How to start a sour dough starter

[DrakeMaiden]

I got bubbles, but no hooch.

I don't think hooch is important, so I wouldn't worry about it. I get it sometimes and sometimes I don't. It is not indicative of the health of the starter, as far as I can tell. I think it is more likely to form in warmer weather, or if the starter is left too long between feedings.

The bubbles are what you want to see. But you especially want to see the doubling after feeding. I think it took 5-7 days for my starter to go from the just bubbling stage to the doubling stage. So, bubbles are good . . . just be patient and wait for the doubling!

 

[Dace]

Yes, using unbleached.

I like your idea of gradually making the switch! Duh, maybe that will help keep things moving. I would love to be using it soon, but I don't mind the wait, I just don't want to kill it...that is my worry!

5-7 days is nothing....ok I will add back in a little rye and be more patient.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

As long as your starter is doubling, and has been doubling, you can bake with it. You won't notice the small amount of wheat or rye flour that is in the starter when you make a white flour bread, so the starter doesn't have to be 100% white. At least I don't notice the small amount of rye flour when I bake with mine.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

I notice that my sourdough is more or less sour depending upon how long I let the dough rise for the first rise. If I want it to be more like normal bread (not sour), I will let it rise in the oven, so it will rise quickly. Otherwise I let it take all day to get nice and sour.

I would do that too, and only sour the ones that I want to taste really Mexican. I start those the night before but I just found that after the starter had been in the fridge they never got as sour, no matter how long I left them. Starters should get better with age and mine did not if I involved the fridge. No idea why, but they say each location will have a unique starter.

 

[mamagoose]

I'm wondering if I have the right thing growing in my starter. I use just the store brand bleached white flour, but I didn't have any problem getting it to double, bubble, toil, and......sorry got carried way . I leave mine out on the counter (it's about 85` in my kitchen) , cut in half , and double once in the morning. It has a strong sour smell.

Am I just lucky or have I got something icky in my jar, cause it sounds like ya'll are working a lot harder than me.

 

[Dace]

Mamagoose....what you actually want is a sweet ripe banana like smell. The sour smell may be other beasties at work. Whole wheat and rye flour has something like 200 times more microorganisms than heavily processed white flour....it is pretty dead. You may want to re-try with some rye flour....and/or keep yours going and see what happens. The lactobacillis that you want really does not come from the air, that is somewhat of an old wives tale. The good bacteria comes from the flour.

Feeding #14

So I think I know where I got off track....I AM using bleached flour
which I NEVER buy...could be that I had Hubby or DD pick it up a while ago, and just never noticed.

So last night I had Hubby pick up some unbleached King Arthur and I have now fed twice with a combo of that and rye. We'll see if I can't revive this puppy!

Good lesson though....stay away from the bleached stuff :/

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Speaking of flours ... I want to buy mine in 50# bags ... or even 25 ... But after looking everywhere I can find only bleached white flour in that size. I wonder if I'm just too cheap for not wanting to pay almost $1/pound (sometimes more!) for decent flour.

The rye for my starter was almost $6 for 5 pounds.

 

[Dace]

Shiloh...keep in mind, it doesn't take much rye to get your starter going, you will switch over to unbleached white flour after about 5 or so days. You may have to place some calls to your local stores and see if someone has unbleached in bulk.

The experienced SD girls here suggest that a higher priced higher quality flour is worth it for your SD.

 

[mamagoose]

Thanks Dace....I had a sneaking suspicion that something wasn't right after reading up on what ya'll have been doing here.

 

[Dace]

So mamagoose.....whacha gonna do? Add rye or whole wheat?

Go back to pg 9 and read my post # 85...the vacant lot story. It may make sense to you after reading that