January 9, 2012 - 7:03am
Sourdough from Fresh Milled Wheat
I mill my own wheat. I have Pairie Gold and Spelt. Which one is better to use for a starter? Are there any traditional recipes that are basic. I read in a book that pioneers used just milk and fresh ground wheat. But I can't find any recipes. I can't iamge they used whey. I'd rather not use much else(yeast, instant potato flakes, sugar, etc). I'm trying to avoid dehydraded or artifical foods. Thanks
Share
Whole wheat or whole spelt will perform well as the basis for a new starter. Whole rye will ferment even faster. I'd suggest that you read Debra Wink's Pineapple Solution, Parts 1 and 2, before you launch. It will give you a good idea of what goes on inside a starter and a very reliable method for starting one.
If you want to go entirely old school, just mix either flour with enough water to make a paste or slurry, cover it well enough to prevent drying but not so tightly that gases can't escape, and wait. Maybe add some more flour and water each day. In about a week or so, you'll have a starter, assuming that you can keep it in a place with temperatures in the 70-80F range. I'd still recommend that you read and follow Ms. Wink's article (use the Search tool at the upper left and type in Pineapple Solution to locate it). It will answer a lot of questions before you even know you need to ask them.
Paul
I also mill my own flour. I've got two starters (a rye and a Russian strain)that I never feed anything but milled whole grain, and one starter (KA's New England) that I alternate between AP and milled. I've used both pineapple juice (first two days, as specified in PR's BBA) and nothing but water when building up, and didn't see any difference.
Thanks for the article link PMcCool. It was helpful. I'm not good at science so I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. But it did give me a good foundation.
loydb, I'm a little confused. Are you using a store bought additive in your starter? I know my questions my sound dense but I'm new to the world of sourdough and I've been overloading on the info. Also, are you saying you use AP with the milled? I'm trying to cut storebought flour out of my diet completely. Is this not a wise move on my part? I'm confused on whether you mean you think the water method is better than the pineapple juice or if you are using a combo of both. Could you share your method and ratios? If not, I understand. Thanks
I've built starters from scratch using PR's BBA method both with pineapple juice (as he suggests) and without, and found no difference.
Yes, I intentionally use store-bought AP flour every other feeding for my KA starter strain. When I want something lighter than whole wheat (crispy sourdough pizza crust, for example), I use the KA strain and store-bought AP flour.
I keep everything at 100% hydration. Generally the way my feeding schedule works is
a) Every 7-10 days, the starter comes out of the fridge
b) 3 oz starter go into a new container, to which I add 3 oz water, mix, then 3 oz flour
c) The remaining old starter (usually ~5 oz) go into a separate container. I add 5 oz of flour, and enough water to hit the hydration point of whatever I'm going to cook with it (75-100% usually).
d) Everything sits out for ~4 hours, then into the fridge overnight. The next day, I use the big batch of starter in a recipe.
I used freshly milled whole organic rye at 100% hydration for my starter. It only took a few days to get it going, and it's been a great and reliable starter ever since. I use it for my Whole Wheat Sourdough (made from freshly milled organice wheat berries) and my Cranberry-Walnut Sourdough (half freshly milled whole wheat, half bread flour).
If you're looking for "pure", try the whole rye. Feed it once a day for a few days, until it doubles in volume by the end of 8 hours. Then you should be ready to bake with it.
Good luck,
Stephan
Thanks for the info. It's taken me a few days to digest all this info. I read the first part of the pineapple juice starter and part of the second. I'm terrible with science so it is a lot to handle. Please be patient with me, I'm not real book smart and this is so much to take it.
Lyodb, are you saying that I should follow the pineapple juice starter then switch to water? I don't even know what hydration means? lol, I hope I'm not the worst person to ever post on here.
Thanks for the reply MNBacker, this is helpful to know. Do either of you gentlemen(or lady?) have a starter recipe that you wouldn't mind sharing? One for the fresh milled? If you don't want to share, I understand. thanks so much for the help.
What
I'm saying I noticed no difference between making a starter using pineapple juice for the first two days and making one that just used water the entire time.
Hydration is the balance between water and flour in your starter (by weight). If you have the same amount of water as flour, you have a 100% hydration starter. When I feed my starter, I take 3 oz of the existing starter, then stir in 3 oz of water and mix it up, then add another 3 oz of flour. Since I used the same amount of water as flour, it remains 100% hydration -- which is pretty goopy and sticky.
Some people maintain their starter at a lower hydration, so it looks more like dough and less like goop. If you wanted to maintain a starter at 75% hydration, for instance, you might take 4 oz of the existing starter, and add 3 oz of water and 4 oz of new flour. (3 oz is 75% of the 4 oz of flour, so you have a 75% hydration).
One of the reasons I like 100% hydration starter is that I don't have to do math to know my feeding schedule -- I just mix equal amounts old starter, water and new flour, and am done.
If you can swing it, I strongly recommend you grab a copy of Peter Reinhart's _Bread Baker's Apprentice_. Some of it is a bit technical, but he does a great job of explaining the technical bits in easy-to-understand prose -- and you could bake out of it for years before you covered everything.
Mine was about as simple as can be:
mix 10 oz of freshly milled rye flour with 10 oz of water. Cover and set on the counter at room temperature. Every day, scoop out about half of that mix (discard it) and add 4 oz of freshly milled rye flour and 4 oz of water to your container. Keep doing this until you can see the starter volume double in 8 hours at room temperature - then your starter should be ready for baking. it might take a week to ten days. From then on, keep it in the fridge and feed it about once a week.
Hope this helps,
Stephan
Is there any scale that bakers perfer? I don't ahve one, I'd perfer to get the best out there. Thanks
most often are Escali, MyWeigh, and Salton. I'm not sure which of them would be considered "best", since that will depend on the criteria selected for judging. Each of them manufacture scales that are reasonably durable, accurate and affordable.
Paul