Finally, real sourdough..

[Jafo232]

It has been a trial up here getting a sourdough starter err..... started.. With so many projects, I have let this one fall off. I threw out my old starter when we moved. I wanted to get yeasts from my new area and start from scratch.

So I set up the water and flour method and left out the container covered with a towel and began catching yeast. I thought it was going good, put it in the fridge, and poof, it either moved out or died.

So again, I set it up, and finally a couple days ago it was bubbling and having a good ol time. I have been feeding it about a 1/2 cup of rye flour a day, 1/4 cup in the morning, another at night. The bread I made yesterday was incredible. It was SO sour! My old starter tasted nothing like this. I am assuming the change of area just brought in a totally different strain of yeast/bacteria. Whatever it is, I love it.

I am really a bit apprehensive about putting it in the fridge, yet don't want to be tied down feeding it every day. I just don't make bread that often (about twice a week). Any ideas why it died out the first time I refrigerated it? I mean, I let it warm up for two days (and fed it) last time and nothing.

I guess I should split it up, and try again with one half and see if it recovers.

[The Ironic Chef]

When I made my starter it took over a week to develop and I fed it each night. After the first week I then put it in the fridge but feed it once a week. When I feed it I will add 1 cup of flour and one cup of spring water. Usually when a starter goes bad a pink liquid will be on the surface. I learned the hard way not to ever make a starter in a metal container, lol. Also when I use any for my bread I replace what I use. Do you make a sponge with your starter the night before you make your bread?

[shipscook]

Sounds like maybe it was just not a good starter to begin with? In Beard on Bread he pretty much says, if a starter hasn't developed in a few weeks it ain't going to get a lot better.
However, the one I have now I started in '98. There are several stories with it, have taken some of it to work, all over Alaska and half way around the world, came home and added it back to the mother jar.

When I worked in logging camps (before lots of water regs), the camps were floating and we moved around Southeast Alaska from job to job. We got water on a gravity feed from the nearest creek. Aways a surprise as to all the bread acted with different water. On time there was an artesian spring nearby. Water tasted great, but with lack of minerals, the bread was boring.

Reminds me of all the people I have met in Florida from New York and Chicago who swear you can't make bread or especially pizza with the water there.

If it gets pink it is dead and dangerous. When I am home, sometimes for several months, mine gets almost a black hootch on top, mix it all in with equal flour and water, toss half and do it again until it is fairly white.

Have you read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidental--where the amazing baker is a mess in every way!!! would call in and tell guys on duty "you must feed the b**ch!".

Enjoy the new "kid" and Merry Christmas!
Nan

[chubbyalaskagriz]

RE: "Have you read Bourdain's Kitchen Confidental--where the amazing baker is a mess in every way!!! would call in and tell guys on duty "you must feed the b**ch!"."

Although many have recommended it, I haven't read "Kitchen Confidential", Nan- but now I have to!

I never worked much w/ Sourdough until Alaska. It's impossible to run a kitchen up north without offering it in all it's forms from pancakes & waffles to biscuits...

[Jafo232]

My starter eventually bit the dust and it is so cold here right now, I don't feel like getting it going again. Will probably start one in the spring.

[The Ironic Chef]

My starter eventually bit the dust and it is so cold here right now, I don't feel like getting it going again. Will probably start one in the spring.

I'm thinking back to the pioneer days when all the settlers were crossing the frontier. I would think that each family had a sour dough starter. It was probably a means for survival, lol.
It's sad to think that in this day and age, if your starter goes bad you can't go to a family member or a friend and they would give you some. No one really makes sour dough any more. It's a shame.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

RE: "I'm thinking back to the pioneer days when all the settlers were crossing the frontier. "

Sourdough is still HUGE in Alaska- precisely because of these frontier days that you describe. Afterall- the frontier days aren't that distant to many Alaskans living a remote lifestyle in a harsh clime, and in many regions, it still IS those days- Ha! In fact, sourdough is such a part of The Last Frontier State that the actual term "Sourdough" is used to signify a true time-tested "pioneer" of the state- or someone who's lived there a long time.

A quick sidenote: One of my favorite restaurants in Anchorage is the "Sourdough Mining Company". Here's a link if you'd care to check out their scrumptious meat & potatoes/ribs/seafood/steakhouse menu chock-full of Alaskan classics! (click on the "menus" tab at the top, then select catering menu, lunch menu, dinner menu, etc. I always took visiting friends & family there for a "real" Alaskan dining experience!)

Sourdough Mining Company | Anchorage, Alaska

[Jafo232]

I watched one of those "How it's made" shows on the history channel a few years ago and they were doing San Fransisco sourdough. They had the head bread guy somewhere there in SF explaining how their starter was a couple hundred years old or some such thing.

This episode is what got me sold on trying to make my own starter. He explained that if you took a truckload of this starter and brought it say, to Manhattan it would do you no good. For a couple weeks sure, you would have real SF tasting sourdough but eventually the local yeasts and bacteria would find their way into it and completely change the flavor.

I think that "localness" of the yeast is the most appealing part of the entire thing. Anything you can make that very few can is always a plus. Doesn't matter how good a cook say, Cathy is, no matter what she does, she cannot make the same tasting bread as me, and vice versa when it comes to the sourdough because she lives in a different area.

[The Ironic Chef]

Jafo, I grew up in Up State New York. We had our sourdough bread that was and still is excellent. Of course it isn't a San Fransisco sourdough, lol. It was a NY sourdough. There is a bread baker in the same area that has gained some notoriety through the past years that makes excellent artisan style breads. His name is Daniel Lerner. He put out an excellent cook book several years ago called Bread Alone. He has been on PBS several times to baking as a guest on several of the stars shows. It's an excellent read that goes through the scientific methods for baking breads, making sour doughs and levains. He goes through step by step methods, tells the history on everything from starters, sponges, poolishes and recipes. In his opinion, the Catskill Mountains in New York State provides the best air for natural yeast. I am sure that any good baker from any where would say the same about their area.
I believe that when a person makes their own starter, nurtures it and makes wonderful bread with it, that's what really matters. When you take a loaf of homemade bread from the oven, cut through that thick crust and lather on the butter and take a bite. That's what is all about. Not where your from, not the yeast, not whether it's the best bread in the world. That's not what it's about. Taking that first bite of hot bread that you just baked to me is like picking that first ripe tomato of the season from your garden.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

I believe that when a person makes their own starter, nurtures it and makes wonderful bread with it, that's what really matters. When you take a loaf of homemade bread from the oven, cut through that thick crust and lather on the butter and take a bite. That's what is all about. Not where your from, not the yeast, not whether it's the best bread in the world. That's not what it's about. Taking that first bite of hot bread that you just baked to me is like picking that first ripe tomato of the season from your garden.

Oh absolutely IC, I could not agree with you more!

After discussing it with Jafo I am going to try my hand at it. What I have decided upon is to let my bowl of starter sit on a table in our screened in room outside to catch the yeast. I am even going to drive over to a place called Cave Spring, Georgia and draw up some natural spring water that bubbles up there [all the locals come to the spring and fill up gallon jugs of fresh water] I am now so excited to see what the results will be. I am even going to buy a new dish towel that has never been washed in bleached water to cover the dough with so that the bleach residue in my towel covering the dough does not impede the natural yeast. Wish me luck guys! I will let you know, GOSH I LOVE SOUR DOUGH BREAD!!!! This will be a real treat for Christmas. Thank you everone for all the great in-put, your sharing has helped me loads!