create a sourdough starter

On Day 5, I had to leave town for a family emergency. The starter wasn’t mature yet, but I had no choice except to refrigerate it. I gave it a nice big feeding first. Upon returning today (more than 2 weeks later), I could see the starter had grown to the top of the jar and then fallen to the point that it was about double the initial size. I stirred it up, discarded half, fed it, and am letting it sit back on the warm shelf again. I hope it makes it, but I won’t cry if I have to start over.

Ok, whatever microscopic critter caused the starter mixture to double in size by the 24 hour mark was definitely not yeast. At the next 2-3 feedings, the starter hadn’t risen at all. While I wouldn’t say that it smelled like death, it did develop a strong odor remarkably like old vomit. Nasty.

I persevered in the feedings, and by yesterday, the starter had developed tons of little bubbles. Over the past couple feedings, the starter has risen remarkably, more than doubling in size over the course of five hours before slowly falling. The top looks puffy and frothy. I think I’m finally growing some yeasties.

The smell has become…interesting. When the bubbles appeared again, there was one feeding where the starter actually smelled like sourdough bread. Now it smells a bit like very overripe fruit: not rotten exactly, but sweet with a touch of decay. If all goes well, it should be smelling boozy in the next couple days.

12 hours after beginning the starter, I added another 50g of warm tap water and 50g of whole wheat flour. The mixture had the dense consistency of play-doh, and shockingly looked and smelled exactly like damp flour.

At the 24 hour mark, the starter had doubled in volume and started to bubble (see pic). The top was covered with a moist layer of goo, but underneath that the starter had become light and stretchy instead of a dense wad. It still smelled a lot like flour, but there seemed to be yeasty overtones.

I discarded half of the starter (tip for making your landlord love you: dump wet flour in the garbage disposal), and added another 50g of water and 50g of flour, stirring well between each addition. I’ll repeat this process every 12 hours for at least a week.

So far, so good.

I’m using Mike Avery’s incredibly thorough but weirdly snarky and condescending instructions on starting a starter. However, I am totally disregarding his advice to novices to use an established starter and am beginning from scratch instead. He will no doubt flame me for doing so.

I started with 50g of organic stone-ground whole wheat flour and 50g of warm water. It’s sitting in an old Prego jar on a shelf above the sink that’s slightly warmed by a recessed flourescent light. We shall see.

I’ve been letting it sit, and today I added 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water.

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THAT STUFF SMELLS LIKE PURE EVIL.

Like, it’s fine when it’s in the container, and you can’t smell anything, but the combination of a slightly upset stomach, just having had dinner, and smelling the starter when I had to mix it left me dangerously close to vomiting. It’s nothing as bad as dead snail, mind you (dead snail being the most foul thing I have ever smelled in my 21 years of existence), but it’s up there.

OMG.

Next time, I will mess around with my starter WAY after my last meal. I hope my apartment doesn’t smell like this all night. Maybe I should have started this project in the summer…

I started my sourdough starter today! :D

Here it is chilling with my tomato, garlic, paper towels, and my roommate’s cactus. I added some potato pieces in a cheesecloth for food.

My roommate already called dibs on some of the starter when it’s ready, so I don’t have to worry about it making the entire kitchen smell terrible (since he’s getting something out of this, too).

So, I want to do this not to make sourdough, but to make injera. I had no idea you even needed a sourdough starter until I saw this site, but I LOVE Ethiopian food, and I really want to try to make it at home.

I plan on using the instructions from that site, and I’m going to start it after my vacation this month so I can be sure to feed it properly!

More rye meal, more water..

I almost forgot! Just added more rye meal and water.

I started it today with rye meal and water.