Hello, King Arthur Flour site says to not use whole wheat flour to feed a starter. I'm having a hard time picturing Alaskan Sourdoughs (old-timers) using whole wheat flour to start their sourdough and then tracking down unbleached all-purpose flour to feed it. But, I'm new to all this, so I thought I'd ask those with more experience. Currently, I don't have a need for all-purpose flour. I use WW and BF regularly, but if I need to start buying all-purpose to feed my brand new baby starter, I will! Thoughts?
they would say that because from what I understand, WW has more wild yeast and bacteria on it than AP. I was feeding mine half AP ( which is similar to US BF cause of the high protein content in Canadian flour) and half WW. I found a local Miller and now I feed his partially sifted flour to my starter.
I actually follow the method of another member and make a very thick starter that keeps in the fridge for weeks without feeding. Mind you, you need to have a well established and active starter before going that route.
...why would it matter what flour you use? Help me understand.
And all you need to start it up is a supply of the yeast and bacilli, which, I agree, is going to be available in your whole wheat flour and local air.
Consider this: how much all purpose white flour did the Egyptians use when they invented double rising bread 3 thousand years ago?
a large starter on the counter and feed it often resulting in a huge amount of waste because you don't bake enough to use it all and you want to make the leas sour starter possible for the lowest cost since most of it is wasted
Better to keep much less starter and feed it whole grains so it gets the minerals and vitamins it needs to be healthy
thanks so much for all your feedback. I'll be feeding my starter with WW. It took me three tries to get it going, so I wanted to be sure to make the right choices. I re-read the King Arthur site and realized it was a user, not an admin person, that made the comment about AP flour. Slightly off topic; I live in Alaska and my kitchen has been too cold to grow yeast (hence the two failed attempts) so I took another's advice and put it on a thick towel on a heating pad, turned to low just a few times a day. Worked like a charm! And, Richkain, that's a great point that makes an even better case than my old-timer Alaskan example.