Cheeseboard Sourdough Starter
Submitted by trk on March 14, 2005 at 1:38 pm

DESCRIPTION
Cheeseboard Sourdough Starter

Yield 0 File under sourdough
INSTRUCTIONS

Starting Sourdough Starter
From the Cheeseboard Collective works

Day 1: Mix 3/4 cup medium rye flour (they recommend organic, I used commercially-produced and it worked well) and 1/2 cup lukewarm water together in a medium nonreactive (stainless steel, glass, plastic, or ceramic) bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand at room temp (65 to 70 F) for 48 hours. You should see small bubbles on the surface. You should use a bowl with high sides for this, since your starter will be expanding as this process progresses.

Day 3: Stir in 2/3 cup unbleached bread flour until smooth. Replace the plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature for 48 hours. You should now have large bubbles and it should begin to smell like sourdough bread.

Day 5: Remove 1/4 cup of starter and discard the rest. Rinse out the bowl, then return your reserved starter to the bowl along with 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add 2/3 cup bread flour and mix well. Let stand at room temperature for 48 hours.

Day 7: Repeat day 5 instructions.

Day 9: Repeat day 5 instructions. Allow to ferment only 24 hours. By now your starter should rise to 1.5 times its volume and fall back within a 24 hour period. If it does not rise, or if it has a bad smell, you should clean all of your utensils well and start again at day 1.

Day 10: Repeat day 5 instructions. Allow to ferment for 24 hours.

Day 11: You now have a sourdough starter. You can bake with it right away, in which case you should follow the instructions for your recipe. You can also replenish it and place it in the refrigerator for storage of up to a month. To feed it, they say to follow the day 5 instructions again. I find that doesn?t give me enough starter for most recipes, so I have started using 1/4 cup reserved starter, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup flour when I feed my starter. This gives me enough to reserve 1/4 cup immediately, so I never have to remember to reserve some of the dough to go back as starter and still have a cup or so for the first build of a recipe.

If, at any time in this process you see unpleasant colors or smells, your starter has probably become contaminated and should be discarded. They (and I) recommend washing your storage container at each feeding, rather than keeping it unwashed as some older recipes recommend. The only exception to this is a dark fluid (hooch) that can collect on top of your starter after long storage. Some recipes recommend stirring it in. They recommend discarding it, then feeding as usual. That is what I do with great success.

My favorite storage container is a quart canning jar with small holes poked in the lid. The glass is nonreactive, and easy to clean, is stores well in the fridge, and I can just grab another one out of the cupboard if the one I am using becomes too crusty. Then I do the feeding in the clean jar and can soak the other before washing.