The Sourdough Starter Topic

[Isabelle Prescott]

I finally got to meet my internet friend, Amanda, in person. She lives in Australia and we originally "met" on a recipe forum many years ago. While she was in the US I wanted to share my sourdough starter with her. I knew she wouldn't be able to take it in liquid form on the plane so I dried some and put it in an envelope for her.

She reconstituted it when she got back to Adelaide and made some beautiful loaves of sourdough bread. She writes a food blog: http://www.lambsearsandhoney.com/ There are pictures of her sourdough loaves made with my starter in the blog if you want to see them. They look better than mine... but its fun to know that something I created in my kitchen is now feeding Amanda's family in Australia.

[Joe Blowe]

Tips on reconstituting dried starter can be found on Carl's Sourdough page

[thock]

Very cool. How did you dry it?

[janeer]

I think that's awfully nice. Also, that you got to meet a longtime correspondent.

[Isabelle Prescott]

I dried the sourdough starter by spreading a couple of tablespoons on a piece of waxed paper and let it dry overnight. I put it in an envelope and when Amanda got back to OZ she mixed it in with equal amounts of water and flour and let it bubble away. I've had this starter for 4 or 5 years. I started it with grapes, flour and bottled water as per the La Brea Bakery method and been using it ever since.

[ElsieD]

Host's note: this topic was split from the topic Baking Bread from Scratch in France.

 

 

Allrighty then, I thought I would give this a go. This is what it looks like and I will cover this with a paper towel and see what happens. It is in a west facing window. Not sure what to do with it exactly if it works, but I will deal with that when (if) the time comes.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Smithy (log)

[bethesdabakers]

That's great, Elsie. I hope other people will give it a try too.

 

Couple of points. You'd be better off transfering the mixture to something like a jam jar (something made of glass that is taller than it is wide) just so you can see more easily what's going on - is it rising, are there bubbles throughout the mixture, etc. The location of the jar doesn't particularly matter - what you want is a reasonably constant temperature in the 18-25C range. So a windowsill if it gets a lot of sun or is drafty is not a good place.

[ElsieD]

So here we are 24 hours later. I moved it to one of those big glass beer mugs and moved it away from the window and on to the counter. It looks as though it has a couple of bubbles in it although that may be wishful thinking. It took a sniff and it smells fine. I guess if tomorrow morning it has a few bubbles in it I will add 50 grams each of flour and water???? Further, I guess by Thursday morning if it has more bubbles in it I will add another 50 grams each of flour and water and after mixing, remove half of it????

Edited to add: The mixture is decidedly looser than it was when I first mixed it together.

Mick, you may have to help me out here.

Edited October 8, 2014 by ElsieD (log)

[ElsieD]

Here is how it looks right now, Thursday morning. Nice and bubbly, so I am about to add another 50 grams each of bread flour and water. I am also moving it to a larger container. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow morning. I'm pretty stoked about this, as I have never tried this before.

Edited October 9, 2014 by ElsieD (log)

[patti_h]

Mick, your breads are gorgeous! I tried to make sourdough using Peter Reinhardts instructions in BBA, around a year ago, didn't work for me. I now have a rye starter that is looking nice and bubbly sitting in my kitchen, from following your thread! I'm very excited about this, thanks for all the information and encouragement!

[bethesdabakers]

Hi Elsie

 

Forgot to say that starter's beginning tolook promising. Keep up the reports.

 

Mick

[ElsieD]

So here we are, about 48 hours since I first mixed water and flour together. I have attached a picture from the side of the container and one looking down on it. Not sure what to do next except see what it looks like in the morning and feed it again at which time I will pitch half of it. I guess.
 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Smithy
Member request (log)

[ElsieD]

This morning it looked as though it had doubled in size and then collapsed on itself. Is this normal? I discarded half of it and mixed in another 50 grams each of flour and water.

[bethesdabakers]

Yes, Elsie, you feed a starter it bubbles up and falls back. At the moment it will be quite unstable but as it matures this is likely to occur in about eight hour cycles. For the next few days I would discard and feed the mixture once a day.

[ElsieD]

Yes, Elsie, you feed a starter it bubbles up and falls back. At the moment it will be quite unstable but as it matures this is likely to occur in about eight hour cycles. For the next few days I would discard and feed the mixture once a day.

Will do. Thank you. It is almost 7 hours since I fed it and there are small bubbles on top but not much else happening. I will continue to do as you say and we will see what happens.

Elsie

[patti_h]

This is my rye starter:

I am discarding half and refreshing with equal amounts rye flour and water each morning. How long do you keep this up before it's ready to use, and how do you know when it is ready to be used?

Edited October 11, 2014 by patti_h (log)

[Chelseabun]

I have baked bread for years but have always used fresh or dried yeast.  After reading your posts, I have decided its time to start baking bread using a starter. Oh well, here goes nothing.... (this isn't like a commitment thing is it)?

 

 

50g of stoneground organic white flour (12% protein) plus 50g mineral water. Photo was taken after 48 hours.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Chelseabun (log)

[bethesdabakers]

Well, this is getting exciting.

 

Patti, your starter looks fine. Do a test bake. I'm never sure why people are reluctant to experiment. Are you wanting to make rye bread or just use it as a general starter. Do you need a recipe or are you experienced?

 

Howdy Chelseabun. It's a serious commitment! You'll never be the same again.

 

Where we up to Elsie?

[ElsieD]

It gave my starter a little funeral today. It was deader than a door nail. Too bad as it looked as though I had something going there. Not to be deterred, however, I have started a new one. Will report on how that one goes.

[patti_h]

Elsie I hope your new starter goes gangbusters!

Mick I was only using rye as a starter because I read it is easier! I will go ahead and test out my starter tomorrow. I'm sure I can find a recipe. Somehow I though you had to grow your starter for a long time but really, you proved that wrong with this thread! I have never successfully made sourdough so I am really excited about this! And even if it doesn't work out, it's just flour, not gold!

[ElsieD]

Patti, when did you start your starter? Looking forward to reading what you did with it.

[patti_h]

Elsie I think I started the day you started, or the day after. I used organic rye flour because I had read somewhere that rye starters were easier to grow. Today's refreshment I used white flour instead of the rye. I'll bake with white flour too. I'm very interested to see what comes of it!

[ElsieD]

Host's note: this discussion began as a side discussion in the topic Yeast as a Flavoring Agent:

 

That white film on the skin of things like plums, grapes and cabbage is wild yeast.  When it is fed, grown, and kept alive in a batter of flour and water, it is sour dough yeast.  Cultured yeast are strains that are developed to promote certain characteristics like rapid rising in breads or to promote the best fermentation results in beer or wine. Cultured yeast will quickly revert back to its wild state if  fed and grown in sour dough like conditions. Heat kills yeast, cold inhibits it.

I am trying to develope some starter for sourdough bread. It didn't work the first time and I have started a new batch today. Are you saying that if I buy some grapes with a white film on them and throw the skins in my nascent starter it will help it along?

Edited October 13, 2014 by Smithy (log)

[Norm Matthews]

No.  With wild yeast, it's a coin toss whether you will get a good yeast for bread or not. It might be amazing, it might be awful. There are thousands of different varieties.  What makes good wine might not be good for bread.  A little cultured bread yeast will be a better bet. It will revert to wild in a week or two.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Ashen]

yep, I know someone who has started a sourdough from grape skins..   this is a link about it. You have to be careful though as you won't get a viable strain  every time.  if you read through the link it will give you a description of a good capture or bad capture of a wild yeast strain. 

Edited October 13, 2014 by Ashen (log)