Starting A New Sourdough Starter

Starting A New Sourdough Starter

George is doing wonderfully sitting in my fridge, percolating happily away on his flour and water. I want, though, to have a white starter to use in my bread baking.

I took out from my freezer some of the rye starter I had made, hoping to turn it into a white starter. Maybe I'm too impatient but all I got after two feedings was some liquid on top of the batter and no activity at all.

So I'm going to start Peter Reinhart's sourdough culture using pineapple juice.

I have it in a copy of his Whole Grain Breads, but I found a better explanation of how to start the starter as whole wheat and turn it into a white starter over at "The Fresh Loaf".

I am cutting and pasting the post by "SourdoLady" here so I can reference it later, all credit to her and Peter Reinhart.

Procedure for Making Sourdough Starter

Day 1: mix...
2 T. whole grain flour (rye and/or wheat)
2 T. unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice
Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 2: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours. At day 2 you may (or may not) start to see some small bubbles.

Day 3: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours.

Day 4:
Stir down, measure out 1/4 cup and discard the rest.
To the 1/4 cup add...
1/4 cup flour*
1/4 cup filtered or spring water

*You can feed the starter whatever type of flour you want at this point (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye). If you are new to sourdough, a white starter is probably the best choice. All-purpose flour is fine--a high protein flour is not necessary.

Repeat Day 4:
Once daily until the mixture starts to expand and smell yeasty. It is not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up the yeast.

I haven't yet named the starter, but I'll add it these posts to the sourdough starter page I have on this blog.