Looking for a sour dough starter

[Ducatiboy stu]

Can any fellow bakers share a small portion of there sour dough starter.

Will go to a good cause

 

[Airgead]

Drop me a pm with your address.... Fred my sourdough starter is getting on for 25 years old now.

 

[Mardoo]

For those wanting to make their own, in my 10 years doing "craft" bread all my best starters started with a bunch of unsprayed white wine grapes with some organic apple peel thrown into a slurry of 50/50 water and flour. Use red wine grapes when making rye-based starters. Sourdough Rye/Anise Seed Bread, OMFG!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thanks guys

I am kinda thinking that if I get some different ones I will combine them to see what happens

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I am going to get some organic Rye flour and try starting my own as well

 

[MartinOC]

For those wanting to make their own, in my 10 years doing "craft" bread all my best starters started with a bunch of unsprayed white wine grapes with some organic apple peel thrown into a slurry of 50/50 water and flour. Use red wine grapes when making eye-based starters. Sourdough Rye/Anise Seed Bread, OMFG!

Get thee behind me, Satan!?

Or maybe "Come-in me old son & have a cup of tea & let's have a chat"...

 

[Airgead]

I started fred maybe 25 years ago. 50/50 slurry of flour and water. Can't remember what else I did. Has been going strong ever since.

I feed him on white bakers flour but he makes a very nice rye loaf as well.

 

[Mardoo]

Mixing and matching, you end up with some cultures/traits becoming dominant and some suppressed, just like in combining yeast cultures. This can be desirable or not. Sourdough cultures are more generational than beer yeasts, simply because every split of the mother is a new generation. Starters go through ups and downs and sidewayses and you have to ride those out to get something that's life-time stable. Often that ride can take a couple years.

At the best bakery I worked with we had a 3-month dry run, followed by a 3-month cold open to work out how the sours were going to stabilise in day-to-day baking. Those folks were ******* committed to bread! Our sour fridge had about 30 small buckets of different established sours, blends, and new sours we were working with and on. Totally inspiring place to bake.

My opinion, if you get some of Airgead's culture absolutely keep and build a pure sample. Mix and match if you like, but it's damn easy to lose a special characteristic to a newly dominant bacterial strain.

Starters can easily be their own little obsessive world. Take the slippery slope of brewing, pour some sour dough starter down it and you'll reach terminal velocity.

 

[Mardoo]

Thinking about it I bet you'd get some interesting starters out of unsprayed mango peel and lychee skins.

 

[Mardoo]

Get thee behind me, Satan!?

Or maybe "Come-in me old son & have a cup of tea & let's have a chat"...

I'd settle for being able to fall asleep...just can't shake the wakes tonight.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dont worry, I shall treat a starter like yeast. ALWAYS keep some of the original and with respect

But the idea of playing with and mixing to suit what I do appeals

Have to remember that the climate is also different which will change how a dough will work, which is another reason it would be nice to get some different starters, just like yeast

 

[Mardoo]

Starters are way cool.

https://youtu.be/mSfa56tjBQo

 

[indica86]

Make your own as per sourdough.com

Mine is very old (10+ years) and very active, gets used for pizza weekly and sometimes bread.

 

[Adr_0]

I just did one with bit of rye, plain flour, water, passionfruit skins and a touch of juice. We'll see. But yeah I can appreciate it would take a while to become predictable... And in the meantime always allow more time rather than being impatient.

 

[indica86]

You don't need yeast from fruit skin. Why the juice?
Do it properly.
Unbleached organic flour and water.
Next day discard half and top up with both, rinse and repeat.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I have Airgheads and it is building up very nicely

In another 2-3 weeks I will have enough to start a loaf

 

[Adr_0]

Sorry I didn't realise that the thread was back in May so DBS is comfortably on his way anyway.

You don't need yeast from fruit skin. Why the juice?
Do it properly.
Unbleached organic flour and water.
Next day discard half and top up with both, rinse and repeat.

Ok, calm down buddy. I may not -need- yeast from fruit skin, but I have chosen to do this. It may be that the residual yeast in the flour is much higher in quantity and vitality so the fruit yeast gets overwhelmed, but then again it might dominate a bit more and give an interesting starter. Only put a little juice in for some sugar and slight acidity and similarly I appreciate that it may provide little or no benefit.

Maybe Mardoo can shed some light as he made some similar suggestions with fruit skins and he's the professional.

 

[Airgead]

When I started mine 20 odd years ago it was just flour and water but I do see a lot of instructions that add fruit juice or raisins or something like that. I suspect it's more as a source of easily accessible sugar than as a source of yeast (even though a lot of them say it's for the yeast).

Fruit juice may also acidify things and help get the pH down until the lacto builds up naturally.

Flour and water works but the juice might just give it a faster start.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well unwashed grapes and sultanas have natural yeast on their skin....

Kinda makes sense to me

 

[indica86]

Ok, calm down buddy.

Um, yes.
I can certainly see how I needed to calm down.