I have started baking bread. I bought "Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" and started with the whole wheat "loaf for learning" and am currently working on the sourdough rye, just having begun a starter from a dried culture from the store.
In a lot of the reviews of the book, as well as in the book itself, are raves about desem bread. It is a culture different from traditional yeast or sourdough. You make it by keeping a starter buried in flour for a week or two in a cool place and then keep it thereafter as a fairly stiff ball, not a batter like sourdough. I am wondering if anyone has eaten or baked desem breads and how the flavor compares to a typical yeast or sourdough loaf.
On another note I saw a baker on TV who made a starter culture by rubbing the natural yeast or whatever off of red cabbage, blueberries, and grapes. It looked interesting. He made a pretty rustic loaf with it. I am wondering if anyone has tried that method, either.
I would like to know if these are all just different methods of getting a starter culture that is basically the same, or if the quality or even species of the starters are so different as to make a really large difference in the resulting breads. I have a reasonably perceptive palate, i.e., I can taste the difference between peanuts and cashews. I can also taste the difference between zinfandel and cabernet, but it doesn't strike me as important. What I am trying to ask is if there is a drastic difference in taste or it is only something that rarefied gourmands would care about.