Cracked Cauldron Spillings

Y'all remember Tri-Pliny, the sourdough culture I got from Italy last month?

Well, like a bad pet owner, I gave him the wrong water and he proceeded to throw a fit.

Oklahoma tap water is usually pretty good. It's sweet, clear, and imminently drinkable even if it does kill aquarium fish. This time of year, though, the lake turns over. It does that twice a year, and we'll sediment in the water, and fish scales and other such oddities. This lasts about a week, and we usually buy bottled water (the cheap stuff) for drinking and cooking.

Eh, short story - I used tap water to feed Tri-Pliny instead of bottled water. He threw out sickly odors - ever smelled a wet mop that stayed wet for weeks on end and was never rinsed or cleaned? That nasty sweetish rank odor of not-quite-mold and really smelly feet? That was Tri-Pliny this morning.

So, I had to wash him down, scrub the nasty contamination out of the starter, and go for it again.

Fortunately, Tri-Pliny took as quickly to the washing as he did to the bad water, and he's setting up a lovely smell now, yeasty, a bit earthy, and slightly sweet. He responds really well to attention and care. I think he's going to be a high maintainence yeast beastie.

Still, I bet he'd make great ciabatta and foccacio and pizza.

I don't think I'm going to use him for the bread for MedFaire, though.

I'm going to use Heike and Onuri Ufa. Heike makes into my favorite German everyday Graubrot, and Onuri Ufa will do well as an herbed vegetable bread.

Onuri Ufa, actually, seems to like being close to Tri-Pliny and has taken on a new vigor. I know there's no cross contamination between the two, because they are kept in lidded jars. Onuri Ufa just likes Italians, I guess. There is a long history between Rome and Egypt after all.

Today I make the Banbury Tarts and meat pies we'll feast upon at MedFaire, and refrigerate them until we're ready to eat them.

I'll post pics because I plan to make the meat pies into pirate ships and castle turrets.

Since I'm not too concerned with historicity, I'll fill pirate ships with a potatoey beef stew and the turrets with a salmon and rice combination.