# Help



## joshs (May 5, 2010)

I started another sourdough starter. It looked good for 2 days. Them today it is all runny I stired it up once today and it looks that way again. Any ideals?


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## hog warden (May 5, 2010)

Josh:

Take a look at this thread I put together on starting a starter:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=88451

If you follow along, you can get one going. The breads in the pictures are all from starters I started myself. Whole wheat or rye flours and pineapple juice to start with are the keys to success.

On the other hand, on a whim, I decided to order some dried starters from commercial sources. They work better right off. Much better. If you want to go at it with something you know works, a week from now you can have fully established starter ready to bake with. 

Carls, KA, Sourdough International, Breadtopia or Northwest Sourdough are some options.


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## hog warden (May 5, 2010)

To expand on my previous post.....take a look at these. Five days ago, I activated commercial starter. At the same time, to test a theory, I mixed up some white flour and water only. Commercial starter on the left.  On the right, a mix of the same white flour and water. 






Both went nuts after 24 hours, but the flour and water developed a middle layer of some kind of gunk.......NOT hooch. Smelled great though. Kind of a cross between butter and butterscotch. A day later, it went dead and never recovered. 

The commercial start has been going great and getting better every day. In fact, today at noon I mixed up some dough for a loaf to bake tomorrow. After a 6 hour proof at room temperatures, it looks like this:



This will get baked in the morning.

Yes you can make your own, but none of the starters I made behaves or tastes like this. No more expensive than they are, you will save a lot of time and effort buying a starter, and have a better product to boot.


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## walle (May 6, 2010)

Josh, add about a 1/4 cup of flour to it - it should be fine.  If it activated, then you just need to figure out the balance of flour/water.

Stop babying it!  It's just germs anyway


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