November 5, 2015 - 2:18pm
Hello! Making my first starter.
Hi all - I have been a diligent baker for a handful of years now, and feel ready to start my own starter. I have been baking challah bread weekly for about a year, and bagels for a few months. I have my first starter (Eric Kayser's Larousse Book of Bread recipe) on the counter, and feeling very anxious on day 1. Hoping for some wisdom and encouragement. Thanks!
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Day 1-3 lots of activity but it is the wrong wee beasties. You want the ones that love a high acid environment and the active ones at first are not the them, Day 4-5 the culture may look dead with no activity. The bad wee beasties are losing the war with the good ones but the good ones aren''t very active. Things will pick uo after than tha by day 10 you should ave a a culture to raise a loaf odd bread.
Keep calm and just carry on.
"go starter go, go, go" that's the cheer for the first 5-6 days. Do it as often as you like to rid yourself of waiting energy.
Does Eric K. mention temperature?
Warm but not hot the first day (12 to 24 hrs) and then drop down to 26°C or 76° to 78°F the following days. My personal recommendation.
"Go, go, see you (talking to the starter) in 24 hrs, go!" :)
I've said it many times, but Debra Wink's pineapple juice starter method has never failed me.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
Here is a fun site that shows pictures of the daily progress ... as noted above the first rise is not from the good "beasties"
http://yumarama.com/starter-from-scratch-intro/
I agree that Debra Wink's "pineapple Juice Solution" is a great way to start. You have already started, so there is no point is starting over. If you would like, you can add some pineapple juice and whole wheat to your present mix and that will reduce the "wrong wee beasties".
After you get your starter active, about 2 to 3 weeks, you might want to check in on Mike Avery's site: http://www.sourdoughhome.com.
Ford
Activity = yeast/LAB present so feed when you see activity. If all goes quiet then wait till you see signs of life. Attempting to encourage them by overfeeding might sound good but will slow it down. Might be erratic at first but if you follow this procedure it'll become more predictable and faster. Once it bubbles up on cue every time then it is done.