November 5, 2010 - 7:24pm
Goldrush sourdough starter - has anyone used it?
I just purchased a packet of Goldrush brand "old fashioned San Francisco Style Sourdough Starter," and I'm wondering if anybody's used this particular brand, or a similar product with any success. It's basically a dry mix of sourdough culture and white flour.
I'm planning to create my own starter from scratch as well, so that I can compare the two.
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first i heard of it but will look into it
Gosh, I was about to post about Goldrush as well. I was given a sachet by a friend, who had it sent all the way to Malaysia, where I live.
I followed the instructions, and it looked alright (light pancake batter) the first two days. One is supposed to twice (at four hourly intervals) the first day, and once daily thereafter, for the next 7 days. This is day four for me, and the starter looks dead to me - the fermented smell is there, but there's hardly any bubbling, and is starting to look more liquid than ever. My own cultivated sourdough never looked this sickly. Am so disappointed as I thought I was going to get to try the much talked about San fran sourdough...it may not be the case after all.
Any tips/advice very much appreciated, and many thanks in advance.
sourdough taste is due to the starter beasties from the actual San Francisco air. Even if dry San Francisco starter is sold to another state it would not maintain its distinct flavor. All based on local air.
Anna
has in its origins a packet of Goldrush Sourdough starter.
People may scoff, and I've heard opinions such as "you can do better" but I subscribe pretty strongly to the school of though that under normal kitchen conditions the starter will eventually reflect the flour that you use and your maintenance routine. (There are some people who feel that with some very careful handling you can keep the same yeasts and bacteria as were in the original starter thriving and I will not say they are wrong. I have just not experienced that with my hands and methods.)
But the little packet made a nice reliable jump start for me. If I ever lost my starter and all of its five backups, I'd use it again.
As for the experience of podrunner in Malaysia - it really could be that your local conditions and flour are not providing the right conditions for those particular wild yeasts and bacteria to thrive. That's why so many of us deem sourdough as truly "local" food.
Hope this helps.
I've used it and had no problem reviving it or with it when baking. I dried & froze some for future baking. I stick with my original starter, for sentimental reasons only.
Trying a feeding or two of rye flour to boost it's vitality could be the ticket. It sure can't hurt.
Happy Souring!
Ruth
I bought some recently from a market in Orange County, CA.. I'm not sure how long it had been sitting there but I ran the starter for a week and discarded it.. It had a rather foul smell that turned my kids off and at times seemed like it was alive.. But after 7-8 days it would just sit there and not do much.. After watching this process for 3-4 days I tossed it out and resurrected my Carl Griffith Sour Dough starter which I had running last year and freeze dried in its hay day.. It's running like gang busters and I made some biscuits from it the other night that the kids wolfed down..
If you've not heard of the Carl Griffith sourdough you can read about it here:
http://carlsfriends.net/
divide starter into two portions. To one, I added rye flour, and the other I continued feeding with white bread flour. The rye fed one has gone bad, but the one with white bread flour (named Judi) suddenly decided to get busy...volume is nearly doubling, with lots of bubbles. Pics attached.
Hope this helps!
Nice happy starter! She should be able to provide you with some darn tasty bread for a long time.
Take good care of her and she'll be a faithful friend for life.
My "Eric" has been my best buddy in the kitchen for almost 3 years.
Ruth
thanks for the feedback, everyone! I guess I'll just dive right into it and see what happens. Maybe I should wait till I'm done with grad school applications. Starters are people too and should never be neglected.
I bought this sometime ago and I've lost the little paper with the instructions. I went to the web site and all I could find was a video and in the video the gentleman stated 3 cups of bread flour and had water in a glass measuring cup and spoke of the temp the water should be but didn't state how much to use. I know when feeding it is one to one, until you start using it.....then take out the amount needed for the recipe. It's been a couple years since I last was serious about baking bread, dang if you don't use it you lose it. I feel like I am a brand new bread baker. I think I should just toss it and follow Peter Reinhart's directions....but I can't bring myself to toss it!
Thank you in advance, Virginia