I've been attempting sourdough for years. In my Internet reading I can say I learned everything. And it's not easy. And I wish it were as difficult to make sourdough bread as everything I read made it out to be as I would be able to say I made at least one decent loaf. Alas...
I've come to the conclusion that you cannot go by books or online articles to accomplish making bread from yeasts in your local area from people who live hundreds or even just a hundred miles away. Do yourself a favor and research local bread makers, find one that makes sourdough, buy a loaf and beg for information.
After months of trying to get dough to rise with my fairly inactive babied (expensively fed) starter it was bubbling over in two days after talking to a woman four miles away that makes sourdough for her B&B. All by nixing the almighty distilled water and organic whole wheat flour and feeding it hard well water from my tap, potato flakes, bleached white flour and white sugar.
I could shoot myself. :-)
Apparently my local yeasts eat like a toddler with juvenile diabetes. I will play with flavors while making my dough with different flours and proof times/temperatures and not worry so much about the flavor of the starter - as long as it's active.
Donica, don’t shoot yourself! Save your ammunition for an enemy. ;-)
My experience has been quite different from yours. Almost every bit of my knowledge Ikve learned through the years have come from reading. Either books, forums, or YEP good old Google.
Is there a specific problem you are working to solve at this moment? Even though we are spread throughout the world, I’m betting we can all put our heads together to help.
We are definitely willing to try. Give us a shot. (Figuratively speaking, not with a gun <LOL>
Dan
Thank you for the offer but the dough is rising perfectly. And I just fed my remaining starter 3 hours ago and it's nearly bubbled over the jar (again). The whole wheat organic flour seems too difficult for the yeast around here to quickly use. Leading to poor starters, poor proofs and dough that never gets to the window pane elasticity. I was baking extremely sour bricks due to the length of time it took to get even a bit of rise in the dough. Tried no knead wet dough and it just wound up disintegrating. I've made a lot of bread with commercial yeast in the past, so I know what dough should feel like. I was never able to get that billowy stretch to mine until now. :-)
"...just fed my remaining starter 3 hours ago and it's nearly bubbled over the jar (again)."
Something about that makes me wonder about the maintenance and ratios that has changed.
"The whole wheat organic flour seems too difficult for the yeast around here to quickly use."
Also unusual to get a quick rise from sourdough unless the flour portion is less weight than the starter culture portion. Interesting. Is the starter or was it fed by volume?
I will be the first to say that location outside influences like weather, climate, temperatures, availability of ingredients and even cultural bias will influence the starter and/or bread greatly. Trouble shooting is much easier if rough location is provided. (It's the first thing I tend to look at.) Often the water pH plays a big roll if too high or low outside the "norm." Seasonal changes also account for variations in starter behavior as well as expectations of the baker.
"After months of trying to get dough to rise with my fairly inactive babied (expensively fed) starter it was bubbling over in two days..."
It's still at the initial burst of activity stage where a second feed of these bacteria produces a very quick bubbling up.
come from where the grain was grown it doesn't have anything to do with where you live if you aren't using locally grown grain.
Starters are so easy to make from scratch, I tell folks all the time that if they don't like the flavor of the bread their starter makes just make a new one with with a different grain grown from somewhere else. Don't use well water or tap water or even RO water. like I do Use mineral water from a bottle to get them going The wee beasties love the minerals that it provides.
I don't want to name the flour I was using that didn't work because it's one of the most common ones used (I'm sure it has worked for you as it's the "King" of sourdough commercial flours). I've never had luck with it. I'm not really too broken up over it now that I know I never had to use it to begin with.
I also avoided the "Where does the yeast come from?" debate. https://gastropod.com/secrets-sourdough-transcript/
Though this podcast is entirely interesting (and a little gross).
We know where it comes from. The Idea that it comes from the water or baker or captured from the air is total total nonsense. It is like they are going pot for their way to promote old wives tales destroyed long ago by real scientists:-) We know the microbes float though the air in the field and land on the grain that is their food sources. It is harvested by machines without a human touching them, It is ground by machines without humans touching them. Many many.scientists isolate millions of these wee beasties in the ground flour without touching them in a sterile laboratory. They get completely sterile equipment and keep the air out and guess what? A starter takes off like gang busters just from the flour sterile water and no air. But they can't get that using sterile flour for some reason. the reason is that the other sources are total bink and nonsense but the original microbes did float in the air once. Josey Baker knows better.
Take some whole grain flour, say 100 g and put it in the oven at 200 F for 15 minutes and kill everything in it . take 25 g of it and put it in small sterile juice glass. Add some spring water to it say 30 g and don't cover it. Do the same thing with 25 g or fresh ground flour and add distilled water and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit 24 hours add 25 g of sterile flour and spring water to the sterile starter and leave uncovered. Add 25 g of fresh ground whole flour and water the other one and cover with plastic. Do the same thing 24 hours later. After 4 days tell yourself which one is a alive and well and which one is dead.