flour and milk kefir Starter

pizzaabba

Hi,

first attempt at sourdough culture ever:

mixed equal parts of bread flour and milk kefir

left in kitchen for a few days

top looks dry and like a brain - almost creepy

not too much bubbling.

 

Any idea of what I have created?

@pizzaabbapi

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farinam's picture
farinam 2015 September 16

Hello pizzaabba,

Sounds like a mixture of flour and milk kefir to me.

I suspect that if you want to get anywhere you will have to follow a regime of feeding and refreshment on at least a daily basis similar to the methods usually recommended for making a starter with just flour and water.  As for the drying, that is mainly a matter of keeping the container covered to minimise evaporation.

Have a read of SourDoms beginners blogs on this site for some ideas on starter development.  Whether the use of kefir has any advantage or disadvantage I can't say.

Good luck with your projects.

Farinam

pizzaabba 2015 September 17

hmm. i was following directions from other sites, but i hear so much about Dom that i think i need to check out his begginers section - as you said. thanks

pizzaabba 2015 September 23

Replying to Farinam's question of advantages/disadvantages: 

I am experiencing at least one advantage of kefir over water: kefir already has a lively community of microbes so it takes much less time to get the starter going. My first attempt that failed was due to starvation (as Farinam suggested). On a second attempt, I fed the starter a bit of flour each day and it bubbled in 36 hours, doubled in volume in 48 hours. As far as flavor goes, I'll just have to wait and see...(I made pizza dough, which is cold rising in refrigerator).

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