Long time lurker, first time poster. I have a couple of starters that I maintain, and I have recently purchased Lisa Rayner's book Wild Bread. It's a great book, but now I have a question: Lisa speaks very highly of the starters from Sourdoughs International, and speaks of them as though they will, as long as they are kept alive, forever retain their flavor and behavior. My understanding has always been that a starter will very quickly become a culture of local yeasts, but Lisa seems to think otherwise.
Does anyone have thoughts on this matter? Curious to see if there is any truth to Lisa's comments, or if she is just fooling herself. I can't imagine, for instance, buying a Russian starter, and having it stay Russian even after months of feeding here in lovely Maine. Thanks!
Nick
I think that a number of posters on pizzamaking.com forum did tests and found that starters did not get cross contaminated - here is one post, read down, there are a few more that agree https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=11634.msg123686#msg123686 BTW, i have purchased a few started from SI, and have been pleased.
I maintain the cultures for Sourdoughs International. I can tell you they maintain. The reason I know this is that when I activat them them smell differen, taste different and react different then each other.