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Make your own sourdough

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Re: Make your own sourdough

#121

Post by cpfohl »

dmos62 wrote: post #62
drsim wrote: post #24

If you live in Denmark, the Meyers bakeries will give you free starter, just bring a container: https://www.meyersmad.dk/om-meyers/meyers-virksomheder/meyer...

Same everywhere where there's artisan bread-making. Just ask if they have some and they'll gladly gift it to you or tell you when to come back.

I started sour-doughing last fall (My wife liked it better than my brewing hobby since it took shorter chunks of time and she liked the final product).

My local bakery actually wouldn't give or sell me a starter because, and I quote, "I'd feel bad selling something like that, and it's too easy to start yourself".

He then gave me instructions for starting the starter myself.

It's been fun, and way less fussy than the internet likes to make it out to be. Except this page. Y'all seem to have the same abusive relationship to your starters as I do,.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#122

Post by DanAndersen »

If anyone is looking for frugal yet meaningful gifts for Christmas, etc, I found great success by making gifts of my sourdough starter to some close friends and family. Some time beforehand, I started to split up and increase the amount of starter I was growing, then printed little laminated labels with instructions for feeding the starter (and an example recommended bread recipe that was easy to make), and attached it to the mason jars in which I was storing the starter.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#123

Post by tonyarkles »

nimbius wrote: post #117

while this is an excellent introduction to creating a sourdough starter this doesnt cover oven temperatures, bulk ferment, shaping, or the obvious use of a banneton for final rise. There is every possibility you'll be able to create this starter and still end up with a pancake. The final picture in the link is absurd. The crumb is too wet to do much more than gum up a bread knife and the crust is undefined. in the fi…

Just to make sure we're clear on this, since I'm relatively new to breadmaking and have so far only followed exact recipes... 80% hydration refers to mass ratios, correct? 80% hydration = 100g flour to 80g water?

Re: Make your own sourdough

#124

Post by CuriouslyC »

enoch_r wrote: post #115
lmilcin wrote: post #55

Recipe is fine for sure, and I was doing this for a long time, but some time ago I have learned superior way of keeping sourdough. The oft cited recipe asks for feeding it every day and also keeping something like 100% hydration. Remembering to feed it every day is a major hassle for me. My sourdough is a piece of bread dough that is enough to use for my next batch. Basically, after first rise and before I shape my b…

I'm not sure if I'm cargo-culting here or just trying to figure out the point of Chesterton's fence, but I would be worried about the effects of significant amounts of salt in sourdough starter. Salt could theoretically inhibit yeast growth less (or more) than bacteria, potentially causing the ratio to move in an unhealthy, less flavorful, more sour, or less voluminous direction. If it works and tastes good though, t…

Lactobacilli are among the most salt tolerant of common bacteria. In fact, when making wild ferments, the salt is what selects for them (if you make low salt wild ferments, they're less sour and have off flavors). Yeast do alright in high salinity, but they need oxygen to thrive.

Salt-containing starters will taste fine and be healthy as the short chain fatty acids produced by the lactobacilli are what give most of the flavor and health benefits. Your rise might be a little bit weak though. The best thing you can do is take it out frequently and fold it a few times to oxygenate the dough.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#125

Post by enoch_r »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #124
enoch_r wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I'm cargo-culting here or just trying to figure out the point of Chesterton's fence, but I would be worried about the effects of significant amounts of salt in sourdough starter. Salt could theoretically inhibit yeast growth less (or more) than bacteria, potentially causing the ratio to move in an unhealthy, less flavorful, more sour, or less voluminous direction. If it works and tastes good though, t…

Lactobacilli are among the most salt tolerant of common bacteria. In fact, when making wild ferments, the salt is what selects for them (if you make low salt wild ferments, they're less sour and have off flavors). Yeast do alright in high salinity, but they need oxygen to thrive. Salt-containing starters will taste fine and be healthy as the short chain fatty acids produced by the lactobacilli are what give most of t…

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Re: Make your own sourdough

#126

Post by hendricius »

tonyarkles wrote: post #123
nimbius wrote: post #117

while this is an excellent introduction to creating a sourdough starter this doesnt cover oven temperatures, bulk ferment, shaping, or the obvious use of a banneton for final rise. There is every possibility you'll be able to create this starter and still end up with a pancake. The final picture in the link is absurd. The crumb is too wet to do much more than gum up a bread knife and the crust is undefined. in the fi…

Just to make sure we're clear on this, since I'm relatively new to breadmaking and have so far only followed exact recipes... 80% hydration refers to mass ratios, correct? 80% hydration = 100g flour to 80g water?

Exactly.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#127

Post by legohead »

lostlogin wrote: post #68
lmilcin wrote: post #55

Recipe is fine for sure, and I was doing this for a long time, but some time ago I have learned superior way of keeping sourdough. The oft cited recipe asks for feeding it every day and also keeping something like 100% hydration. Remembering to feed it every day is a major hassle for me. My sourdough is a piece of bread dough that is enough to use for my next batch. Basically, after first rise and before I shape my b…

I’ve got a lazier option. Get some starter, add 70g of flour, 100g water and leave it overnight. Then stick it in the fridge and use it like you’d use a very slow working shop bought yeast (and maybe 20g at a time). Don’t feed it till it gets low. Treat it mean, any more effort on it is wasted. Mine’s coming up on 10 years old now and is just fine. I accidentally put it in the freezer and lost it for a month, I think…

Even lazier option - go ask for some starter from a bakery.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#129

Post by verelo »

On the topic of bread for a moment: I recently started making my own bread. I bought a book on the topic by Ken Forkish "Flour water salt yeast", and I've fallen in love with the process.

The recipes are great, but the first few chapters that cover his journey to making bread, a bit of the science behind it and talking about the less scientific components of what almost sounds like "luck" (Really, just super detailed experimentation and careful repetition once you get the variables right) in the process of getting the perfect rise.

I've got to admit, i'm not a big reader, but there is something about the way Ken put this book together that I really enjoy. Maybe it's that he worked for IBM before becoming a baker and we both think like technical individuals? Maybe it's just good writing and I need to experience more of it? Whatever it is, I'd encourage you to buy the book...i've got no skin in the game, but bread making is great and his methods are slow but fun (My first bread took 18 hours to go through the whole process).

Re: Make your own sourdough

#130

Post by caffeine5150 »

I started making sourdough out of law school back in the late 90's when I got Nancy Silverton's book on the topic (La Brea Bakery Founder). I baked bread back then, but found it too exacting and inconsistent. I began again years later after starting a family and almost every weekend we make the amazing sourdough pancakes and waffles in Silverton's book. We maintain a starter that's 60% water and 40% flour by weight. It stays in the fridge during the week. We pull it out Friday morning, feed it midday and night and it's ready to go in the morning a repeat for Sunday. Then it gets a small feeding and goes back in the fridge. It can stay there for up to a few weeks. The pancakes are excellent and light I believe because the yeast digests much of the flour. You don't have that heavy feeling after eating them. The waffles are the best I've had anywhere. I have a one-page spreadsheet that has the feeding recipe and schedule for various batch sizes and the recipes for the waffles and pancakes if anyone is interested. We also make kefir soda from water kefir grains, which is really good. Naturally carbonated soda that's not too sweet and is probiotic.
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