Sourdough bread

[OrganicallyGrown]

Hello,

I'm curious if anyone makes sourdough bread and has an ongoing starter. My starter is having problems. I usually cover it with a plate with a little gap to let air in and out. Lately, bugs have been getting in so I tried covering with a cloth. Then a horrible smell came from the starter as it went 'off'. I composted and am going to start another (which I do my simply adding flour and water and letting sit for a week with open air).

Any experienced sourdough bakers?

warmly,
jenn

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

You might get more responce in the "Nutrition and Good Eating" board.

What did i smell like? I've had starter get a very "hoochy" alcohol smell. But it was still ok.

How old was the starter? Sometimes when you "catch" a wild yeast culture, you can "catch" a bacteria insted. The flour and water will bubble and you'll think you have something but it isn't yeast and won't work the same way. It will die during the baking process and won't hurt you but your bread won't rise and it can sometimes smell bad. Once your flour and water start bubbling, divide and feed your culture a few times before you try baking with it. If it expands well each time you feed it (it will take about 12 hours to expand to it's limit and then it will fall back) than you've got a good yeast culture. If it desn't want to rise again after the first rush bubbles than you have bacteria and you need to toss it and start again.

HTH

[Naturalyst]

I kept my starter in the refrigerator, continuing to "feed" and use it for more than a year before I got tired of sourdough.

[OrganicallyGrown]

why do you want to divide and feed it? I don't follow this part.

Thanks for the help...does sound like I could have got bacteria.

warmly,
jenn

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

When you pour of some of the starter and add more water and flour (divide and feed) it activates it to rise. You could just add flour and water, but you would eventually end up with too starter for your jar. You don't really want to use the starter until your sure it's good so you don't want to make a loaf out of the extra starter like you would once it is established.

Basicaly you are just doing this to be sure that you have yeast and not bacteria. Bacteria won't rise after the first or maybe second cycle. If you can get your starter to rise 3 times, you can be fairly sure it's good.

Once you have a good starter, the yeast itself (or themselves, theres lot's of the litte critters in there and probably several diferant speicies) will croud out any bacteria that try to grow. To help be sure though you should transfer your starter to a clean jar every time you use it.

I keep mine on my counter with a tightly woven cotton cloth heald in place with a rubber band.

[Meiri]

I just started doing this, and making bread without adding any additional yeast. I got my starter from King Arthur Flour, though there are other sources. I wouldn't trust what I might catch around here to do the wild capture method.

Here's really good informative "About Sourdough" page:
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/sourdo.htm

I keep mine in the refrigerator, with the understanding that I need to feed, and hopefully bake, more often than every 4 weeks. I take it out to warm up in the evening, then feed and bake the next day. I'm using the Challah recipe from Molly Katzen's Enchanted Brocolli Forest cookbook.