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| I have used the King Arthur one, I think it's a culture over a century old that came from Europe, but mostly I have been dumping a few potato peels and grapes in plain flour and water. Recently, I have not even done that, just plain filtered water and whole meal flour, no salt or anything, and it worked just as great. Maybe it took a little longer.
The bran of whole grain already contains tons of the right microorganisms, you get the rest from the surrounding air and the water. I never had to sterilize the water so far for regular sourdough bread, but it's probably the right thing to do if you have a business of selling sourdough starter.
Use freshly ground whole grain flour from the same type you intend to bake, start with a very small quantity of flour and water, just use a flat bowl with a large surface exposed to the air, because most recipes make you waste tons of dough, saying remove half of the starter, add a water and flour mixture in the same concentration, and repeat every day. Starting small allows to keep adding without having to remove anything for a least a week.
There are tons of recipes around for starters, but all there is to it really is to let Nature and Time do their thing. It's really rare to mess it up, it even withstand some changes of temperature, it will for instance continue growing in the fridge, just slower, but with more flavor too.
My last starter died recently. ;( I didn't plan on using it for a while, so I froze it, and when I thawed it end of last week, it never revived. | |
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Sour dough starter
