How vital is it that the containers for the starter and the sponge are glass? I'm on a tiny Caribbean island where everything from jugs to mixing bowls are made of plastic. Will this affect the growth and rising?
I haven't heard anything definite against the idea though I think it would be best to be sure that they are good quality food grade materials. However, I have seen videos taken in bakeries where they appear to dish their culture out of large plastic buckets and I had a day session with a baker once who had prepared his culture for the batch in a plastic jug.
I have seen blogs by some warning against all sorts of nasties being able to leach out of the plastic but once again I think using the correct materials should be pretty much immune to this sort of thing.
As far as affecting the beasties in the culture, I have used plastic (Tupperware) bowls for dough development and proving (I use stainless steel these days) with no ill effect on the performance of the culture (or for me after the event if it comes to that) so I don't think that it would affect your culture and bread preparation at all.
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Hello Pamamac,
I haven't heard anything definite against the idea though I think it would be best to be sure that they are good quality food grade materials. However, I have seen videos taken in bakeries where they appear to dish their culture out of large plastic buckets and I had a day session with a baker once who had prepared his culture for the batch in a plastic jug.
I have seen blogs by some warning against all sorts of nasties being able to leach out of the plastic but once again I think using the correct materials should be pretty much immune to this sort of thing.
As far as affecting the beasties in the culture, I have used plastic (Tupperware) bowls for dough development and proving (I use stainless steel these days) with no ill effect on the performance of the culture (or for me after the event if it comes to that) so I don't think that it would affect your culture and bread preparation at all.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam