Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Sane Sourdough: The Starter
I was kind of hoping no one would ask me how to make a starter for sourdough, because I didn't actually make ours. A. made it many years ago now. I think about eight years ago, but I can't really remember.
He started it because he had read that some people who have trouble digesting wheat-flour bread (which in our house at the time included both A. and the MiL) are okay with sourdough.
Now, because it was A. in the kitchen, he was not about to get involved in anything finicky or detailed. The MiL looked up a lot of information about sourdough and found all that stuff about feeding and discarding and all, and A. responded something along the lines of,"That's stupid. I guarantee you no one crossing the prairie in 1870 was throwing out flour."
So he used the method that we found in Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking, an immensely practical book the MiL gave me for Christmas at my request many years ago.
Here is that method:
Day 1: Choose a large airtight jar that will hold at least 2 quarts--a glass jar is fine. Put 1/4 cup of tepid (not hot) pure spring water (my note: I think filtered tap water is okay, too, you just don't want municipal water with chlorine in it) and 1/4 cup of flour into the jar. Stir well, close the jar, and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 2-5: Add 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup flour every day, stir well, close, and leave at room temperature.
It should be ready to go by Day 6.
An important change A. made, though, was that he did not cover the jar so it was airtight. He just covered it with a cloth secured with a rubber band, under the assumption that you need to give the wild yeasts in the air access to your starter.
He put it on top of the refrigerator, which is a nice warm spot.
To be fair, the kitchen at Blackrock--a damp, 1860s farmhouse--almost certainly has a larger-than-average colony of wild yeasts hanging around. I have never tried doing this in New Mexico, but I think it would be much harder to start a starter here in this arid, cleaner climate.
Anyway. That's what he did, should you wish to try it yourself. And if you do, please let me know if it works. (Or doesn't.)
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8 comments:
Thanks for the info. I'll have to try this. I have never made sourdough bread from scratch.
Linda
last year i saw SO MANY wild yeasts on my tap holes at the end of the season, i decided to try sourdough sometime.
and now it's sometime.
i started mine with smaller quantities and on days when i DO discard, i make a little flatbread or something.
but yeah. it turns out yeast are super easy to catch, and also they live in milled flour. they hang out there in their dormant state, waiting for good conditions. tomorrow i might start making an actual bread. it's very exciting.
What flour are you using? Bread flour or all-purpose white flour?
I'm having trouble finding flour where I live. Right now I'm using a combination of white bread flour and whole wheat and sometimes dark rye. Going to have to give up bread baking or switch to all- purpose white. That is still avaliable one to a customer in 5 lb bags.
Weird times we live in.
Sheila: I use white all-purpose. I've never tried bread flour.
Good to know that AP flour works too. Thank you.
I plead guilty as the one who asked how to make the starter. Sorry about that! But I just knew you'd have a much less complicated way to do it than all of the things I was finding online, and I was right, so thank you! I'm on day 2 following your (or I guess really your husband's) method. Fingers crossed!
Chris: Yay! I so hope it works for you. I didn't mind telling you how my starter was made, it just required a bit more investigation because I didn't do it myself. And I am lazy. :-) But now the complete process is all there, so that's a good thing. Thank you.
I cheated and used a packet of dried starter from Bob's Red Mill. We bought it a year ago when we visited their mill near Portland. We forgot about it until this lock down and stumbled upon it in the back of the cupboard when we were doing a clean out. It worked great, but I was beginning to get sick of feeding it after 3 weeks (and figuring out daily what to do with the discard). Wasn't going to through it out when it's almost impossible to find flour. Glad to read your simplified version of bread baking. It was very helpful. I'm going to started chilling "Kenny" in the frig and not feed the hungry beast everyday.
Yes, we named the starter after the Southpark character. The one that they kill every episode, but he always comes back to life for the next show.
The bread and the other baked goods made from the discard have been fantastic! Loving sourdough and going to love it more now that I can bring some sanity to keeping Kenny alive.
Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.
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