New to this forum
Just retired, and now that I am home all day thought I would make a sourdough starter and bake some tasty bread. My son (45 y.o) never ate store bought bread at home till he was 12. I always had a starter ready to go and made regular yeasted breads also. This is not completely new to me. That being said, this all happened in Michigan and I am now in Florida. I thought with all the "stuff" in the air in Florida, a starter would be quick and easy. No. It isn't. I am on my third try using King Arthur bread flour, bottled water and patience. I am babysitting flour paste. Nothing happens. Ever. I gave up the last batch after 2 weeks of daily feeding. I tried 1:1 but that got to wet. So when I discarded and fed I use 1:.5. It is better, but still gets pasty with no bubbles, growth, nothing. I'm so confused at this point, and frustrated. I plan to go get some rye flour to see if I can at least get it started that way. If anyone has any advice please send it my way.
Start small - start thick - only feed when it's watery - and feed enough to make it thick again. May take a few weeks, but worth it. Enjoy!
Buying one is cheap and effective. After you have one, creating the next one seems easy because everything (including you) has been infected by the previous one.
Yes, rye should help, especially whole grain rye.
You don't mention temperature - the right temperature is the key to good starter creation - ideally a constant 25c /77f.
And yes, rye is good, at least to start with. It doesn't have to be whole grain rye, either.
This site has a good starter creation regime:
https://www.homebaking.at/en/sauerteigansatz-herstellen/
Lance
Lots of options here:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71293/many-different-ways-types-sourdough
very informative
Ok, I went to the store to get the Rye they said they had. Liars, lol. So I got stone ground wheat. Cleaned the jar, started over. Two days later I am still waiting on something to happen. Still babysitting flour paste. I have tried so many things to get some sort of activity that hasn't worked, that it is down to the water at this point. I use purchased filtered water. We refill 5 gallon water bottles at a refill station. So today I go get some bottled spring water. Will report back. this is sooo frustrating. Never had this issue before!
Starter sitting in the oven at 78 degrees.
Used 90 degree water.
Have tried over the last 4 weeks:
red grapes
honey
Gold Medal bread flour
King Arthur organic bread flour
Bobs Red Mill organic stone ground wheat
Heating pad on low
Oven holding at 78 degrees for the last week on this last try.
Next try - spring water and starting over.
In warm water overnight. Next day use that water to start your starter.
I'll give it a try. I happen to have some out in the garden. 🤞
The starter practically jumped out the jar.
I found The Sourdough Journey website and followed his suggestions. Made two starters (not his suggestion, my idea), one with Dasani water and one with spring water. The spring water starter is very busy. The Dasani, not so much. It has activity, but very little compared to the spring water. Used 50-50 bread flour and stone ground wheat. I have found my fix! Now I just need to keep it alive.