January 8, 2011 - 7:07am
cheat starter
before I knew of the 'right' way to make a starter, I made my starter following the directions in an old book I have called "Back to Basics" in which commercial yeast was used ...I know many people disapprove of this, but it was the first method I found ...now it's also my understanding that the wild yeast in my flour will eventually take over the starter anyway & the commercial yeast will die off ...so question #1 ...what really is the difference then? ...and question #2 ...if I take a tablespoon of this weeks old starter & begin a new starter ...isn't this now a natural wild yeast starter? thanks for the input!
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If the whole idea is to have the wild yeast take over eventually, then I don't see the need for the commercial yeast to begin with. First, it'll make it impossible to tell if you're getting any wild yeast activity in your starter, since the commercial yeast will be giving you a false reading. Also, the commercial yeast will be competing for resources with any wild yeast that may populate the medium. For the sake of maintaining control of your starter, I would omit commercial yeast from the process.
to a wild starter in a week but it very well could have.
If you take the tablespoon of starter and feed it, do so whenever it rises and falls in on itself but not more than every 12 hours. A lot will depend on the room temp. You could also reduce to just a teaspoon and add a tablespoon of water and enough flour to make a toothpaste consistancy and cover loosly. Keeping the starter amount small until you want to build for a bake. You will know the natural yeasts are there after a lull in the starter's preformance. Wild beasties take longer to raise a loaf than instant yeast and their aroma is different… "Wilder." :)
I don't have qualms about starting a starter from instant yeast, it can be done. Go for it!
Mini
thanks for the input ...the only reason I used commercial yeast to begin with was because that was the method in my book & that was all I knew; until I started to search online recently ( and found this forum in the process)
...now I have learned how to do it without commercial yeast ...but since I already had a starter, I wondered if i could work off of that & convert it ( which is what I'm 'doing') ...this new starter is probably a week old now ...and I may take a teaspoon of that (a smaller amount like Mini suggested above) & begin yet again
...I would think the wild yeast would take over - I have read that commercial yeast cannot survive in such acid anyway ...so if that is the case, then wild yeast have to take over ...the commercial yeast gets things going a bit faster but then die off as the enviroment becomes to acidic & the wild/natural yeasts wake up & take over ??? Please understand I am not 'telling' or saying this is so , I am asking if it is ... but it seems to make sense to me ... I don't know :)
the 'new' starter I made from my original commercial yeast start does have a more intense sweet-sour smell ...