Sourdough Starter - Day 4: Divide, Freeze and Feed

Sourdough Starter - Day 4:  Divide, Freeze and Feed

7/19/2011 9:30am

This morning George had a nice applely vinegar smell with no trace of the stinkiness that I had at the beginning, but the sheer volume of him was overwhelming- 5 cups of sourdough culture!

So I beat him for a minute, got out a clean food storage container and poured 3 cups of him into it. I covered it, labelled it and put the container into a freezer bag, sticking it into the very bottom of my chest deep freezer in the basement. Realizing that I still had 2 cups to care for, I took a smaller container out of my cupboard and did the same thing. I love those Ziploc Twist 'n Loc containers, they work beautifully for this kind of thing.

I fed the remainder 1 cup of cold bottled water and 1 cup of rye flour. Hopefully I haven't hurt my starter by removing so much and replacing with so little, but I don't think it would be long term damage.

George has his own page on the blog, here.

Sourdough Starter - Day 3: What the Heck is That Smell??

Sourdough Starter - Day 3: What the Heck is That Smell??
7/18/2011 7:43am

Actually most of the work was last night.

At 8pm last evening, noticing how vigorously active the starter was, to the point where I feared it would escape from it's large container overnight, I removed the cover to beat it down (anyone who has seen the kitchen scene in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" will get the idea).

The smell coming from the starter was similar to that of an open sewer, which I don't think is the smell we're going for. I've used clean equipment, the flour coming from a bulk food store. Maybe the flour was contaminated, but I decided to divide it and refresh a little earlier than Day 3.

I removed half the mixture- maybe slightly more than half- and refreshed with 1/2 cup COLD bottled water and 1/2 COLD dark rye flour.

I decided to use smaller amounts as I had no idea how much flour this would wind up using in the long run.

I again beat the mixture for a minute or two, and then sprinkled some rye flour over the top of the starter as suggested in Jeffery Hamalman's Bread.

I also put it into a cooler part of my house, not my kitchen, to let it rest overnight. This morning it has a milder, more vinegary smell rather than a sewage smell.

If it continues to smell like sewage, I'll discard George and start again.

UPDATE:
7/18/2011 11:30am

Divided again, tipping out 1 cup of the starter and refreshing it with 3/4 COLD water and 3/4 COLD dark rye flour. I may have to switch to whole wheat as I'm running out of rye flour.

As I stirred it before removing the 1 cup there was a faint sewage smell again, but I think as I'm removing the original Mother starter (or Father as he's male :) ) the smell will be removed. It had a mild vinegary smell before I stirred it up, so I have hope.

Tomorrow at feeding time I may remove George from his container, wash the container and return him, just to make sure the container is fresh and clean.

UPDATE:
7/18/2011 4:30pm

Fed George 1 cup cold water and 1 cup dark rye flour. He smells like vinegary apples. :)

Sourdough Starter page is here.

Sourdough Starter - Day 2: First Feed

Before first feed

Sourdough Starter - Day 2: First Feed
7/17/2011  8:39am

Checked on George this morning, found many bubbles and some doubling!

There are mini bubbles inside the "batter" that can be seen through the plastic of the container, so he seems to be happy.

Smells a little musty, but then again so does the flour before I used it.

Added 1 cup dark rye flour and 1 cup water, beating for a few more minutes.

Sourdough starter has it's own page here.

UPDATE:
7/17/2011 1:03pm

Bubbles have appeared inside the batter, again visible from the side. This is so exciting, kind of like having a 5th kid. :)

View of the side of the container, showing the bubbles inside the starter. Four hours after first feeding.

UPDATE:
7/17/2011 3:30pm

George had fully doubled in size, a lot of fermentation activity!

Opened up the container and smelled the batter. Ew. Smelled rather like garbage, so I gave the batter a swift beating for about a minute. Smelled much better, so I'm thinking it was maybe carbon dioxide from the fermenting yeast.

River Cottage Basic Bread - Simple White Loaf

While on a vacation two weeks ago, I discovered a copy of The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens in Barnes & Noble. It has rapidly become one of my favourite books, on par with The Tassajara Bread Book.

Sourdough Starter - Day 1: Conception

While on a vacation two weeks ago, I discovered a copy of The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens. It's an amazing book, very much like The Tassajara Bread Book both in it's informal approach to breadmaking, and with it's "hand holding" steps. The instructions on how to make and feed a sourdough starter seemed so simple that I thought even I could do it.

I have been wanting to make a sourdough starter for a while, but it seemed a bit complicated. Now I'm giving it a shot. I'll be documenting the life of the starter on the blog, and mirroring the posts on it's own page here.

Sourdough Starter - Day 1: Conception
7/16/2011 - 2pm EST

Step 1: Found a large container with a lid, big enough for the starter to double 4 times.

Step 2: Cleaned it.

Step 3: Mixed 1 cup whole grain flour (whole wheat, rye, spelt) with 1 cup warm water. I used dark rye flour and bottled water. Added more water to get a thick batter.

Step 4: Beat the batter for a few minutes (10 minutes in a stand mixer is optimal) - the more it's beaten, the more yeast spores get into the starter and the better it is.

Step 5: Put it into the large container and put the lid on top.

Step 6: Named starter "George", going on the theory of I can't kill what I named.

Step 7: Labelled the top of the container "Day 1: 7/16/11" so I can keep track of when I have to feed it.

Step 8: Put in a warm place in the kitchen where I can see it but it's out of the way.

This is as far as I have gotten. We'll see how it turns out..

UPDATE:

7/16/2011 4:35 pm
The first 3 bubbles appear! It's ALIVE!

Unintended Hiatus Over

I would like to apologize for the unintended month long hiatus this blog has taken.

I didn't realize how busy I would be at the end of the school year, then I had a relapse of strep throat that was worse than the previous month's bout, THEN we left for a two week vacation to Florida.

I meant to stop in during this time and post, but I was just wiped out.

On the positive side, I bought three new bread books while in Florida:

• Whole Grain Breads by Peter Rienhardt
• Bread by Jeffery Hamelman
• The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens

I can't wait to try some new recipes!