Sourdough starter inquiries from a sourdough newbie
I made my first sourdough starter 4 days ago, and when I checked on it today the starter had not started to bubble and froth and was looking verrrry soupy. Am I/ did I do something wrong? I made this starter the au naturel way, as in just bread flour and tepid water. Is the yeast/flour/water/sugar starter the better way to go? Or am I just being very impatient and need to wait a few more days?
Thanks so much!
By gmkeane
on Oct 21, 2009 07:02 PM
View »
Video
Where do you live? Some parts of the US are just naturally "yeastier" than others. eg.- San Francisco. I would throw in just the tiniest bit o'yeast in your starter and maybe a pinch of sugar? adam
Permalink | Reply
you might want to check out free culinary school.com
they have a lot of information on sour doughs good luck and keep patient.
http://freeculinaryschool.com/
Permalink | Reply
I don't have a starter right now, but I did a few years ago. I remember it took a lot longer to bubble than I expected. I started mine with a tiny bit of grapefruit juice. Check out the info at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/. There's tons of info and some hard core sourdough folks there.
Permalink | Reply
What type of flour did you use? I think rye flour works best if you're not using yeast. Did you leave the starter out in a warm place? It can take 3-5 days for it to start working. I made a flour/water starter a bunch of years ago and left it out for about 4 days, before I started to see any activity, with just a towel to cover so it could pick up some free-floating yeast. Be patient, it can be stubborn. I had my starter for ten years. It was like my baby. Check the links above, especially the freeculinaryschool; there was some interesting info about using fruit skins to get the ball rolling, something I had never seen before.
Permalink | Reply
The specific page you might be looking for within free culinary school dot com is:
http://freeculinaryschool.com/sourdough-starters-101/
But this starter is so very easy to develop that I think you might like it better:
http://www.breadtopia.com/make-your-own-sourdough-starter/
Here in text form:
http://books.google.com/books?id=JJrY...
Permalink | Reply