# Sourdough Starter...thinking about trying it - have quesitons



## sandyut (Jun 15, 2020)

Does anyone maintain a sourdough starter?  I love sourdough bread.  I read up on the process of making one, seems like a lot of work for a week then just a weekly feeding?  Does that sound about right?  Does homemade starter really make sourdough bread that taste like the one the store bakery produces?


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## BrianGSDTexoma (Jun 15, 2020)

I make one or 2 loafs every 4 weeks or so.  After baking I have about 50 grams of starter left.  I will feed it 25 flour and 25 water few days before plan on baking than add what ever I need to bring up to the level I need for the recipe the morning I am going to bake and leave it on the counter.   I started out doing it every week and than got lazy.  Seems to work for me.  Just keep some dried starter in the freezer for emergency.  Check out Foodbod youtube channel.

Her process


recipe
https://foodbodsourdough.com/the-process/


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## bregent (Jun 15, 2020)

sandyut said:


> Does anyone maintain a sourdough starter? I love sourdough bread. I read up on the process of making one, seems like a lot of work for a week then just a weekly feeding?



After maintaining starters in the traditional way for about 20 years, I switched to this simpler method over a year ago and don't see a reason to ever switch back. It essentially comes down to feeding the starter once every two months.








						No Muss No Fuss Starter
					

I thought I would make a post on how I keep my starter for those who have an interest in doing the same. My method is based on several wants. First, I don’t want to maintain or feed a starter for up to 16 weeks. Second, I want to keep as small amount of starter as possible so that I can bake a...




					www.thefreshloaf.com
				






sandyut said:


> Does homemade starter really make sourdough bread that taste like the one the store bakery produces?



As good or better.


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## sandyut (Jun 15, 2020)

WOW!  that loaf looks killer!  we are renovating our kitchen and the new oven should be ridiculously cool.  cant wait to bake more.  the old was ok...but very old.

Ill read over the link and see if I can figure this out.


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## forktender (Jun 15, 2020)

I've kept a starter for a few yrs now I did one by the book feeding it twice a day with equal parts flour and h2o.
Then one day with the portion that I normally discarded when the jar got too full I decided to try a new way, I call it ''My way"

My way is 2 to 3 heaping table spoons of organic flour and 1-2 oz / I don't measure it I just add a few  glugs of bottled water now because I know the consistency after doing it for so long. Then I store it in the refer and feed it every month or two. I've found that it is exactly the same as the starter that I babied on the counter.

I can't kill the stuff, I've let it go in the refer for almost 3 months and after taking it out of the refer it springs back to life within 1 to 2 "my way" feedings.  It's great because I don't have to weigh out or measure anything now, you can't get any easier. 



 sandyut

 Would you like some of my  dried rescue starter? I'd be more than happy to send to some which will have you making sourdough in 2-3 days max. Just shoot me a P/M with your address and I'll send you some out.

Then all you have to do is add to a 1/4- 1/2 cup of unbleached/Bromated flour and some bottled or well water into a Ball Qt jar. With in a day or two you'll have a nice and healthy sourdough starter of your own. All I ask is that after you dry up your rescue batch that you offer to send it to the next person interested in making up a sourdough starter/ pay it forward.

Dan


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## Winterrider (Jun 15, 2020)

It's interesting but just kinda lost on it also. May at some time give it a try.


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## sandyut (Jun 16, 2020)

forktender said:


> Would you like some of my dried rescue starter?


Absolutely!  Ill reach out after I have a kitchen.  we are barely hangin in there with no reak kitchen during the renovation.  should be a month or so.


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## forktender (Jun 17, 2020)

Winterrider said:


> It's interesting but just kinda lost on it also. May at some time give it a try.


If I can keep a starter alive and well anybody can.
Basically you take a clean jar, I use a 1 qt Ball jar, weigh the jar on  a gram scale and write the weight on the jar with a Sharpie, you'll need the weight of the jar later until you  dial  the weight in.

#1-First step is  to pop 4-6 holes into the lid using a drill or a small nail.

#2- Buy some organic unbleached All Purpose flour, I use Central Mills or Bob's Red Mills flour.
( It doesn't need to be organic but make sure is isn't Bleached/Bromated  flour).

#3- You'll need a bakers scale or any scale the can weigh out grams.

#4- Weigh out 5 grams of flour and 5 grams of  unchlorinated bottled water or well water if it's drinkable.

#5- Pour the flour and water into the jar and stir it up well and put the lid on it and put it in a warm window seal or on top of your water heater.

#6 - The next day add 5gr water and 5gr flour add it to the jar.

#7- Each day after that you want to pour out half of the flour mixture then weigh the jar to find out how many grams of the flour mixture are in the jar, say it's 10 grams. So to feed the 10 grams you will add 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour and add it to the jar and mix it with the stuff left in the jar.

#8- Repeat this every day for a week, by now it should be rising  after each feeding and dropping after 2-4 hours... if it is you have a sourdough starter going. If not keep feeding it until you get the rise and fall, it can take up to 10 days.

#9- once you have a healthy starter you can place it into the refer for up to 3 weeks without feeding it.
When you need it take it out of the refer 4 to 5 hours/ the night before you need it is best and feed it with.

Basically you feed it by adding the same amount of water and the same amount of flour by weight.

The reason you dump 1/2 is so you aren't wasting as much flour. Pour the waste half onto some wax paper or a cookie sheet and spread it out in a thin layer and let it dry until it's hard then save it for a rescue starter in case yours dies.  To get the rescue starter going you grind it up and start feeding it with fresh flour and water. It should start rising and falling in a day or two.

So you feed is going to equal parts starter, flour, water, so it's 1:1:1 flour , starter and water.


It sounds way more difficult than it is, I've abused my starter and it's always jumped back to life after 1 or 2 feedings. You have to name your  pet/starter, mine is named  "Luigi"or Louie

It's best to use the starter at the top of it's rise when baking or making pizza dough.
I normally feed it about 1.5 hrs before I need it maybe 2 hrs in the winter time when it's colder in the house.
On top of the water heater is a good place to keep your starter during the colder months because it stays pretty warm up there.

If you need any help shoot me a message and I'll give you my phone number.
Honestly it's very, very easy to keep a starter going yr round.

Good luck.
Dan


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## Enzee (Jun 23, 2020)

Hi,

This is my first post here about bread on a smoking meat forum. I have been an avid home baker for 15 years or so and only since January have I been playing with sourdough. One suggestion I would make if you can get some established starter you just fast forwarded a week, as the supply chain and availability can be intermittent. Else take time, the initial creation can be wasteful, but I will get to that shortly.

The starting of it is simple water and flour and time. I discovered the magic of disposable shower caps to cover bowls as I proof dough, and the oven light in an unheated oven seems to get me to the ideal ~80° to proof dough.

I think bread flour is the key, I prefer King Arthur as it has a higher protein content.  But a white sour has the flexibility to morph into other sours (IE rye, whole wheat, Semolina).  You can use regular all-purpose flour in a pinch, I avoid bleached in general.   I feed mine every 7-10 days, and have even frozen and revived some.

That’s starter in a nutshell, once it’s established it’s almost immortal.  Now the process of feeding it need to use or discard the starter or you will exponentially grow it, so I have found making waffles and pancakes for the kids and freezing them is a good use, and keeps them fed through the week.


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## oldsmokerdude (Jun 23, 2020)

There are as many ways to use and feed sourdough starter as there are bakers who use them. I heartily recommend you give it a try and you will find your sourdough bread tastes better than what you get from the bakery. As others have mentioned, it is faster if you can get some starter from someone else to start your own (dried or not), but it is fairly easy to get started from scratch as well.

Personally, I keep mine in the refrigerator, feeding weekly if I haven't used it. Feeding takes less than 5 minutes once you get a process down. 

Once you get an established starter going, there is much more to sourdough than bread. Pancakes, brownies, cookies, bagels, and muffins are just some of the items that come to mind that I've made. 

Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions or need more info.


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## journeymanjohn (Jun 24, 2020)

I also have a question pertaining to this, and hope it isn't considered hijacking. When beginning your own starter, I assume the type of flour will affect the flavor profile.

What about 'where' it is started? By where, I mean next to bananas, vs next to apples, vs next to taters or onions? Do the beginning spores affect the flavoring?


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## Enzee (Jun 24, 2020)

journeymanjohn said:


> I also have a question pertaining to this, and hope it isn't considered hijacking. When beginning your own starter, I assume the type of flour will affect the flavor profile.



Yes, though flours like rye lack gluten like a whole wheat or bread flour. I think most starter would be a AP/bread flour base unless noted otherwise. Now to make a rye or semolina starter you can add the desired flour to some white starter and slowly build up a variant, they usually call for a mix of flours anyways.

Now I am impressed with people who have 100+ year old starters, and I will try those breads, however I don't think they are really much different then a 10-15 year old starter. but a few moth old starter doesn't have they depth or "funk" of a 10 year old starter.

Now, you can adapt a lot of starter once its fed to fit the needs of preferment's ( Biga, Poolish, Pâte) and you could include sponges to generalize it but i'm sure some french baker is snapping a baguette over their knee right now. I regularly make ciabatta with my sour, but I guess its technically not ciabatta, but looks and tastes like one so i'll live with the guilt.



journeymanjohn said:


> What about 'where' it is started? By where, I mean next to bananas, vs next to apples, vs next to taters or onions? Do the beginning spores affect the flavoring?



Not that I have noticed, I am sure if you are in some onion juicing facility you might impart some flavor, but a thriving healthy starter should be able to fend for itself. This process of making a starter is just like brewing beer, Yeast, food for yeast (Flour/sugar) and Water. The by product is alcohol and developing some proteins in the process. The only real difference is wild yeast is nothing close to refined brewers yeast, and brewers yeast usually won't leave a cloudy mess, and is significantly more potent in alcohol production.

Now you can do some interesting thing's like a rye starter aged with some caraway will burn your eyes when you uncover it, but once you bake with the rye and caraway starter it is amazing opposed to a rye starter with caraway added to the dough.  I haven't played too much with that, but would guess hard spices or things in oil would do the same.


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