It may take a little time, but making a good starter is easy! It is best to use organically grown flour and non-chlorinated water because they contain no chemicals which might kill the wild yeast.
Actually the directions given are in this recipe are complete. I have a wild starter that I started this exact way (filtered water instead of bottled) over thirty years ago. I use it to make bread in a bread machine and to make sourdough waffles. I've almost lost it a couple of times, but after adding a little more unbleached flour and filtered water it bounces right back. Again, I've kept this strain going for over thirty years.
Read MoreI have this exact starter. I love it. I gave you 3 stars due to you saying throw a cup or two down the drain. #1 throwing it down the drain will eventualy clog your drain. #2 instead of throwing it away make a banana bread of Pancakes waffels or english muffins with it. TIP. Instead of using 2 cups of water and 2 cups of water to start your starter. Use 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cuo of flour. I keep approximately 1 cup of starter in the fridge at all times and when I feed I take out 1/2 cup and save it till I have enough to use or I will use it as a sponge starter for a recepie. I do not throw it away. If you must throw it away put it in a paper towel and place it in your compost pile.
Read MoreActually the directions given are in this recipe are complete. I have a wild starter that I started this exact way (filtered water instead of bottled) over thirty years ago. I use it to make bread in a bread machine and to make sourdough waffles. I've almost lost it a couple of times, but after adding a little more unbleached flour and filtered water it bounces right back. Again, I've kept this strain going for over thirty years.
I have this exact starter. I love it. I gave you 3 stars due to you saying throw a cup or two down the drain. #1 throwing it down the drain will eventualy clog your drain. #2 instead of throwing it away make a banana bread of Pancakes waffels or english muffins with it. TIP. Instead of using 2 cups of water and 2 cups of water to start your starter. Use 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cuo of flour. I keep approximately 1 cup of starter in the fridge at all times and when I feed I take out 1/2 cup and save it till I have enough to use or I will use it as a sponge starter for a recepie. I do not throw it away. If you must throw it away put it in a paper towel and place it in your compost pile.
I'm two weeks into starting and I've yielded 2 loves of wonderful tangy bread using the "Sourdough Bread III" recipe from this site. I will admit, I wondered how this was all going after week 1. There didn't seem to be much activity, but after doing a search online, I found a sourdough forum. I was comforted knowing I wasn't the only clueless newbie to sourdough bread. The fact that my second loaf turned out well was also confirmation that things are okay. Make sure to use bottled or filtered water. Chlorine from tap water could stop the chemistry. I started with 1/2 cup each flour and water. 2 cups seemed too much when I would only have time to make bread on the weekend. Now I keep in the fridge and 'feed' once a week. Approximately 12 hours before making bread, I take it out of the fridge, feed, and allow it to reach room temp.
Perfect directions for capturing/cultivating wild yeast. The person who said the directions were not complete needs to just do a little research. It is really this simple. If your pot bubbles, you have wild yeast colonizing your pot. Thats it. From there you just need to feed it once in awhile and find a few good recipes. To the person who said it separated. It is supposed to do that. If it separated that quickly it means you probably missed the bubbling process because you have extremely active yeast. That's a good thing. LOL The liquid on top is the stuff that ferments to make sourdough sour. Stir it together when you are ready to use it. One more thing.... I too am sad to think of pouring it down the drain. Just make something with it. Sourdough french bread only takes flour, water, sugar, and salt. Easy peasy. Though I have never heard of sourdough starter clogging your drain. As long as you wash it through with water, you shouldn't have a problem.
This is my first time trying to start a starter, and it was frothing and bubbling after only 24 hours. I'm very pleased. I'll update when I bake with it after it ages a little. Update: smelled atrocious and I had to throw it out after only 1 feeding. The smell was driving us out of the kitchen.
There are thousands of strains of wild yeast floating around in the air. There are some starters that date back hundreds of years! There are sourdough starter clubs that can be found on the internet where they will send you a bit of their starter so that you can have your own supply. This recipe does not explain in detail how to start your starter (so only 3 stars) but flour and water is really all it takes. I had some starter started but my husband thought it was something I accidentally left out and he threw it away. GRR! I'll be trying again real soon though!
My husband has went into a craze of eating sourdough and this recipe seemed so easy. I used both bread flour and all purpose flour to feed my starter and filtered water. It was growing nicely and made some great pancakes so I made some biscuits and then some loaf bread. it is still doing great. Perhaps those who failed used tap water with chlorine?
Love your ideas!!! just starting on my sourdough conquest but makes me sad to read "pour some of the starter down the drain" upon feeding this hard to master artform...why not try sharing with neighbors, family, friends first before pouring down the drain literally. Thank you for your tips...can't wait to try.
Haven't started one yet but am curious as how to measure and use in cooking. If a recipe calls for 1 package of yeast (.25 oz) how is that measured out in the recipe?
It was hard for me to wait 2 days to use this starter. It did start bubbleing right away. It started to smell sour after about 2 days. After following the sourdough bread lll recipe on this site I put it on the rise. I could see it rise before my eyes! I am dead serious. I was so excited. I decided to feed my starter and put it in the refrigerator. I showed it to my husband so he would not throw it out. I can't wait until tomorrow to see how much more this dough has risen.
I started mine a couple days ago and fed it 2 times a day. It works very well and produces a delicious bread. The best part is, once you get it going, you will not have to start again unless it molds or gets thrown out.
I couldn't get this to work. It separated within a few hours of mixing each time, and never formed bubbles substantially.
This is a great starter recipe! I'd have used a smaller ratio, but this is very good. and for anyone asking how much 1 pkg of yeast related to in a homemade starter, its 2 and 1/4 tsp of yeast starter.
Have kept a starter for years, I feed it with the water from my potatoes after boiling them. I use organic and have grown them myself. I also scrub before placing in kettle and strain the liquid after removing the potatoes. Then refrigerate in a glass container. When my starter needs fed..it is on the counter year-round in a stone crock with loose lid...I remove from refrigerator, shake it and pour out desired amount. I NEVER have added yeast to my starter and have fed it with whole wheat, rye, white, potatoes, or any other flour I desire with no change in its consistency
Although I have not used this exact recipe, I use this same method to make my own sourdough starters. Filtered water is very important as I have found using chlorinated water leaves an off, almost bad, smell. The only issues I have had with sourdough starters is the lid of my container blows off during high levels of activity. This has been the end of all my starters as the starter turns an unappealing grey color if exposed to air too long.
I would suggest a few changes. To make sure you get plenty of natural yeast to get the process going, for the 1st week use organic whole wheat or rye flour. You'll get more yeast from the outer membrane of whole grain flour than from white processed flour. Later on all purpose flour is great for feeding. Unless you are making a lot of bread often, keep about 200g of starter or you'll go through a lot of flour quickly even if you refrigerate for a week. At 200g, when you want to feed for bread making you can add another 100g of flour and 100g water without discarding any starter. That way you'll have the starter you need for bread and still have about the same amount of reserve starter left before your next feeding. A wide mouth pint mason jar with the lid set lighty on the top makes for good storage. Set the jar in a plastic bowl to catch the occasional overflow. To minimize overflow, add a little extra water for a slightly thinner mixture, That way the bubbles will be able to rise through the starter without causing a large foamy mass to overflow your container. Finally don't throw away your excess starter. Freeze it and keep it in case your starter dies in the early stages. You can thaw the excess and continue with a live batch. Also keep the excess and use it for pancake batter. Just keep adding the excess to a plastic bowl. Refrigerate or freeze the excess and thaw as needed. When ready to use the excess just throw in a little oil, an egg, some sugar and a little v
Makes great bread with the Sourdough Bread III recipe with a few minor adjustments to the recipe.
This was so easy and worked perfectly! I started out with the 1/2 recipe, then ended up making the full recipe as well. Excellent!
I just racked off my apple wine and started using the Lees (spent yeast) to make hamburger buns. I used regular yeast to start my wine and thought it might be good to experiment and not waste it. I put one tablespoon of the lees in with the recipe amount of water and one teaspoon of sugar and allowed it to ferment for a few hours before it became active. Perhaps I'll try boiling the water beforehand and cooling it, as I used tap water straight from the tap it would contain chlorine and I see lots of posts about bottled water, which is basically tap water passed through a filter. Boiling water drives out chlorine and this may speed up the fermentation. Thanks for your forum.
Great starter!! Mine almost grew out of the bowl the 1st. day. I used it on the third day to make sourdough bread using the "Sourdough III " recipe. Awesome!!! It smelled fantastic and tasted even better!! It makes your mouth water, it smells so good. And the taste is out of this world!!
I didn’t throw away any of my starter. I did put it in the fridge instead of the countertop, so I feed once a week; 1/4 c of each (water and flour).
Its has been unusually cold here in Indiana this month of May so I am not sure if the recipe is defective or just to cold I have treied it 3 times and have no good bubblely yeast happen
I just made this, just acouple of questions. When you feed it does it matter how much flour and water you add? It seems like doubling the recipe every 2 days would be way too much.
I made this with rye flour and only used 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of bottled water after about 2 1/2 days it was ready. I am so happy with this recipe it was so easy!
This is exactly the old fashion sour dough starter! Love it, and you can use other types of flour also.
After a recently developed joy in backing and watching Cooked, episode on Air, I decided to try my hand at making my own yeast. After an internet search I landed on this recipe to try. I incorporated the ingredients yesterday, which was SUPER easy, placed the glass mixing bowl with towel over it on the counter, and this morning there was already separation; based on comments read here, that is a good thing. Once I try the yeast I will update my review.
Came back to add a photo, so easy!
I have to get some filtered water first, then I will get this puppy going. I love the simplicity of it. We might have to move in 6 months due to hubs job, so, if my starter collapses,dies, or whatever, it will be quick and painless to start all over again. I sure hope this will work in Herman recipes!
I recently received a recipe just like this one, only starting with less. It just got 'done' and I am anxious to try it! It's so easy to make! I like the idea of capturing the wild yeast rather than using the commercial.
