uk1

I just wanted to share with others the absolute joy of giving birth to my very first succesful and completely natural sourdough starter. No shenanigans. No grape peel. No apple peel. A real natural starter with airborne flora after 10 days or so.

I know this boasting is now going to reward me with a complete flop of a first loaf, but we must always get our joy as and when it first comes! I know it's going to end in tearsbut let me just have this moment to savour before I fail miserably.

Kgmm77

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Uk1 is there any particular reason you went down the route of growing your own versus taking someone else's (other than the challenge of starting from scratch?)

I've been toying with the idea of jumping on the sourdough bandwagon, but frequent travel means I'm worried I won't be able to feed it enough.

uk1

I have bought some starter before but it was a con and totally unnecessary. Let me give you courage. Imagine your own natural grown starter. The article I read debunked everything.

All I did was put a quantity of rye flour into a bowl and added the same quantity of water and mixed it. I put a hotel hair hat over it to keep stuff off but let air in. I did nothing until I saw a bit of action after around .... I dunno .,. about 6 days or so. It started to let off some gasses you could smell. Then I simply added some more flour ...around 50 gms or so and the same amount of water and mixed. From then on, I simply added a bit of both if it looked hungry ie started to quieten after bubbling. I think you could give it a feed and put it in the fridge to sleep a bit when you travel. I reckon it would work a dream. I think the doze would mature and improve flavours and you certainly wouldn't kill it. I've been doing that with my poolish/bigga when making starter for baguettes and pizza and it adds flavour.

All the precise stuff is rubbish. I don't think it is precise at all.

Have a go. It is rewarding. I'm going to let my first loaf mature for a day or two. I'm sure it will tell me when It's ready to be baked. I'm going to use steam.

Kgmm77

Many thanks. I'm travelling for a few weeks in October but I think I'll give it a go upon my return. I really do like the taste of sourdough.

gfunkdave

I'm intrigued. How do you know that the critters who have taken up residence in there aren't poisonous/going to make you sick? Or is that not even a concern and I should stop being silly?

What do you do to turn this starter into bread?

SuperDudley

Awesome. Please send me some bread.


Nothing better then hot sourdough bread with butter.

chgoeditor

See this for an explanation.

uk1

It is exactly like yeast. It just starts to bubble and expand. It produces a slightly sour smell. Adding quantity to the flour to make bread is just trial and error at first, but basically the less you add the longer it takes to rise and therefore it produces greater flavour. Obviously baking stops and kills the little critters!

I tried some of the other methods using grapes or apples but it always ended in tears. I also use to seed the starter with a few grains of yeast but it isn't the same. I still do that (before this starter) if I'm having some pizza in a few days. Starting from scratch with just flour and water and being patient has been really easy. I'm surprised that so much myth has surrounded it.

Obviously I still haven't actually produced a loaf yet, but things are looking pretty good!

uk1

stut

Nice!

I have a culture that sadly just died due to neglect (blame a holiday in Sri Lanka). But I think it's time to start up a new one along your lines - that kilner jar is looking rather lonely.

If it helps, this recipe has done me really well:

The 150/190/150 mix gives a really nice texture - but the it's up to you how close or consistent you like it (I know a lot of people prefer sourdough to have a much more open texture!)

uk1

Thanks.

Can you just explain the quantities please? Is that starter or bread? I'm having some trouble remembering flour to water hydration rates for my bread!

I have a box on the garage with kilners, but with the benefit of hindsight, isn't a pyrex bowl with hotel hat better? It's about surface area exposure to natural flora?

Ta.

stut

Sorry, missed a key line when I was c&p-ing...

150/190/150 is the ratio of starter/water/flour when you refresh - the actual values depend on the amount of starter you are actually refreshing (which could be all of it if you're not baking).

You refresh the whole lot each time, adding new flour and water (well, you can throw some out, but adding refreshed sourdough to dormant sourdough doesn't really work). You then take the 290g sponge (or whatever factor of that) you need for a batch, and replace the rest in the fridge.

I'd say that for an established sourdough, a kilner jar is a good option. You want to keep it as dormant as possible while it's between bakes/refreshes, so it should be sealed and in the fridge - otherwise you risk it producing too much alcohol and killing itself. But you also don't want it to explode/buckle, which is a risk with Lock & Lock. It'll generally keep for 3 weeks like that - but it's worth draining off the fluid as it appears. After 3 weeks you need a refresh.

The pain de campagne from that recipe is delicious - the little bit of rye flour gives an extra dimension to the flavour without making the dough unworkable. It does need a proving basket, however (unless you're using a tin) as the dough isn't strong enough to self-support.

uk1

Thanks for your efforts!

I can see a number of 150/190/150 ie 490 and then a number of 290 sponge. I'm confused.

I bought the baskets, but I'm afraid that I got in a real mess and they are also in the garage. I'll try again.

stut

The 150/190/150 is just a ratio - but the idea in that case would be that you create 490g refreshing dough. After 12h, you take the 290g sponge, and put the remaining 200g back in the jar. If you don't have some left over, you won't have any left for next time!

Then you have 200g left over, and can choose, when you're refreshing, whether you want to refresh 150g next time, or use the 200g, match it with 200g flour, and up it to 253(ish)g water. And your sourdough quantity would keep growing...

If you get in a mess with the baskets (I've got some compressed fibre ones that work great, and are only slightly reminiscent of hospital sick buckets) remember that rubbing flour in will pretty much always get any mess out...

rsqrott

OP, I's like to congratulate you on that gorgeous starter! I have always been afraid to attempt my own. I keep having visions of the detritus that will end up in the starter no matter how carefully I cover the bowl. You'll let us know how the bread comes out? Please?

While I am very much a fan of all kinds of hot bread (with butter) and sourdough is extra special there is something better. I wanted to be clever and insert a link but I can't find one...I know that my little hometown in Italy can't be the only place that makes this.

It's bread with fatback. You chop up the fatback and render it down until most of the fat is gone and pretty much only the crispy pork remains. You then mix that lovingly and thoroughly into a lump of French bread dough then bake until the loaf is golden and as tall as an Easter hat. Hot out of the oven this bread is pure bliss.

But nowhere near as pretty as a fresh loaf of sourdough (or the OP's starter )