Greetings everyone.

I have for a year or so now been using a San Francisco sourdough culture I bought at the supermarket.  It takes the form of a batter and works fine.  I'd like to get more scientific but everything in the included recipe is in volume units, so for instance:

Mother sponge is fed with 1c flour to 1c water

Baby sponge is 1c mother, 1.5c flour, 1c water

Bread is 2c baby, 2/3c water, 4c flour, 2tsp salt

In the process this recipe seems to self-destroy information about mass.  Is there any reliable way to figure how much water and flour is in that final dough?  Each cup of sponge, mother and baby alike, is denser than water but also full of bubbles.  Their textures are noticeably different but their densities aren't.  Do I need to go back and start feeding the mother by mass instead of volume, both weigh and measure out every single step, and hope I get enough info that it works out eventually?

The recipe also suggests mixing the leftover baby back into the mother, which would really throw things off, and really doesn't sit right with all those chemistry classes I took where you never put leftovers back for fear of contamination.  So I haven't.

Finally, most sourdough recipes I find don't have a mother and baby sponge.  A portion of the mother just goes straight into the dough.  Is this some regional variant?  Is it appropriate for the ostensible San Francisco style?  I do like the loose mother sponge, it's really easy to maintain.  To feed, just dump in the flour and water, and shake.  To measure out, just pour.

I have recently moved to feeding my starters a lot more flour and water, and I think its paying off. I originally started off with a 2:1:1 feeding schedule, but I now have Blarf at 1:4:6 twice a day (150% hydration, grows 11X each feeding) and Dulce at 1:4:2 once a day(50% hydration, grows 7X).

I had seen people use feeding schedules similar to this, but had never really known why or how they could do it.  I think the key is that after a few feedings, the starter gets used to it, and can process that much flour much quicker.  This leads to a much more active starter that is ready for the large amounts of fresh flour used in the dough mixing.

For Sourdough (using Dulce), having a starter that is able to process so much flour means I can use an extremely large percentage of fresh flour in the formula.  This lets me extend out the fermentation time even further, and develop tons of flavor. For Baguettes, it seems like my starter becomes the base of the fermentation, and I can then add just a bit of extra flour (1 part starter, 2 parts flour/water/salt), ferment for a few hours, and still have plenty of residual sugars for getting a nice golden crust.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It seems like there must be an upper bound to how much you can feed your starter, but I definitely have not reached it. I'm still a bit unsure about how or why certain feeding schedules benefit your breads in different ways.

Thanks,
Danny - Sour Flour
http://www.sourflour.org

I am new to bread baking and have been making pan loaves (except for one "freeform" spelt loaf).  I have a sandwich loaf that the family likes so I can make a few of those per week for lunches.

My wife requested a rosemary olive loaf and I want to make one after my starter is complete (if I can actually complete it).  I am looking for a recipe I can use to make one for this weekend (before my starter has developed) and also one that uses a starter for a later date.

Any suggestions or recommended favorites?

Thanks

I've always been intrigued by the biological aspect of sourdough.  There has been much debate about the validity of theories on whether the yeast and bacteria species exist on the grain or are drawn from the air around us via the provision of favourable food sources ie flour & water, etc.

Not being a micro biologist and yet having to find the perfect factual scientific paper of evidence to support either of the theories that abound, I'm yet to form a solid conclusion.  I have wondered though whether I've been too simplistic in thinking that it should be one or the other or even the same yeast & bacteria speciies that exist in the air as on the grain.  Is it possible that there are species that exist in the air that may be different to those that live on the grain, but still enter and contribute to our cultures during the process of sourdough activiation?  There has been much valuable discussion on this site about this topic.  I'd just like to revisit it and hear folk's thoughts on the matter.  I had assumed that the culture of organisms that are said to exist in the air would be the same species that exist on the grain.  Is it possible those found in the air could be diferent species, or different subspecies?  That they all come together to make up our treasured starters?

Also, at the market the other day I noticed packets of flour from Italy for sale (I live in Australia). 

If I used this to create a starter, would the new starter therefore be a culture that is a body of yeast and bacteria strains specific to the Italian locale of origin of the grain that the flour was milled from?

Just a thought.

Cheers!  marieJ

Greetings!  I'd like to use iodized salt in my sourdough loaves.  I've been baking sourdough for about 1 1/2 years.  Can iodized salt be used in sourdoughs or does it have an adverse effect on the yeast & bacteria culture?

Cheers!  Marie.

I was always paranoid about my starter dying or mutating.. every year or so I dry some and save in the freezer in case I need it. 

I have 6 years worth of starter.

Last month I did something really stupid and killed my starter.  

To give a starter a good start after feeding, I sometime put it in the oven with the light on until it bubbles nicely.

and of course I forgot about it, and turned on the over to preheat to 500f.  when I realized what I did it was too late and teh starter was coocked, literally.

So I dug out a dry 2006 version and in 2 days I had starter again.

Here is how I dry.  I make a wet starter, and let it go to nice fermentation, and then I spread ti on 2 pan with Silpat, and let it dry for 2 days.. 

once dry, I crumble it, and put it in in a zip-lock bag, in the freezer.

I've been feeding a sourdough starter for over 6 months.  I've baked it with only twice.  Both times I used the same recipe and both times the bread did not taste or look like sourdough. 

The bread tonight tasted just like white bread.  I didn't use quarry tiles or spray the oven with water but that shouldn't affect the flavor I wouldn't think.

The recipe I used called for proofing the sponge the night before which I did.  Where I may have gone wrong is that the starter may not have been vigorous enough.  I usually feed the starter once every 2 weeks or so.  I fed it yesterday morning, put it back in the refer and then decided to use it so pulled it out to warm up and make the sponge in the evening.  That's what I used today to make the bread.  It is possible the starter wasn't powerful enough to give good flavor and texture?

Thanks,

Ginny, a beginner bread baker

Hello! 

I have a starter that is about a week old, and will only rise while in the oven with the light on.  I don't have a thermometer but I'm asssuming is 85-90F in there.  I really have no idea at all.  It's very active while in there; doubling or more in 2hrs or so, but drops back down to its original level when taken out and set on the counter.  I'd say in the same amount of time, 2-3hrs.  And then won't rise again at all, in the oven or not, until its fed again.

My question is, #1: has anyone heard of a starter, yes, rising a lot when warm compared to being cool, but dropping when cooling down?  And #2, is this starter safe to use?  I've read a lot online about bad bacteria outnumbering yeasts in warm environments, and that you really want it to be active when cooler.  There aren't a bunch of bad bacteria rising in the oven masquerading as yeast are there?

If this thing won't rise in 70-75F temps, it's not going to rise the bread overnight when it's time to actually use the starter.  My plan was to let it rise 12-15hrs on the counter, as a cold rise is what you want with sourdough, yes?  I don't know.

Thank you for your time.

Hi every one.  I need some help.  I have never made sourdough bread and would like to start.  I have a recipe for a starter.

Pkg. yeast

2c. water

2c. flour

it says to let starter stand on counter for 3 days.  Stirring once a day.  On the 3rd day use then feed or remove a cup,feed and refrigerate. 

Do I not need to feed the starter every day in the beginning?  Does any one have a simple recipe using cup mes?  I do not have a scale at the moment.

To create a large batch of starter for many loaves (30), do I just keep feeding until I get the amount I need? How often? 8 hours or more between feedings?