Sourdough starter!

[ZenDaddy]

I learned how to make a simple wild yeast sourdough starter without commercial yeast today. I will be making my first loaf of bread from my wheat storage utilizing nothing but my starter and a bit of salt and sugar and BACON grease in a day or two! I am so excited I could butter something!! I know it is a small skill, but I am happy to have it in the old bag of tricks.

I will post pics of the finished product.

Any hints or tricks from the pro's?

EDIT: here is a link to the ultra simple recipe I used!

[AK4me]

How does it smell?

[ZenDaddy]

How does it smell?

Oh man! Sour yeasty beerific goodness!

[exklusve]

I've had luck with putting a pie tin with some water in it, below your bread while baking. Helps keep the humidity up to keep the crust softer.
As a kid I had some starter that I kept going for two years. Good stuff. I am interested about making it without commerical yeast.

Please update us when you start making bread!

[junko p]

I definitely want to see pics of the final product! I tried ginger beer with store bought starter and with homemade/harvested starter. Neither were particularly good...

Good luck, that is a great project!

[ZenDaddy]

I definitely want to see pics of the final product! I tried ginger beer with store bought starter and with homemade/harvested starter. Neither were particularly good...

Good luck, that is a great project!

Ahh beer. Thats why we have grain after all isn't it? I had a batch o brew go horribly wrong when my airlock clogged and the lid blew clean off my bucket of wart. I assume wild yeast set up housekeeping. I finished the batch but shouldn't of. That was some sad nasty beer. I should keep a good ale yeast colony in the fridge next to the sourdough start! Talk about a valuable post apocalypse bartering skill.

Anyway, here is sourdough "Doug" on day three.

mmmmmmmm yeasty!

[Got Stuff?]

I have a chest freezer I use for storage. Once, in that freezer, I found some starter that I forgot I had.....probably 3 years old.

Didn't turn out as good as a $6 loaf from a prime bakery but if I would have been in a bad situation.......I surely would have been glad to have it!

[exklusve]

Did you ever bake this? Got any pics?

[ZenDaddy]

Yes Ive made several loaves! Unfortunately my digital camera took a powder and has not been replaced yet

They have been wonderful! My family devourers them faster than I make them. I even baked sourdough rolls for Thanksgiving from this starter that were incredible! I will post a series from sponge to finished product as soon as I replace my camera.

It is very cool that you can make good bread with pretty much nothing but wheat and the natural yeast and bacteria that lives on it! The salt, sugar, and oil are all just flavor and texture enhancers.

[Dubious_Beans]

Mmmm! If you've got a good starter, take good care of it and use it often!

It's been some years since I played the sourdough game but one of my favorite things was always home made sourdough English Muffins. Baked on a pan and all that...

Hmm. I might just have to catch me a fresh starter one of these days and get back into it. I LOVE good sourdough.

Congrats on your catch. Use it often to keep it in good shape.

[Eljay]

I used to do that and the only real issue is that if you don't cook with it occasionally it'll eventually have issues. In theory you can basically throw some out and keep feeding it but it sort of becomes no fun. So you're basically signed on to bake something fairly often for as long as you're interested. The good news is that apparently the stuff freezes which I didn't realize at the time - I know somebody who only bakes seasonally and she just freezes it for the rest of the year.

I've been thinking about trying it again - it's fun and the results are good.

[devilinblack]

The starter can also be dried out and keeps pretty well that way.

[problemchild]

You have to feed it with a fresh cup of dough when you make bread or once per month. Also if it turns gray or orange its bad.

[ZenDaddy]

I tried to read as many recipes and instructions as I could re the creation and subsequent care and feeding of a sourdough start. There are many different approaches and variations of opinion out there. The following excerpt seems to cover the commonalities and has proved itself (to me anyway).

Evidently as long as the starter is behaving properly and smells good, yeasty and beery, the color is not so important.

I read that both freezing and drying will essentially stop the destructive bacteria and put the yeast to "sleep", the start can then be revived by simply following the first steps of these instructions. i.e. flour and water feeding once a day for a few days until it behaves well then refrigerating or drying or freezing again.

Refrigeration slows the yeast down and inhibits the bacterial growth thus reducing the need to feed to once a week or so. I read many different opinions on how often to feed the start. What it boils down to, I believe, is that the yeast is hard to kill.

The start can even be kept at room temperature indefinitely as long as it gets fed once or twice a day. This is self evident since sourdough existed long before refrigeration.

The symbiotic balance of yeast and Lactobacillus keeps bad bacteria at bay and makes bread delicious!

The Basics By S. John Ross

Sourdough bread is bread made without added yeast. By making a "starter" in which wild yeast can grow, the sourdough baker can raise bread naturally, as mankind did for thousands and thousands of years before a packet of yeast was an available convenience at the local market.

To become a sourdough baker, all you need are some basic ingredients (flour, water, salt, and sugar), some basic tools (a mixing bowl, an oven, and a baking sheet), and a basic interest.

There are only a few simple steps to becoming a sourdough baker. To begin, create a starter (a bubbly batter you keep in your fridge). By adding the starter to dough, you can make it rise. Bake and serve. Yum!

Creating Your Starter

The novel thing about sourdough baking is that it requires that you keep something alive in your fridge. I think of my starter as a pet, kept and fed so that Sandra and I will have all the bread we need. Sourdough "starter" is a batter of flour and water, filled with living yeast and bacteria. The yeast and bacteria form a stable symbiotic relationship, and (as long as you keep the starter fed) can live for centuries, a thriving colony of microorganisms. To make sourdough bread, you blend the starter with some flour and make dough. The yeast propogates, and leavens your bread. This is how you make your starter:

Select a container that your "pet" will live in. A wide-mouthed glass jar is best. I use a glass jar with a rubber and wireframe seal; you can find these for $2-$4 in any antique or junk shop. A small crock with a loose lid is also great; these can be bought in cheap sets for serving soup. You can also use a rubbermaid or tupperware container. I've begun starters using the plastic containers that take-out Chinese soup comes in, and then transferred them to jars later! A wide-mouthed mayonnaise or pickle jar will also do just fine. Metallic containers are a bad idea; some of them are reactive and can ruin your starter (for the same reason, avoid using metal utensils to stir your starter).
Blend a cup of warm water and a cup of flour, and pour it into the jar. That's the whole recipe! I use plain, unbleached bread flour most of the time, but I've had good results with all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, too. If you want, you can add a little commercial yeast to a starter to "boost" it. If you do this, sourdough snobs will look down their nose at you - but who cares about snobs? I personally find that (at least here where I live) no yeast "boost" is necessary, and I can make "real" sourdough with no trouble. But if you are having trouble, go ahead and cheat. I won't tell. Note that starter made with commercial yeast often produces a bread with less distinctive sour flavor than the real thing.
Every 24 Hours, Feed the Starter. You should keep the starter in a warm place; 70-80 degrees Farenheit. This allows the yeast already present in the flour (and in the air) to grow rapidly. Temperatures hotter than 100 degrees or so will kill it. You can take comfort from the fact that almost nothing else will do so. The way you feed the starter is to (A) throw away half of it and then (B) add a half-cup of flour and a half-cup of water. Do this every 24 hours. Within three or four days (it can take longer, a week or more, and it can happen more quickly) you should start getting lots of bubbles throughought, and a pleasant sour or beery smell. The starter may start to puff up, too. This is good. Here's the gist: When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done. You have succeeded. If this sounds brain-dead simple, that's because it is. People who didn't believe the Earth was round did this for millenia.
Refrigerate the Starter. Keep the starter in your fridge, with a lid on it. Allow a little breathing space in the lid. If you're using a mayo or pickle jar, punch a hole in the lid with a nail, that kind of thing. Once the starter is chilled, it needs to be fed only once a week. Realistically, you can get away with less; it's important to remember that your starter is a colony of life-forms that are almost impossible to kill (except with extreme heat). Even starving them is difficult.
Care and Feeding: Hooch

Aside from weekly feeding, the only other thing you need to worry about is hooch. Hooch is a layer of watery liquid (often dark) that contains alchohol. It smells a bit like beer, because it is a bit like beer - but don't drink it! Hooch builds up in your starter, especially in the fridge. Just pour it off or stir it back in. It doesn't hurt anything. If your starter is looking dry, stir it back in. If your starter is plenty wet, pour it off. Just remember that hooch is nothing to worry about!

[grymster]

I made some many years ago. This has me wanting to try again.