Just returned from a month in the cool country, where we rented a cabin complete with a kitchen. I made several loaves of Stella Culinary SD (70% hydration) with a starter that I began when we arrived. This starter took a week (ish) to pass the float test—compared to 2-4 days at home—and was very vigorous once it did pass. It also had a better tang than I typically get at home. The small oven was wildly variable in temperature (I took my TW Smoke) and also ran much hotter than the setting. I ended up baking at a setting of 400°F to start and lowered it to 350°F after 25 minutes. The temp still varied +/- 50°F or more, but the bread surprisingly turned out great anyway. Made a total of three loaves, plus one I gave away. I had expected trouble at high altitude, but had none (I did knock the dough down twice instead of once to counter the more rapid rise). I’m guessing the actual baking isn’t a big deal at altitude since hydration rates can vary so much for bread anyway; perhaps my bread baked to the equivalent of, say, a 65% loaf because water boils about 197°F at 8,000 feet?
Alas, as usual, my new starter began to smell strongly of acetone at about 3 weeks just like at home. Despite trying different hydrations, different storage temps, and Wink’s "pineapple solution", I am so far unable to solve this problem. My next try will be feeding twice a day (drat), then maybe switching flour brands if that doesn’t work. BTW, messing with some litmus paper I found that pineapple juice (Dole) has a pH around 3, which can be approximated using about 0.1 grams of citric acid to 50 grams of water.
I also did some charcoal grilling and tried to do Q at 225°F-ish with some SLCs. Grilling was tough and it was, for me at least, impossible to keep a charcoal snake going for the ribs. I just had to keep lighting more briquets and ended up using about 10 # of KBB for one rack of SLCs!! The grill was pretty crappy, a squashed cube version of a Weber kettle without decent airflow.
Anyway, I hope this is useful info to someone.
Alas, as usual, my new starter began to smell strongly of acetone at about 3 weeks just like at home. Despite trying different hydrations, different storage temps, and Wink’s "pineapple solution", I am so far unable to solve this problem. My next try will be feeding twice a day (drat), then maybe switching flour brands if that doesn’t work. BTW, messing with some litmus paper I found that pineapple juice (Dole) has a pH around 3, which can be approximated using about 0.1 grams of citric acid to 50 grams of water.
I also did some charcoal grilling and tried to do Q at 225°F-ish with some SLCs. Grilling was tough and it was, for me at least, impossible to keep a charcoal snake going for the ribs. I just had to keep lighting more briquets and ended up using about 10 # of KBB for one rack of SLCs!! The grill was pretty crappy, a squashed cube version of a Weber kettle without decent airflow.
Anyway, I hope this is useful info to someone.
