I've no idea how/if it works. When I Googled it, ages ago, all I could find was some reference to a starter which had gone failed/gone 'bad' smelling of Nail Polish or Alcohol but the 'tip' I was told was something about 'triggering' the process using the vapour from Nail Polish. Like you, I didn't like the sound of it, plus I've only made sourdough a few times.
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I tried it many years ago but D. didn't like it, so that was the end of that:))
wife has been making nice rotie bread as we can't get self raising four....
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That is new to me???
The UK almost went metric in the late 1800s ... a missed opportunity.
And given that Avery scales were dual scale in the 60s, the metric martyrs really were dragging out museum pieces (and I was fortunate enough to have a tour of the Avery private museum in the 90s :)). I would have been curious as to their certification (which ultimately they failed, not being dual scale ...) as their accuracy must have been iffy ...
Nail polish is usually based on ethyl acetate, an ester, which is where the characteristic peardrops smell comes from. There are many dozens of esters in plants and foods - they give taste, flavour, smell etc. Fermentation with yeasts can produce esters, and beers rely on esters to give the myriad of flavours available, but too much can be unpleasant. I could believe that yeast fermenting a sourdough starter could smell of peardrops, but I can't for the life of me see why wafting the smell over a stuck starter would get it going, just because you might get the smell of peardrops if it was working properly.
Roti. Unleavened Indian flatbread.
Exactly, it seemed like nonsense hence my cryptic comment. However, it came from someone who served very good sour dough bread I?m told ( I?m not a great fan). It seemed good but, not being a fan, I couldn?t be sure. My only thought was it may inhibit something harmful but that was just a guess.
It is ok. I don?t dislike it but it isn?t something I especially like.
The tip came from someone I was told made good sour dough. I?m sure it was but it didn?t taste different to me.
In brewing - and distilling :) - you generally want to get rid of the esters ...
Exactly. Although the tip wasn?t to add the Polish.
Assuming there was something in the idea, the only thing I can think of it killed something else, allowing the process to recover. I?m not saying that is the theory but it is only thing I can think of.
I suspect that it is the same kind of pre-scientific thinking that gave us the Doctrine of Signatures. Confusing the effect (the yeast producing esters) with a cause, presumably thinking the esters will cause the yeast to grow.
I think you can afford to dismiss the idea in the absence of either empirical evidence or a rational mechanism.
Oh well, starter finally looked lively enough (close to pics on t'net) to try ... have just put a half loaf ball of dough out to rise ....
More reliable to use the sediment in a bottle of bottle-conditioned ale, mixed with flour and water and gradually built upto a decent sized starter. Bakers have always used yeast from the brewery in these beer drinking climes. TW
Our starter died when we ran out of flour.
But 16kg delivered today, so...
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