Potato Flake Sourdough Starter

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Smoos22 on 22 Sep 2020 at 08:27

I just received a sourdough starter (that originally started in 1989) and it calls for potato flakes at every feed.  I was wondering if I can eliminate the potatoes...maybe gradually.  It's just not an ingredient I normally keep on hand and I like the idea of having simple, non processed ingredients only in my breads.  Any advice would be appreciated!  Happy I found this forum.  TIA!

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Anon2 on 22 Sep 2020 at 14:48

Welcome to the forum.

If a potato flake sourdough starter can raise a bread then flour can raise a potato flake starter. 

For now just try an off-shoot starter experiment by taking a some of the potato flake starter and begin feeding it equal amount of water and flour by weight allowing it to bubble up and peak each time before re-feeding. See how it reacts. Should it continue to bubble up each time and show no signs of bad health then eventually you'll have a 100% flour sourdough starter. 

Find a jar and for now feed 30g potato flake starter with 30g water + 30g flour. Then with each feed keep 30g starter and feed 30g water + 30g flour. When your starter is strong and predictable try an increased feed of 20g starter + 40g water + 40g flour. Keep that up for a few feeds. If that goes from strength to strength then everything is fine.

P.s. if you can edit your post then rather filing it under "blog" better to file it under "forum topic". If you can't edit it then try reposting. It'll get more views.