Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
I am not sure what a killner jar is - perhaps a Mason jar? In any event, I don't have one.
I'm doing it for the novelty, mainly - just because I haven't done it before and want to try. I don't cook/bake nearly as much as I'd like. It's tough in New York - and virtually the same price to just order delivery. The last thing I want to do when I get home from work is spend time cooking, though I enjoy cooking.
I love sourdough bread. What's the difference between poolish/biga and sourdough? I thought they were different names for the same thing, or at least referred to differing amounts of sourdough starter used in the bread.
Poolish and biga are the same thing. One French the other italian for the same thing. It is - for simplicity of description - a way of accelerating what you are doing naturally with your starter but - if you like - cheating by adding a few grammes of yeast instead of relying on natural yeasts.
So I generally make a mix of equal plain hard Canadian white flour and water and a couple of grammes of yeast and leave it over night in my mixer bowl to save avoidable things to wash. Just a quick mix with a fork and cover it with a shower cap. Then recalculate the water and the flour I add the following day to achieve the hydration percentage I want and add the salt then. Mustn't add salt the previous day as it will kill the yeast.
This is the basis of French country bread and baguettes and Neapolitan pizza and other Italian breads. It adds character and flavour but not sourness. I much prefer this to sourdough.
Most people do not understand how easy it is to make genuine baguettes at home and sometimes I make it twice a day. Anyone can do it using this method and you sort of get into an easy rhythm. It needs to be eaten as soon as it is cool, and that's why sometimes making it twice a day (only baked ie one mix a day) is a lovely bit of self-indulgence. Jam in the morning, ham or cheese (or both) at night.
The other real advantage of this approach is that you are not a prisoner to your starter - you "restart" from each new loaf, just start it the day or night before, instead of doing it all within the same day. As I said, it is easy to be sucked into the generalisation that "more work" always means "better results" but I (in a minority) prefer the taste of bread started with poolish/biga than sourdough.