I am forming a new starter from scratch and I'm puzzled as to what stage it is in to be quite honest. I started with a combination of 25g organic all purpose flour, 25g potato flakes, and 1 cup of warm water. I am using the steps described in the easy beginner method as described (the one that everyone refers beginners to).
I am on day four and fed it 50g of flour and 50g of potato flakes with 1 2/3 cups water. I was seeing a good rise on day 3 already. It has been 7 hours and I'm already seeing hooch on the top.
Any ideas to help a guy out?
Thanks
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Hello Enderwiggen,
According to your recipe you are adding 100g of dry and about 400g water so your hydration is very low. This probably explains the separation of solid and liquid you are getting (I doubt that it is 'hooch').
SourDoms method calls for 100% hydration, which means that for 100g dry, you should only be adding about one third cup of water plus a tablespoon. It is also much better to weigh all ingredients as volume measures are notoriously unreliable unless done very carefully and in a particular way.
Also, is there any particular reason for adding the potato flakes? Most just use flour. And it seems that if you use a proportion of rye flour, particularly when starting a culture, it seems to give things a kick along.
I would recommend that you follow SourDom's method exactly.
Here's hoping you soon have success (as I am sure you will).
Farinam
I originally did it by weight using a scale, but because the potato flakes were so dehydrated it made something that was akin to an extremely thick and dry paste. I decided to increase the amount of water until I could get it to the consistency described. I went home and checked on it just now and it has risen about 30% in the past few hours. DEFINITE ACTIVITY from the yeasty beasties! :)
When I feed it this next time I'll definitely put in less moisture though just to see what it does. There's just no way the original flaky paste would have had enough moisture. It actually crumbled when touched.
I'm using the potato flakes because I'm more familiar with potato based starters. My most successful starter was given to me from a mother starter that's about 10 years old. It's actually more of a liquid than a paste. It definitely has a 'lava lamp' effect to it when fed because its primarily sugar, potato flakes, and water.
I originally did it by weight using a scale, but because the potato flakes were so dehydrated it made something that was akin to an extremely thick and dry paste. I decided to increase the amount of water until I could get it to the consistency described. I went home and checked on it just now and it has risen about 30% in the past few hours. DEFINITE ACTIVITY from the yeasty beasties! :)
When I feed it this next time I'll definitely put in less moisture though just to see what it does. There's just no way the original flaky paste would have had enough moisture. It actually crumbled when touched.
I'm using the potato flakes because I'm more familiar with potato based starters. My most successful starter was given to me from a mother starter that's about 10 years old. It's actually more of a liquid than a paste. It definitely has a 'lava lamp' effect to it when fed because its primarily sugar, potato flakes, and water.
You all are making it much more difficult than I found it to be. All this measuring and precision is not needed. The potato flakes really had my stumped. I have heard of using different flours to get different flavors for different breads, but not much else.
The simple of it is to first use a clean container. I don't know why anybody would have to say it should be clean, but just in case we are assuming to much, make sure it is clean
There are so many threads, and so many experts on the subject of starters. I found that making a mixture of flour to water of the consistency of thick pancake dough, the kind that would leave a thick coating on a spoon after being dipped and raised. Is a good start.
Next, place a loose cover over the bowl, and stick it in a warm location. Warm is all relative, so I would say that 80F is warm, but even a little warmer would be ok.
Check it each day. Do this my opening the container and stirring the mixture. Add a little flour, and a few drops of water to maintain the appearance of moist goo. in a day or two, or three you will see bubbles as you stir. Those bubbles are the start of your starter. It is still very young so check it each day by stirring and feeding it. Keep the consistency pretty constant. Soon you will smell the sour and know you are on the right track, and just keep stirring and feeding each day. You soon will have a very nice starter that will only get better with time.
Read my notes on another thread for beginners, of which I am. I got impatient, and soon realized that my starter wasn't being kept warm enough. There is a level of warmth that will put your starter on the fast track, if it is too cold, meaning not real warm, it will move really slow and might make you think that nothing is happening. I warmed my Tupperware bowl of starter by putting on my DSL modem and it kicked into high gear. I could make a starter in my sleep now that I understand what I am doing.
Also, know that your starter may not show the bubbles so well until you stir. The only way you see lots of bubbles, and a fast rising is when you start off with yeast. You don't need to do that, just know that you will get off to a slow start, and may have doubts by lack of visual activity. The visual activity will be obvious as you stir each day.
Good luck with the potato starter. It can happen, but I don't know why anybody would do it.
Joe
In NZ you can sometimes be lucky to get Rewena, which I suppose is a sourdough started with Potato, so check out this site out from Kai and check out her website http://curiouskai.blogspot.com/2007/01/rewena-bread-beginning.html
"After persistent badgering and negotiation (with absurd promises made on my part of producing grandchildren within the next five years), my mother very kindly showed me how to make rewena bread, a Maori favourite. Rewena paraoa (potato bread) tastes sweet and has a slight sour/tang flavour to it, a result of the long period of fermentation it undergoes. A bug or starter is created a few days before the actual baking of the bread, using flour, water, sugar and potato (the potato serving as the leavening agent). This is left to ferment which, when finally added to the rest of the bread ingredients to make dough, produces a wonderfully textured, flavoursome loaf."
the blog goes on to show how to do it with pictures
cheers Doughgirl