I began a starter almost two weeks ago following methods on this site, except for the rye flour. I used a 50/50 white and whole wheat. Everything seemed to be working as normal and he/she/it seemed alive. There was always an indication of yeast activity, not real active bubbling but enough to convince me it was trying to live, especially after a feeding. As I said it always showed some activityl and a nice aroma leading me to think that it was alive though it never had any rise of doubling as expected. Being somewhat frugal(pay no attention to the woman in the background yelling Cheap. She is deranged)I thought maybe the room was too cold though it has been on or near the oven during use at times. Now all activity has seemingly quit and the starter is as calm and slick as a pond on a calm morning. Is it time to lay this one to rest and start over?? Help appreciated
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Where are you located? Texas? And what's the temperature? I have yet to keep mine in the fridge, but I tend to feed it at least once a day unless I am growing some for a build.
I have two, one rye that I built from the unbleached white and the unbleached white flour. Both are just straight with no other ingredients and no other type of flour just the one for the white and one for the rye, no mixed flours. My recipe comes from http://www.sourdoughhome.com/starterprimer.html There are other recipes out there, but this one works beautifully, and the rye so far seems to give me a better crumb (the rye recipe I modified from the Wild Sourdough book published in Australia).
What is the temperature in your kitchen generally, how often do you feed it, and what is the ratio of water to flour? And what else are you including in the starter mixture? I reserve the right to judge your starter dead. I hate to throw away something that can be saved, especially since this takes work and you don't relish starting over.
For reference, my starters contain 1 parts water to 1.5 parts flour, and I keep it in quart mason jars so it has a chance to expand and grow and I can see the progress with a very little amount of flour (something like 1/8 cup so I don't have to waste flour to starter when I can save it for the bread and the buld.)
Here's hoping you can save it.
I may have jumped the gun. I remembered that yesterday I dropped in a pinch of yeast to see if I could help things along. Seems to abe successful. So today when it was time for a feed I decided to used what I would normally discaard as a poolish for recipe I had just found for a buttermilk white loaf. Used the starter I would normally discard plus without really thinking added the wet ingredients from the recipe plus the flour and yeast called for. Did not really give the starter an honest attempt to try and work as it should. Oh, by the way it did have a rise after the pinch of yeast added. So anyway I had a vry wet dough that I finally got into workable condition and made three loaves of b read. I don't think this would actually count as my first sourdough loaf since I used the yeast for the recipe but if it added anything to it it was a very nice and flavorful loaf. Some people are going to have a couple of nice loafs for a gift.
Yep I'm in Texas and the weather is typically Texas 35deg one day 76 the next. I think my kitchen is around 70 or so most of the time.
I Feed once a day and usually 1 cup for 1 cup. I added a pinch of yeast to it yesterday and so today I did have a nice rise and double. Used my discard to as a poolish for a buttermilk white bread I found but without thinking followed the whole recipe so ended up with a very wet dough that took some work to be workable. It turned out great though and have a real nice flavor. I think the starter may turn out to be OK. Maybe the pinch of yeast may have helped it along. I don't think I will be able to claim these as my first sourdough loafs though.
Thanks for the comments and I may eventually try one with they rye flour. Thanks again
Your welcome. I haven't ever tried to add commercial yeast to my starter, even if the recipe calls for it, I usually convert. In facti have been converting most of the bread recipes I use as there are very few books that don't call for commercial yeast, so I thrive on the conversion challenge and i have created a binder of recipes.
I am curious as to what commercial yeast does chemically, but I enjoy the taste and challenge of a completely from scratch recipe, but I'm a nerd like that.
Congratulations. If you ever do a completely without commercial yeast recipe, I would love to hear what happens. Best and please keep feeding the starter, depending on the weather, sometimes it's very slow but between 60 and 80 degrees F, it's prety forgiving.
Mike
Hi westexan
You're right - if you add commercial yeast to a starter, you're no longer making true sourdough bread. Sure, the dry yeast spike will give the starter a kick along, but it will be mostly just fuelled by the spike. I can't recall the science exactly - if I ever knew it - but basically, the commercial and wild yeast strains are different.. I see it as a bit like GM crops - once a non-GM field has cross-pollinated with the GM grain, the whole crop is GM-corrupted. If it were me, I'd start again, but that's not a recommendation. It's up to you. In time, if you continue to feed your current starter you'll get enough wild yeast to regenerate itself with feeding, I guess...in which case, it's the real deal.
OK, to your starter. If your average ambient temp is 70F, I'd suggest you feed your starter twice daily, rather than once. Secondly, at the moment you're not following SourDom's recommended ratio with your feeding. You're adding equal parts flour and water by volume, not weight. Try following his directions precisely and weigh equal parts flour and water, which will mean you're building a 100% hydration starter.
No doubt your white/wholewheat flour mix will work fine, but I found that using the 30% constituent of quality whole-grain rye flour SourDom recommends made all the difference when I was getting my first starter happening. There's something especially energising about that rye component IMO.
Best of luck!
Ross
Thanks. I think I am through making bread for a week or so. I'll just be feeding the starter and maybe it will eventually collect enough wild yeast to change it's state.
Appreciate the comment and advice. I may still try to add a little rye to it but that's one of those things that always seem to be an afterthought with me "I shoud have gotten some rye flour while I was out!!! Got to remember to do that.
Thanks again.
I've only recently started using the rye starter and there may still be a desire for use of the white starter for some recipes, but the bread I have made with the rye starter (a pugliese with 80/20 white to semolina total flour) is much stronger and robust with the rye starter than it ever was with the white. I'm making more tomorrow or the next day/night as soon as my build grows enough to start the dough.
Best,
Mike
I cheat with just a tiny sprinkling of commercial yeast as well, basically if my bread has that sourdough flavor I like, then I don't care whether it's a true sourdough or not. I also do not like the Idea of using rye flower due to the fact that I've never liked rye bread, I don't want any rye near my sourdough. Also I tend to prefer a mild sourdough flavor to a strong sour flavor. I would like to know if cheating with commercial yeast will cause my sourdough to go bad and grow more bad bacteria and cause a foul odor?