Sourdough Starter

[Fanta]

@graoumia

This is how to start a sourdough starter, from Joshua Weissman.

I was a TOTAL N00B at bread - never made one in my life. This sourdough starter worked the first time I tried it, and it has never become contaminated nor lost, even when I forgot to feed it one day here and there.

Ingredients required:
Kitchen scale
Mason Jar or Glass jar with wide opening (weighted without lid!! - Write the weight on it or remember it by heart)
Filtered water or spring water @ room temperature (no chlorine, no fluoride!) - many will say to use "lukewarm" but I've used room temp for 6 years without issues, winter or summer
Rye flour
All-purpose unbleached wheat flour (white or not white, doesn't matter, I don't use white flour personally).
Thin silicon spatula (for mixing and emptying jars)

Day 1
100g rye flour
150g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 2
70g of starter (i.e. empty your glass jar until its weight + 70g show on the scale)
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
115g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 3
70g of starter
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
115g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 4
70g of starter
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
100g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 5
70g of starter
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
100g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 6
50g starter (i.e. empty your glass jar until its weight + 50g are left in it)
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
100g water
Mix, wait 24h

Day 7 and forever after
25g starter (i.e. empty your glass jar until its weight + 25g are left in it) - I now know these numbers by heart for my 2 glass jars
50g rye flour
50g unbleached flour
100g water
Mix, wait 24h

My experience:
- there are recipes for the "throw away starter" - I sometimes enjoy frying it in ghee as a flatbread with some herbs mixed in (pink salt and rosemary!), but usually I end up throwing it away with very hot water in the kitchen sink - it won't clog it, flour in hot water dissolve super easily.
- if you don't use starters often (i.e. you don't bake bread often, like me) you can look up how to make it sleep in the fridge and only feed it once in a while - I prefer to feed mine daily, it gains flavour over the months and years...
- I use organic flours from local producers, no additives, no added vitamins (I especially avoid folic acid added to any type of food)
- I re-use the same glass jar for 1 week and I use a clean fresh one on Saturday mornings.
- Make sure the glass jar and silicon spatula are rinsed / cleaned with hot water to avoid contamination
- I filter my water with a Berkey on the countertop
- Winter : I have my heat at 18C most of the day and night, I turn it up to 21C when I get back from work for a few hours before bed. It has not affected my starter's growth.
- Summer : I have no AC, it can get up to 27-28C in my kitchen - this makes my starter rise much more quickly in the day and it falls off before I go to bed, I still only feed it the next morning
- I keep my starter jar in a kitchen cabinet in the dark, the cabinet is against a wall facing the outside of the house, so it's cooler in there...

 

[Saffity]

Now that your starter is going, what is your daily upkeep on it, like, how much time do you have to spend on baking the bread and such?

 

[Fanta]

Now that your starter is going, what is your daily upkeep on it, like, how much time do you have to spend on baking the bread and such?

discarding excess and feeding my starter takes 2 minutes every morning.

baking 2 sourdough bread (photo posted in the homemade challenge thread) takes 1 day of prep (10 min of interventions through the day, it's a lot of waiting between small steps) and baking takes 45 min per bread the next morning (or if you have 2 cast iron pots, do both at once).

For 1 person not binging bread nor eating bread every single meal, these would easily last 1 week per bread. To the point of recommending to freeze 1 bread already sliced up, or give it away to someone

I usually begin at 6AM and finish round 4-5 PM depending... I don't eat my bread most of the time, but I love baking it and I often give it away to family, neighbours, co-workers.

 

[Saffity]

Thank you! I see all of the sourdough info on various social medias, but I don't want to put the time and effort into getting a starter going just to have it die because I'm not actually using it. Your bread does look amazing though.

 

[Fanta]

Thank you! I see all of the sourdough info on various social medias, but I don't want to put the time and effort into getting a starter going just to have it die because I'm not actually using it. Your bread does look amazing though.

oh well one of the thing is that - I do throw away the excess starter every morning. I don't have a problem with that (it's like throwing away peels or bones or extra fat removed from meat)... I don't make bread with it every day just to "save it all".

 

[MangoTux]

It's the sort of thing where you'll want to stockpile a variety of recipes if you're unsure. I fed mine once a week after it got going, and eventually fell off because I didn't want to have "make bread" be a chore.

If I had known you could use it in muffins, pancakes, crackers, and other things like that, then the variety might have kept it going a lot longer.

 

[stationerynomad]

This is cool. I love Joshua Weissman.

There are ways not to have sourdough discard. One of them is when you finish making bread, heavily feed your sourdough starter and put it in the fridge (tightly capped) then when you need it next time, just take the amount you need out. Feed the starter you need and warm it up on the counter (this is the part that takes longer) and also feed the starter in the fridge. If you don't make bread often or you are going on vacation you can also keep it in the freezer (some people dry it out first)

 

[graoumia]

@Fanta thank you so much for the explanation and your time. I have no idea why i missed this post while you tagged me, but sorry for delay and thanks again

 

[NightWolf714]

Now the important question is did you name your starter? XD

The mate decided to make sourdough. Largely as an experiment to see if he could convert some of his mead yeast into sourdough yeast. We typically just make crackers that I eat instead of chips. But he hasn't named it. The mead was known as "The Yeasty Boys" so I joking refer to his sourdough as that, but it's not really the same anymore so I feel like it needs a proper name.

 

[MangoTux]

Now the important question is did you name your starter? XD

The mate decided to make sourdough. Largely as an experiment to see if he could convert some of his mead yeast into sourdough yeast. We typically just make crackers that I eat instead of chips. But he hasn't named it. The mead was known as "The Yeasty Boys" so I joking refer to his sourdough as that, but it's not really the same anymore so I feel like it needs a proper name.

The name is important! When I did this, I had two jars named Frodough and Souron.

 

[Fanta]

Now the important question is did you name your starter? XD

The mate decided to make sourdough. Largely as an experiment to see if he could convert some of his mead yeast into sourdough yeast. We typically just make crackers that I eat instead of chips. But he hasn't named it. The mead was known as "The Yeasty Boys" so I joking refer to his sourdough as that, but it's not really the same anymore so I feel like it needs a proper name.

I did! I named it after my street name because everyone on my street got to enjoy my homemade sourdough bread multiple times
Sainte-Famille

 

[NightWolf714]

Fancy sounding sourdough. I like it!

 

[graoumia]

I have a question, i read some "recipes" some articles advice about the room temperature, others don't, what is usually the temperature in your sourdough room, and did you get some issues related to temperature ? i read between 23 to 30 Celsius degrees, no way to have this here, we will all die, no need to have sourdough then.... Thanks

 

[Dyneti]

As far as I know temperature influences how fast the sourdough grows / digests and also the taste. But in the end it can live anywhere between fridge-cold and very-warm room! No need to worry but may be reason to adjust the feeding shedule.
Also check out Fantas first post @graoumia

 

[Dustyqotf]

what do you do with the discard also can you use nut flour? I ask because we have almond flour at home and i was wondering if it had wild yeast or if i would need to get wheat or rye

 

[Saffity]

what do you do with the discard also can you use nut flour? I ask because we have almond flour at home and i was wondering if it had wild yeast or if i would need to get wheat or rye

There are TONS of discard recipes, from crackers to pancakes to scones. That's easy to deal with.

If you're going with a flour like Almond, it's not the yeast you have to worry about (that actually comes from the air), it's the lack of gluten.

Bakerita has a good tutorial on how to get a starter going. Nut flours tend to not be great for the starters due to a higher fat content, you really want to have a whole grain gluten free flour. You can totally use the almond flour when you're making the actual recipe though.

 

[nell]

I bake my bread with mainly rye too.
My experience is, I only feed it, when I bake once every 3-4 days. I put one big spoon of flour or two and a bit water (same volume). Everything is in a jar of 500ml at the level of maybe 1/3 of that glas. For baking I take a big spoon, and replace it with flour and water. So no discards here.

It survives even, when I feed it only once a week. 2 weeks vacation twice a year are hard. Once the sourdough didn't want after the vacation. But usually...
Now I have ab bit of sourdough frozen. The jar remains cooled at 5°C in the refrigerator.

In summer, if it's to warm, the bread rises faster, in winter it takes longer. I bake in a loaf pan. I love it, and take my bread with me to all my vacations, if possible.

 

[graoumia]

Hello team, some news, we started our sourdough, it worked, and it is still alive and quite good. Many thanks @Fanta for your time and explanations, and to all the bees for your support. I use it in cakes, bread pizza and i tested pancakes, a lot with chestnut flour