Sourdough Starter

[mctmatt]

I created my Sourdough Starter on July 1, 2007 and have been keeping it active ever since with refrigeration and once a month feeding. I learned that it is not a crime to pour a cup or two cups of starter away if no one wants any and it is time to feed the starter. Basically I learned that I don't feel the need to bake something every time I feed my starter. The older this starter gets the better it gets. I have made breads, pizza dough, pancakes, waffles, sourdough biscuits which are a big hit and homemade sweet rolls. I have given some to other family members and they have also enjoyed the above items. Creating a sourdough starter is very easy and maintaining it is also easy. Once a starter is created and maintained it will last as long as you want it too. There are stories of some starters being used that were created over 200 years ago and passed down to family members who now value it as a family treasure. I created my Starter with 1/4 cup of all purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, and 2 full Tablespoons of warm Spring Water ( Some tap water is treated with a lot of chlorine which can prevent your starter from well becoming a sourdough starter), I have no problems at this point using my tap water to keep my starter active you might just need to experiment. The container you will need or use can be plastic or glass, but aluminum cannot be used. Stir the above recipe together and let it sit at room temperature with no lid or just a paper towel on top of the container. The next day you might see lots of tiny bubbles forming which means that good yeast is forming but most likely you want see any activity until day 3. You will need to feed your starter so do the exact same recipe and measurements as above stir and leave sitting at room temperature. On day 3 you should see some activity with the tiny bubbles. Today (Early Morning) measure out 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir together and leave sitting at room temp for 24 hrs. On Day 4 you might see larger bubbles forming and the starter might have risen some in the container. Today you will pour 1/2 cup of starter into a measuring glass. Now discard the remaining starter. Wash and dry the container then pour the remaining starter back in. Add 1/2 of flour to the starter, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/4 cup of warm water stir and let sit at room temp. Day 5 early morning you should see a frothy starter that has increased in size. Give it an early morning feeding of 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/2 cup of warm water and stir. Leave at room temp till that evening. Now discard half of the starter (1 cup) and then add 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/2 cup of warm water and stir. Leave sitting out at room temp. The next morning hopefully your starter has doubled in size if it is sluggish just allow it to sit for another 12 to 24 hrs without any feeding. If the starter has doubled then again repeat with discarding half of the starter and feeding just as the above. That evening discard half again and same feeding. The next morning keep 1 and 1/2 cup of starter, then feed with 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 3/4 cup of warm water and mix together. Leave out at room temp. The starter should have doubled in size and is probably ready for use at this point. You can choose to bake or refrigerate your starter. If you refrigerate then for the first month you will need to discard half, and feed your starter once every 7 days. After that time period you can then feed it every 3 weeks. Do not be alarmed if liquid forms on the top of the starter and even if the liquid turns black. This is called "Hooch" you can choose to pour it off or just do like I and stir in back into the starter before I discard any and repeat my feeding. I try to maintain at least a 3 1/2 cup amount of starter as some recipes will call for 2 cups. That leaves me 1 1/2 1/1cup left to feed and build my starter back to the 3 cup amount. I do this by just adding 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of sugar, and 3/4 cups of warm water and then stir and let sit at room temp for at least 24 hrs before I sit back in the refrigerator. I encourage others to try your hand at creating your own starter and maintaining it as it really is something unique and makes wonderful baked breads and other baking items. The longer you maintain it the more of a treasure it will become not only for you, but your entire family and extended family as you will be able to give them a cup of the starter instead of discarding it and who knows a hundred years from now they will be talking about that starter which is still being used that was created by one of their relatives many, many years ago.

[Chevyguy]

Thanks for the information Tom, I've been thinking about doing this for the dutch ovens.

Clayton

[mctmatt]

It really is easy to do and just remember you need a warm room of at least 70 degrees are higher to get the starter active. Since you live in Oregon Clayton you will be interested to know you can an original 1847 Oregon Trail Starter for free at http://www.carlsfriends.org basically you just send a self addressed stamped envelope and the starter comes in a dried form flakes with instructions on how to reactivate. I wanted to create my own and so I did not do this, but at some point I might. I did pour a small amount of my starter onto some waxed paper one time and let it dry. The next day I just folded up the wax paper with the dried on starter and stored it for about 3 weeks. I did not know if it would reactivate, but low and behold I poured a little warm water onto the dried starter flakes with just a little sugar and it activated with no problems.

[Alacrity59]

I failed dismally the last time I tried this. Time to try again. Great post.

[_JP_]

I've simplified the process greatly. Two cups flour, two cups warm water, and a couple teaspoons of dried yeast. Let 'er rip for two days, at which point it has soured and is ready to use. Feed as needed with equal parts water and flour.

Or, you make process as involved as you want and experiment with all sorts of variations.

[Alacrity59]

I've been trying to catch the wild yeast from the air

[mctmatt]

I used the sourdough starter last Saturday to make a few sourdough pizza crust. They turned out excellent and in one of the recipe I used a little beer and man did that starter blossom it was great. The recipe was : 1 1/2 cup of Sourdough Starter (substitute 1/2 cup of starter for 1/2 cup of beer for the sourdough beer crust)

1 1/2 cup of bread flour or all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
mix together and then knead the dough and let rest for just 30 minutes or you can let rise which will take about 2 or 3 hours or until it has doubled in size. Roll out dough and you can Pre-bake dough in oven set at 450 degree for 3 to 5 minutes then pull out drizzle more olive oil onto crust and load with favorite toppings place back in oven at 450 degree and bake. I usually start watching mine real close around the 15 min mark.

[mctmatt]

With the recent sourdough threads I decided to bring this post back to life as others might enjoy it. My original sourdough starter began actually in 2003 and I kept it up until 2005 at which time I dried 2 1/2 cups onto wax paper by spreading it real thin. Then I scrapped off the flakes and sealed them with my Vaccu Sealer and gave it as Xmas gifts to my sisters and nieces. Well in 2007 my sister still had hers and gave it back to me. I used the dried flakes to restart the above starter. It worked great. The above instruction on creating your very own starter is the original starter. I reactivated the dried flakes with warm bottled spring water and sugar with just a little flour. The mixture was active and full of nice bubbles within 20 minutes without adding any additional yeast.

[YetiDave]

It's interesting reading the various different techniques that people use to catch and cultivate those wild yeasts and bacteria the starter I used was really simple - in a clean jar add 20g of plain flour, 20g of wholemeal (it tends to contain more of the wild yeasts and lactobacillus than white flour) and 40ml of water, mix well and put the lid on the jar and leave it on the counter. After 24 hours throw away about half then top up with the same ratio of wholemeal, plain and water, mix and repeat this process every 12 hours for the next week or two. I ended up with a very useable starter within a week and I've had it going for a couple of months now, keeping it in the fridge and feeding it every few days

[mctmatt]

I feed mine now about once a month. It will get some dark water on the top which is called Hooch. I use to pour it off then stir my starter, but now I just stir it up pour a 1 and 1/2 cups into a clean container then add 1 and 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup of warm water and sometimes a little sugar. It begins to start bubbling in less than 2 minutes and the smell is wonderful. I let it sit at room tempt for 24 hrs. Within 12 hrs I will repeat the above process pouring out 1 and 1/2 cup and pour out or use the remaining if I choose to bake a pizza or something that evening. I re-feed the 1 and 1/2 cups of starter and let it sit for the remaining 12 hrs then I stir it down put the lid on very loose and put back in the fridge. I try to keep at least 3 cups of Starter in the container at all times as a lot of recipes call for at least 1 to 2 cups of Starter. Take a look at this link it is some good info. http://www.sourdoughhome.com/starterprimer.html

[Deltaboy]

My mother got sour dough starter that goes back to her Greatgrandmother who got is going in 1950.

[mctmatt]

My mother got sour dough starter that goes back to her Greatgrandmother who got is going in 1950.

Now that is a treasured heirloom and I hope you keep it going. I bet it makes wonderful sourdough bread.

[zethreal]

Do you have any sourdough bread recipes that use this starter? I've made "Amish Friendship Bread", but never sourdough. This does sound interesting though!

[YetiDave]

Do you have any sourdough bread recipes that use this starter? I've made "Amish Friendship Bread", but never sourdough. This does sound interesting though!

Any sourdough can be made from any starter, but I've had really great success with this recipe http://artisanbreadbaking.com/bread/sourdough/

[Deltaboy]

Now that is a treasured heirloom and I hope you keep it going. I bet it makes wonderful sourdough bread.

It does Momma make hot rolls and sourdough Loafs. It is a family treasure.

[fchan]

Thanks for posting this. I tried a few years back with moderate success but the work involved was not worth the yield. I've had more practice lately and can make a great loaf of bread so maybe its time to revisit making my own starter :)

[FunnyHoney]

Every Sunday, I make sourdough pancakes and that allows me to feed the starter once a week. It's a nice schedule. My wife calls it "my pet".

[the_edski]

I always tell myself I have to try this, time to write a note! P.s...when I hear "bread starter", I automatically think of this passage from "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Don't click if you dislike harsh language.
Link

[macjager]

We made a sourdough starter back in 1996 using organic grapes water flour etc and it's been going since. We dried it several times before moving, and it seemed to come back even stronger. The recipe we used for this starter and for bread comes from the La Brea bakery bread book, once you have mastered the recipes (and the sourdough starter has had a few weeks of feeding...and throwing the book down the stairs to teach it who is the master...) the breads are fantastic. To anyone contemplating making a starter and then baking from it, I wholeheartedly recommend that you give it a try.
On a related note, you can purchase old sourdough starters on the Internet from places like the Middle East etc, which have a very long history with sour dough starters.

Cheers

george

[fchan]

Thanks for the recipe George. If I have to start fresh again, I will try the grapes and flour method.

After a bit of reading, I found that whole grain flour is also great to start a starter with. The reason behind that is there are more microorganisms in the whole grain flour. The idea is to do the first 5 or so feedings with whole grain flour and then phase out to white flour to wean off adding unwanted new organisms to the mix.

So far its gone 100x easier than the first try I had with just white flour, water, and sugar. The skins in the grapes from your recipe would also have the wild yeasts tp make a good starter too.