More Sourdough Starter

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BGKYSmoker

Nepas OTBS #242
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Dec 25, 2010
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Rineyville, KY
Looks like my other batch has died, no activity at all.

Making a fresh batch today.

Using this whole wheat flour.
IMG_9906.JPG


I hot water sanitized my mason jar and let it cool. Using distilled room temp water.

Put a rubber band around the jar at the mix line, check in 8-10 hours for activity. Yes i could take longer.
Got a paper towel and rubber band at the top.
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Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup flour, whole wheat or unbleached all-purpose
  • 1/4-1/3 cup water
  • 1 glass jar, or bowl
  • 1 paper towel
  • 1 rubber band
Instructions
TO BEGIN
  1. Start the process by adding 1⁄2 cup whole wheat flour and 1⁄4 cup water to the jar. (If you need more flour to reach a pancake batter consistency, you can add up to 1/4 cup more.)
THE FIRST FEEDING
  1. Stir thoroughly and cover with a towel and rubber band. Let sit for 24 hours at room temperature. (Try to keep it in an area of your house that is somewhat warm. Very cool rooms tend to slow the action of a starter.)
  2. After 24 hours, check the mixture for bubbles. If you see some, add 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour and 1⁄4-1/3 cup water. If you don’t see bubbles, give it a stir and let sit 24 more hours.
THE SECOND FEEDING
  1. Check for bubbles again. If you do see bubbles, remove half of the starter, add 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour and 1⁄4-1/3 cup water and stir thoroughly. Let sit 24 hours.
THE THIRD FEEDING
  1. Remove half of the starter, and feed with 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour and 1⁄4 cup water, stirring thoroughly. Let sit 24 hours.
ADDITIONAL FEEDINGS
  1. On days 4, 5, 6 you can feed it 2 times a day.
  2. Continue this routine until the starter is consistently bubbling and doubling in size within 8 hours of each feeding.
  3. From this point, you can store the starter in the refrigerator and feed it about once per week. When you plan to use the starter, pull it out of the refrigerator 24 hours in advance to feed it and allow it to warm up and grow.
 
I just bought mine. Only $8 and ready in 3 days. Make sure you dry some and store in freeze once going good for a backup.

 
As soon as you see activity, start feeding it 2x a day.
If you pour out say 50grms
feed it 50grams h2o and 50 grms flour. There are tons of ways to keep a starter healthy.

I personally don't measure anything anymore because I know the consistency that I am looking for.
 
The best culture is started at home and run through a couple weeks of feed.
By then the yeast on the flour has either flourished or died and the local airborne yeast has taken a hold.

I buy most of my flour from a mill 30 miles away produced from wheat that is also local.
 
Nice...
I made Stromboli Thursday night, made the pizza dough night before. I used 23 year old Fleishmans yeast that had been stored in the cool pantry sealed in original package. It was still loose in the bag once the seal was broke....didn't know if it would rise or not. I added 2 tsp. of table sugar and 1 tsp. of dextrose just for good measure to kick start activation. It was bubbling and rising in 10 minutes. Proofed it in the warm oven for an hour, then put in fridge overnight to develop. Dough was good....I need to make homemade bread more often.....
 
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Starter really became alive. I should be baking bread in a week or so.
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Happy sourdough starter.
This is the past week doing discard and feeding twice daily.
Next week to do my first bread in the lodge ceramic cast iron dutch oven on my kettle.

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Looking good!! Don't forget to flour your banneton and cover really, really well before use. And let's see some pictures of you first loaf!!
 
My starter is like the karate kid.
Up/down/Up/down.
I gotta let it go for while before i do my 1st bake.
I do both jars feeding 2x daily.
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Be a good idea to dry some for a backup. You never know.

 
Here is my 2 starters.

Left is big foot, just fed at 1p. Took pic at 315

Yeti is my discard fed the same time.

1pm pic
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315 pic
315.JPG
 
Got my first sourdoah loaf, strteched and folded until i got a pane.

Got bubbles too.

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My dad told me his mother would make 5 loaves at a time every couple days and always had a jar of starter, this was back in the '40's & 50's. Would this be the same process that she was using? There's no way it took five weeks to make a loaf they would have starved.
 
Tripled in size over night.
Going in the banneton in an hour.

View attachment 487869
Great thread. I'm about to start a new starter. Had one going a while back that was pretty good, but blew it off because I just got too busy. Now, thanks to this thread, I read about drying and preserving a starter! Wish I had known that before!! lol Looks good after the rise. Anxious to see the loaf. Was that in the fridge or on the counter over night?
 
My dad told me his mother would make 5 loaves at a time every couple days and always had a jar of starter, this was back in the '40's & 50's. Would this be the same process that she was using? There's no way it took five weeks to make a loaf they would have starved.
Yes
If she was making 5 loaves on a regular basis, there was more than 1 quart jar of culture. I guess it was an apothecary jar and the pull went for the next bread bake.
I did the sourdough culture for a few years until my wife discovered she is wheat sensitive (not celiac).
I cannot get sprouted grain flours or sprouted pulse flours around here that she can tolerate. We just purchase bread from an area store that specializes in sprouted flour breads.
 
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Nope.

Turned out real good. Its all gone now.

 
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