Feeding sourdough Hearth Bread and Flatbread Discuss Feeding sourdough in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; James, Allan Scott in his book "Bread Builders..." has a nice routine for making a tangy sourdough and keeping his ...

[MoonshineBaker]

James, Allan Scott in his book "Bread Builders..." has a nice routine for making a tangy sourdough and keeping his starter going. Sometimes I follow Scott's technique feeding the sourdough twice before starting the bread - but I use Hamelman's recipe adding 10% rye flour. This gives a real earthy San Francisco style tangy sourdough. Other times for a medium sourdough, I feed once and put away some for the starter. And for a mild sourdough, I feed it once, take off some for the starter and then add regular yeast. The crust and crumb are similar in each of the above; from my limited experiences, the amount of hydration seems to be the determining factor for the crust and crumb textures. Richard

[egalecki]

I'm making a starter- I started with organic rye flour and water. I started it on Sunday, and following the recipe I have, I added some water and AP flour this morning. This afternoon it's exploded all over my counter three times. Evidently I have a lot of yeasties in the air here. I have moved it into a larger bowl and covered it, but now what do I do? I'm not supposed to make bread until Thursday by the recipe, but I think I'm going to have to do something before then!

Do I: 1) move it to 2 different bowls or 2) just go ahead and make bread tomorrow? I don't want to make it so the sourdough yeast isn't predominant, but I didn't use any IDY at all, so unless they're floating around too, there isn't any in this wild brew. It doesn't smell like sourdough starter yet to me. Will it still do its thing in the fridge?

[rlf5]

Wow that's pretty fast to have a new starter that active. You may actually have bacteria doing that instead of the yeast. If it dies out in a day or two and is not nearly as active as it was, then that was probably it. If the activity remains the same in the next few days, then you're in luck and you have some pretty active yeasties. Just keep on tossing half and then feeding it until you plan on making bread.

[egalecki]

I don't have any funny colors going on, which is what I understand you get with the wrong bacteria. I'll see what it's doing tomorrow morning (probably climbing on my counter again). My recipe didn't say anything about feeding and discarding half, so maybe that's what I'll do. At this point I have more than plenty to discard half and still have lots left.

I hope it's yeast and not bacteria! We'll see in the morning...

[egalecki]

Ok, it's slowed down, thank goodness. Still bubbles and things, but not exploding on the counter anymore. It also smells more like I was expecting. Not curl-your-toes sour, but a little bit sour and sort of beerish. I'm going to feed it this evening and set it out ready to make bread tomorrow morning- I hope it works!