The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Starter Help

Baking Dad's picture
Baking Dad

Starter Help

   I've been lurking and reading, and trying to learn.  Today, I stumbled across a little Mennonite bakery/diner, and the ladies were kind enough to give me some sourdough starter to take home.  I was all excited, but didn't really pay attention to it as the woman tucked the jar in a paper bag and gave it to me.  When I got home, what I have is something I have no idea what to do with, and would love some advice.

 

   I have a small, pint jar, about half full of starter.  When I first saw it, it was sort of milky and very liquidy.  After sitting on the counter for a bit, it has sort of settled, and the bottom quarter is a white precipitate, and the rest is a clearish liquid, that reminds me of whey when making cheese.

 

   I didn't realize that it would be so thin and liquidy.  Is this normal?  I mean, I understand it works for the Mennonite lady who gave it to me, but I didn't think to ask how to prepare it, and I won't be in that part of the state again anytime soon.  I was picturing something more solid, like very wet dough that would bubble and froth, but that's not this at all.

 

   Do I just start like the normal directions say, and start feeding it with rye flour, and then graduate to regular flour?

 

  Any advice and/or tips would be greatly appreciated.  I don't want to waste this opportunity!

 

  Thanks!!

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I would split the starter and put at least half of it in the refrigerator.  The take out some of it and play with it.  If all else fails, you can go back to the chilled starter and try something else.  Use the chilled starter as back-up.

Then take any amount of starter, let's say 1/4 cup starter, add equal amounts of clean, non-chlorinated water and enough AP wheat flour to make a batter slightly thicker than the one you started with.  (it gets thinner as it ferments)  Put this into a jar with 4 to 5 times the mixture for head room and mark the level.  Now observe and take notes.  you will want to note temperature,  aromas, and effervescence and any bubbling going on as well as changes.  Watch it about every one to two hours.

Be sure to note any peak in activity and any declines in activity.  

It sounds like a wet starter where equal Volumes of flour and water  (as opposed to equal weights of each) are added to the starter when feeding.   You might want to look up wet starters or high hydration starters.  

Chances are good the starter has already been fed when you got it, so you can easily wait a day until you start to feed some of it.  Take some out now, and put the rest into the refrigerator to slow it down (so you don't have to feed it right away.)  Start feeding the sample tomorrow after you have observed it today not doing anything to it but smell, poke and examine for bubbles.

Baking Dad's picture
Baking Dad

  I may be out of my league here, as I read through a lot of the posts, there seems to be a lot of science going on.  While I adore science, I've never used that sort of precision in baking.  I baked my first loaf, from a recipe out of James Beard's book, Beard on Bread, that my parents purchased when I was a kid back in the 70's.  While I've enjoyed many recipes from that book, and many other books over the years, I've always found that recipes were more of a guideline.  The exactitude of measuring things down to the gram eludes me, as I tend to base things more on feel and look.  

 

  So for those who like the exactitude, this may not make sense, but here's what I did with the above.

 

   As I mentioned, I stopped into a Mennonite bakery, and while purchasing a loaf of sourdough, inquired about getting some of their starter, which they were happy to share.  I had a pint jar, about half full.  After sitting on the counter, it separated out.  The bottom quarter to a third a white precipitate, flour I assume, the remainder, a clearish liquid that reminds me of whey when making cheese.  I took about half of this, after mixing it up, and poured it into a canning jar, which I topped with a paper towel, and the ring, so that it could breath.

 

Overnight, nothing happened, no action, no bubbles, nothing.  So, I added in two heaping spoons of organic rye flour, King Arthur I think.  I stirred this in, until it resembled a slurry.  I left it on the counter, and a few hours later, noticed that I had a good amount of bubbly action going on.  So I added essentially equal parts of more rye flour, and tap water, to bring the volume up to about 3/4 of the pint jar, while retaining the slurry like texture.  I left this to sit and percolate overnight.

 

Judging from the residue on the walls of the jar, it bubbled up almost to the top, then settled back down overnight.  I gave it a stir to sort of wake it up, and then decided to try it out in the afternoon.  I poured 3/4 of the slurry into a mix of KAF AP and Bread flours, about 3 cups total, with a couple of twists of the salt grinder added in, and set the mixer going with a bread hook.  I added enough tap water to form it into a dough, about 2/3 of a cup.

 

Once it formed into a ball, I let it knead on the hook for about 5 minutes, then pulled it out to knead by hand.  It was much wetter and stickier than it looked.  I had to use a bench scraper to knead for the first few minutes, as I incorporated bench flour, using the bread flour again.  After kneading with the bench scraper, and by hand for about ten minutes, I had incorporated about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of additional flour.  I placed the dough in a buttered bowl to rise.

 

It took a little over two hours to double in size, after which I took it out, and kneaded it for another 5-10 minutes.  I wanted to have a fairly closed crumb, as I intended it for sandwich bread.  I then placed it into a buttered, 9 inch loaf pan, and allowed to to rise until double in size again, about an hour and fifteen minutes.

 

I baked it in a 400 degree fahrenheit oven, after spritzing with water, for about 35 minutes.

 

It came out lovely, a little dense, but good.  The top quarter of the loaf has a little bit more open crumb than the rest, but nothing too dramatic.

 

A couple of things.  One, the starter never had a 'sour' smell, so I don't really have a sourdough going on.  I was yeasty, and it made good bread, but not sourdough.

 

The remaining starter that I used, separated overnight.  I added some more rye flour, and will continue to feed it, and hope to develop some good, tangy sour notes as time goes on.

 

I'd love any advice anyone has to give, just keep in mind that I view baking bread as more of an art than a science, though I acknowledge science is involved.

 

ehtiotumolas's picture
ehtiotumolas (not verified)

Baking bread is an art, but it doesn't mean you don't have to be careful with your measurements. 

Art is not just dumping two tins of paint in a canvas. Art is about understanding and about techniques. 

_vk's picture
_vk

https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/handy-sourdough-tips/

 

I found that if I use my starter just after refreshing there is less sour taste in final loaf, when I use it without refreshing, more sour...

Happy baking

Vicente