Soughdough: Create Starter

How To Make Your Own Sourdough Starter:

I am trying to explain how to CAPTURE wild yeast and make sourdough starter. For thousands of years, sourdough was the only way to leaven bread… commercial dry yeast is a modern, bland, engineered version of the yeasts that are available in the local airs all around the world. We attract wild yeasties into our Sourdough Pot with, essentially, flour and water. Kinda like if we had a small fish bowl with water in it but no fish. If fish floated in the air, eventually one would flop into the aquarium, they don’t, so that won’t happen. Yeasties are different, they are floating around. If you make an environment that is an attractive place for yeasties to live they will eventually come… and multiply… and evolve… mature… die… generation after generation. That is what the following is, an outline on how to trap wild, floating little yeasties with a mixture that is tasty and attractive to yeasties.
Good luck… I Promise it works… let me know it goes
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Things You’ll Need

* Glass Jar/ Container -> 1 Liter… extra space ‘cause this stuff expands when active. Also known as “Sourdough Pot”
* 1 to 2 Cups Flour -> Enough to make a thick batter. I suggest using white flour at this point as it is easier to capture the wild yeast.
* 1 Tablespoon Sugar -> Sugar is speed for yeast. Don’t get over zealous with this business. Use sugar to nudge, not fuel.
* 2 Cups Potato Water -> Cut a medium sized potato into several chunks, boil like hell till they fall apart. Mash potato into water, stir to even consistency & measure out 2 cups.
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Directions


1. Put POTATO WATER, FLOUR, and SUGAR into Glass Container. Stir till smooth.
2. COVER LIGHTLY: It must breathe. You are capturing living creatures; they need, Food (flour/ potato/ sugar), Water, and Oxygen to live. If your container has a lid, just set it on top, if not, use tin foil and cover. As long as the cover is not air tight
3. SET IN WARM PLACE: With summer coming on, this is much easy to do… else, set on top of hot water heater or fridge
4. STIR AT LEAST ONCE A DAY with a wooden spoon… You may not need to use a wooden spoon but I enjoy having one that is only for sourdough as it will confuse any person who has it taken from their hand as they go to stir the sauce on the stove.
5. Every other day ADD a couple of tablespoons each of FLOUR & WATER… fresh feed.
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IS IT WORKING?

So how are you supposed to know if your sourdough is actually starting to happen? Easy, BUBBLES. Another good reason for using a glass container, you can see into the sides of your batter.
Within 2 to 6 days bubbles should appear, this is a sign that the little yeasties are in your batter breathing/ respirating. If after 6 days there is no sign of yeasties (unlikely), throw your batch away… by that time I’m sure it smells less than pleasant.
· Once you see signs of bubbles (tiny bubbles) stir in a little bit, equal parts, flour and water.
· Once there is a lot of activity (fizzy, foamy action), stir well, and transfer ½ cup of your initial starter to a bowl. In that bowl, ADD 1 cup FLOUR and 1 cup WATER (with starter, always think equal parts flour and water)
· Stir till smooth and cover lightly with tin foil. Within 24hrs, there should be lots of activity, bubbles… once this is obvious, throw out your original, days old batch… transfer the starter that is in the bowl into your clean glass container
· You now have sourdough starter
· SOON I will give some tips on tending to your starter (can be kept alive indefinitely) and rough recipes that you can use your sourdough with… bread & pancakes (different than the IHOP junkie ones you are familiar with)