your attitude that people _couldn't_ or _shouldn't_ like the things you don't. There are plenty of words to describe your sort, and while the internet is (relatively) anonymous, I'll let your imagination fill in those blanks.
Bottom line: you've lost all credibility as a restaurant critic. You use your taste buds to judge others, not to enjoy life. You're a ******, not an epicurean.
Also, you have not had a turkey sandwich until you have had it on a fresh sourdough roll.
Growing up in SF may have had some impact on my sourdough fascination.
Sourdough toast with good butter and Trader Joe's lemon curd almost every morning of my life, here. And on most sandwiches at home or abroad.
Buttermilk has live cultures in it. In fact, most/all of the buttermilk sold in stores is basically plain milk with cultures added to it.
And so there is.
Buttermilk in stores today is not the "the leftover liquid after making butter", it's basically just cultured milk as keshmeshi said.
If you would like to try something more like traditional butter and buttermilk, try this:
1. Buy a quart of heavy cream that is NOT ultra-pasteurized (pasteurized is OK, just not ultra-pasteurized. Smith Brothers will work. Twin Brook, at Metropolitan Market, is better).
2. Buy some buttermilk that contains LIVE cultures.
3. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the buttermilk in the cream. Mix. Put a lid on it.
4. Let the cream sit at warm room temperature for about 12-24 hours, until it thickens a bit like good creme fraiche. (If it smells rotten, something has gone wrong. But I have never had it smell "rotten." It smells like sour cream, usually. A good sour smell.)
5. Bring the cream to 60 degrees F. Then churn it. (I use a Kitchenaid mixer.)
6. Follow the usual directions for churning butter, found many places on the internet.
The result: lovely cultured butter, and real buttermilk that does indeed have a bit of tang to it from the culture.
Basically, since this milk is pasteurized and doesn't have any good bacteria in it (or bad, of course), you are inoculating it with the buttermilk culture so that it will have some GOOD bacteria. That stuff grows overnight and it is so happy to be there that it reproduces like crazy and basically crowds out any potential bad bacteria. Eventually it "ripens" the cream and you have good stuff.
I don't buy store butter any more. I make it this way.