Starting a starter

[skelflesh]

A few cryptic posts from last autumn hinted that I was experimenting with sourdough starter. I did considerable research about it online first, and discovered that everyone says something different. From that, I concluded (and experience bears this out) that the stuff is remarkably flexible, and there isn't a single right way to approach it. Consequently, through trial and a bit of error, I ended up developing my own starter and my own method of handling it. It gives me consistently reliable results whether I'm making pizza dough, bread, breadsticks, or rolls, even though I make the dough almost entirely without measurements (I measure only the salt and the sugar, and since everything else is merely eyeballed, that's probably not necessary either.)

Growing a wild starter of a ton of myth and mysticism, but I found it was really easy. In fact, it was even easier than growing the store-bought starter I was using as a control. (The packaged Goldrush performed unsatisfactorily, which may have been my fault for keeping it in the fridge so long before using it.)

Only four things are necessary to grow a wild starter:

1. A sterilized container with a non-airtight lid
2. Rye flour, as fresh as possible
3. Clean water (I use bottled; since untreated tapwater can kill fish, I'm not going to trust it with my precious yeasts.)
4. Patience!

I think a lot of people try establishing a starter and give up too early. Be prepared to give it a full week or two to mature. The trick is not getting too excited when it first foams and shows signs of life in the first few days, or too discouraged when, around the same time, you notice that it smells awful and surely isn't working. Just ignore it and keep feeding it every day. By all means avoid trying to use it at this stage. The explanation I gleaned from my research is that a bacterial culture develops first (hence the bad smell.) Only after the bacteria begin to die off, creating a more acidic environment, does the yeast begin to thrive. Once the yeast are healthily established, the starter should be sufficiently acidic to be safe from bacteria. You'll know when the yeast culture is thriving because of the smell: a "fruity, beery smell" is the description I read somewhere, and it matched my own experience. I suggest smelling it every day, since this is the best measure I've found of the starter's condition. After you know what it's supposed to smell like, you'll know if it starts to go off.

Research also suggested that the yeasts that develop in a wild starter come from the flour itself, which is why you want to begin with reasonably fresh rye flour. After the starter is established, you can switch it to white with no problem. However, there seems to be a prevailing belief that the starter captures "wild yeasts from the air." After reading about experiments with sterilized flour that wouldn't take, I'm more inclined to believe that it comes from the flour than "the air." It also just seems more plausible that if yeasts occur naturally in flour anyway, those are the strains that are more likely to flourish than whatever stray yeasts might happen to fall into it from above (keeping in mind moreover that there is a lid on the container, limiting the air samples.) Still, nearly everyone to whom I mention the project brings up the "wild yeasts from the air" theory, so I've given up trying to argue. I do, however, have an alternative theory for why sourdough has historically been so successful in the San Francisco Bay area. Live here for a few years, and you discover that this place has no seasons. None whatsoever. Sometimes it rains... that's about as close as we get to a real season. The temperature, which is the seasonal indicator in most places, it maddeningly, excruciatingly, level year round, the mercury stuck between 60 and 70 degrees. I hate it (give me another ten degrees and I'd be content,) but yeasts, I suspect, love it. In the nineteenth century, before refrigeration and climate-controlled houses (not that any house I've lived in here is climate-controlled as such, the concept of insulation never seemed to catch on) this would have been the best imaginable environment in which to maintain a sourdough starter.

That said, I will indulge in the luxury of a potential contradiction by stating that I believe I lost my first starter by trying to maintain it at room temperature. Maybe this is because I do my best to keep my house a little warmer than the frigid outdoors, or maybe it had something to do with how I was feeding it. The precise cause is uncertain, but over the weeks I discovered that I was fighting a losing battle with the tendency of the starter to become increasingly acidic. The smell was changing, transforming from the pleasant "fruity, beery" smell into a sharper, more acrid odor that reminded me of acetone. (Sometimes I smell the same thing in red wine.) Frequent feedings checked the tendency somewhat, and it got to the point where I was feeding it not once but twice a day, but it still wasn't enough. It got to the point where the starter was so acidic that it was making dough that would tear when stretched too thin, and at that point I threw it out and started over.

I don't remember precisely when I made my current batch, but it must be over six months old by now. I keep this one in the refrigerator, and feed it only once a week when I use it. So far this method has preserved a much more stable culture, and has the added benefit of being a lot easier-practically no-maintenance. The only trick is planning ahead for when I'm going to use, so I can take it out the night before and double it through a couple feedings in order to have enough sponge to work with. Whatever residue remains in the jar after pouring out the rest, usually just a couple spoonfuls, I feed a couple more times and then return to the refrigerator. Usually the jar contains no more than a quarter to half a cup while it's in storage.

The best jar for this purpose, by far, is one of those old fashioned glass canning jars with a glass lid held on by a wire contraption that I've just discovered is called a "wire bail." I found them in all sizes very reasonably priced at my local hardware store. If you don't use the accompanying rubber seal, it will leave enough room for the culture to breathe even while the lid remains securely fastened.

o look: the science.