On Monday evening, I got the sourdough starter going. I decided to follow the method described in the Tassajara Bread Book, because that book has yet to steer me wrong. The method: combine flour, water, honey, and dry active yeast and stir. Let it sit in a warm spot for five days, stirring each day. That’s it. I’m sure there are plenty of purists that would say seeding the starter with commercial yeast is cheating, or produces an inferior starter or etc etc etc. That’s fine. To each their own etc etc. All I know is each day I stir that starter and it’s happy and bubbling away, and gives off a good beery/hard-ciderish smell that tells me all is working as it should. The whole house smells like sourdough now, in fact. And that’s not a bad thing.
The starter will be mature on Saturday. I’m looking forward to baking my first sourdough loaves on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m also curious to see how having had all this sour yeastiness in the air all week will affect the challah when I make it tomorrow.
34 responses so far ↓
1 Emily // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I can practically smell that photo! Yum!
Posted by: Emily
2 Michele // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
oooh lovely! I have been to chicken to try to make my own starter. I usually just get some from a friend. Now I want to go try!
Posted by: Michele
3 Sally // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Sorry – been away for a few days and wanted to comment on the cat issue. Be very careful of plants that are advertised to keep cats away. One of them is a herb called “Rue” and I learned the hard way where the word “rueful” comes from. In summer the stems and leaves exude a sticky substance that burns human skin. I was staking it and put my arms around the plant while tying it up many years ago and got a burn on my arms that resulted in emergency room treatment and blisters that were sky-high. I still have scars. They later put a warning article into our local garden magazine but I still see it for sale at nurseries. Make your garden very cat-unfriendly – alum foil, sudden noises etc for a bit. Once they learn it is not a great place to go they may stay away for awhile.
Posted by: Sally
4 Emily // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I can practically smell that photo! Yum!
Posted by: Emily
5 Michele // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
oooh lovely! I have been to chicken to try to make my own starter. I usually just get some from a friend. Now I want to go try!
Posted by: Michele
6 Sally // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Sorry – been away for a few days and wanted to comment on the cat issue. Be very careful of plants that are advertised to keep cats away. One of them is a herb called “Rue” and I learned the hard way where the word “rueful” comes from. In summer the stems and leaves exude a sticky substance that burns human skin. I was staking it and put my arms around the plant while tying it up many years ago and got a burn on my arms that resulted in emergency room treatment and blisters that were sky-high. I still have scars. They later put a warning article into our local garden magazine but I still see it for sale at nurseries. Make your garden very cat-unfriendly – alum foil, sudden noises etc for a bit. Once they learn it is not a great place to go they may stay away for awhile.
Posted by: Sally
7 Jennifer // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
This brings back good memories. My father used to be a sourdough starter expert. On special weekends, holidays or summer vacation he’s whip up sourdough pancakes or sourdough blueberry muffins. Thanks for all the great memories! Good luck with yours. It’s so much fun.
Posted by: Jennifer
8 Lizbon // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oooh! I’m excited for you. I’ve always wondered about making sourdough but have never tried it. I will be interested to see/hear how it all turns out. Those look like some happy yeast in that there crock.
Posted by: Lizbon
9 Jo // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’m all for easy starters
Posted by: Jo
10 Kathy // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh yum! Look forward to hearing about the bread.
Posted by: Kathy
11 Jennifer // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
This brings back good memories. My father used to be a sourdough starter expert. On special weekends, holidays or summer vacation he’s whip up sourdough pancakes or sourdough blueberry muffins. Thanks for all the great memories! Good luck with yours. It’s so much fun.
Posted by: Jennifer
12 Lizbon // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oooh! I’m excited for you. I’ve always wondered about making sourdough but have never tried it. I will be interested to see/hear how it all turns out. Those look like some happy yeast in that there crock.
Posted by: Lizbon
13 Jo // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’m all for easy starters
Posted by: Jo
14 Kathy // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh yum! Look forward to hearing about the bread.
Posted by: Kathy
15 Paula // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’ve just started getting into the whole bread thing myself which historically has been a disaster. This time around it’s going fairly well, though, and what a feeling of accomplishment, eh? Kudos on the whole growing your-own-food thing, too. I’m hoping to try purslane in the garden this year.
Posted by: Paula
16 jo // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’ve just made that starter myself – my sister uses the base sourdough recipe from the Tassajara book and says it’s foolproof. She also said the starter will improve significantly over time – don’t abandon it if your first breads don’t taste as ’sourdoughy’ as you’d like – it gets better and better (apparently).
Posted by: jo
17 Norma // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh, I’m so jealous!!! I miss my sourdough so much. I will send you a recipe for sourdough applesauce cake, if I can find it. I hope I did not discard it in my recent spate of cleaning up. So yum!
Posted by: Norma
18 Stephanie // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh yum! I remember the first time I made sourdough starter and bread…the first few loaves were not as sour. It took a while for the starter to mature enough to make a nice and sour loaf. One other thing that’s great with sourdough starter is using it as a batter for onion rings. It makes THE BEST ones ever. I have a recipe for that if you’d like it
Not the healthiest things in the world…but possibly one of the yummiest!
Posted by: Stephanie
19 Paula // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’ve just started getting into the whole bread thing myself which historically has been a disaster. This time around it’s going fairly well, though, and what a feeling of accomplishment, eh? Kudos on the whole growing your-own-food thing, too. I’m hoping to try purslane in the garden this year.
Posted by: Paula
20 jo // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I’ve just made that starter myself – my sister uses the base sourdough recipe from the Tassajara book and says it’s foolproof. She also said the starter will improve significantly over time – don’t abandon it if your first breads don’t taste as ’sourdoughy’ as you’d like – it gets better and better (apparently).
Posted by: jo
21 Norma // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh, I’m so jealous!!! I miss my sourdough so much. I will send you a recipe for sourdough applesauce cake, if I can find it. I hope I did not discard it in my recent spate of cleaning up. So yum!
Posted by: Norma
22 Stephanie // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Oh yum! I remember the first time I made sourdough starter and bread…the first few loaves were not as sour. It took a while for the starter to mature enough to make a nice and sour loaf. One other thing that’s great with sourdough starter is using it as a batter for onion rings. It makes THE BEST ones ever. I have a recipe for that if you’d like it
Not the healthiest things in the world…but possibly one of the yummiest!
Posted by: Stephanie
23 knittripps // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
What a lovely science experiment!
Posted by: knittripps
24 Petra // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Dang… my stomach just growled. YUM!
Posted by: Petra
25 Keatyn // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I love that you bake homemade bread all the time. I would love to do that myself although I probably would not be adventurous enough to make my own starter for sourdough bread. I hope that it works great for you.
Posted by: Keatyn
26 john // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
god, i love fresh bread smells.
Posted by: john
27 janna // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I LOVE the idea of starting the starter with yeast — my attempt at starting it without yeast was an utter failure. I think I’ll go to Amazon right now and order the Tassajara bread book!
Posted by: janna
28 knittripps // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
What a lovely science experiment!
Posted by: knittripps
29 Petra // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Dang… my stomach just growled. YUM!
Posted by: Petra
30 Keatyn // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I love that you bake homemade bread all the time. I would love to do that myself although I probably would not be adventurous enough to make my own starter for sourdough bread. I hope that it works great for you.
Posted by: Keatyn
31 john // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
god, i love fresh bread smells.
Posted by: john
32 janna // May 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I LOVE the idea of starting the starter with yeast — my attempt at starting it without yeast was an utter failure. I think I’ll go to Amazon right now and order the Tassajara bread book!
Posted by: janna
33 Fermentation, the Home Game // Jul 22, 2009 at 3:03 pm
[...] to get a new one going ever since. This little crock is the perfect container for a starter. And the container I had been using to hold the starter, which was really WAY too big for that purpose? I can totally use that to make [...]
34 Fermentation, the Home Game // Jul 22, 2009 at 3:03 pm
[...] to get a new one going ever since. This little crock is the perfect container for a starter. And the container I had been using to hold the starter, which was really WAY too big for that purpose? I can totally use that to make [...]
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