Starter grain types: do they matter
I've been baking white wheat sourdough for a couple of years but recently I bought a home mill and have been exploring whole wheat and other grains. When I started whole wheat, I created a new starter by feeding the (home grown) white starter with whole wheat flour. Since then I've experimented with einkorn, spelt, and now am having a serious affair with rye. So far, I use my whole wheat starter with the other grains and things seem to go fine. Sponges bubble and dough rises. Advantages to this approach include (1) since I bake too much, my WW starter is usually well fed and (2) my fridge doesn't need to accomodate, nor I feed, 6 different starter types.
My question is what about flavor? Does the starter base type matter? Is the flavor of a kilo of rye (or any grain you'd like) bread changed by 50 grams of whole wheat starter? I guess the grain type can matter, after all ergot preferred rye, but how about the beasties living in starters.
I imagine everyone has an opinion and I'd like to hear them before I begin storing and feeding a plethora of starters.
Thanks and happy baking.
starter you add to the loaf and the 'main' flour in the loaf. For example, I have one starter, but I adore the flavor of rye. When I'm baking a simple mostly white bread but with ~15% other grains (rye and whole wheat) on the last feeding of my starter I will add some rye. I think if you were making a mostly rye bread and added some whole wheat starter you might not be able to taste the ww b/c of the strength of the rye flavor. So I don't think 50 gm of ww starter would materially affect the flavor of a kilo of rye dough. IT would do something, how much? who knows? Try is and let us know.
hester
In my experience they do. Like you, I've experimented with freshly milled starters (including sifted), partially rye starters, etc. I prefer a mild, sweet-ish tasting loaf, and typically use 10-15% levain. I have not been able to get the taste prefer with anything but a starter based on white flour (e.g. KA AP). This is just my experience, and your starters/taste may be quite different than mine.