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Sour Dough Starters

Source of Recipe

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Here's a sourdough from scratch:

There are many ways of making your own starter. Here are a few different ways
of doing it: (No offense to the sourdough purist, but by our definition, If the
final product ends up to be a mixture of lactobacili and yeast, then you have a
starter, regardless of how you started it.)

1. The purist approach
2. The Northern European purist appraoch
3. The natural innoculant approach
4. the shortcut approach

1. The Purist Approach
Some people will argue that this is the only way of creating a pure sourdough
starter, and they maybe right. Sourdough is like cheese: there are different
cultures out there, and the only way of creating a unique culture of your own
is to start with just flour and water, and invite the local micro-organisms for
a royal feast.

Mix 1 cup of water and 1 cup flour in a bowl, cover, and put into a warm place.

After 1 day, add another 1/2 cup water, and another cup flour, and put into a
warm place. Repeat this procedure until the batter starts to smell sour, fruity
and yeasty. Then, refrigerate. (Sorry, as of yet there is no smell links on
Netscape)

2. The Northern European Purist Approach Scandinavians, Russians and Germans
came to recognize that certain flours produce much faster fermentation. A case
in point is Rye flour, and this flour will invariably produce a very viable
starter in a very short amount of time. The procedure is identical to the
purist approach, exept that Rye flour is used instead of White flour.

Mix 1 cup of water and 1 cup rye flour in a bowl, cover, and put into a warm
place.
After 1 day, add another 1/2 cup water, and another cup flour, and put into a
warm place. Repeat this procedure until the batter starts to smell sour, fruity
and yeasty. Then, refrigerate.
Note that since Rye ferments so fast, it is possible to take the fermentation
process too far and end up with a slurry of acedic acid. In that case, dump out
3/4 of the starter and add
1 cup flour and 1 cup water, let sit for 12 hours, and then refrigerate.

3. The natural innoculant approach
The idea here is to use a natural innoculant such as grape skins on which wild
yeasts reside to get the starter going. The recipe is the same as the purist
approach, exept that the batter is innoculated with grape skins, or other fruit
skins or leaves. The assumption is that there are yeasts which reside on the
skins of fruits or on the durface of leaves, and the hope is to introduce these
yeasts into the batter to get it started faster. This assumption is quite
reasonable since, contrary to popular belief,
yeast is less likely to enter the batter through the air than on the surface of
some substrate, such as flour or grape skins.

Mix 1 cup of water,, 1 cup flour, grape skins or other fruit skins or leaves in
a bowl, cover, and put into a warm place.
After 1 day, add another 1/2 cup water, and another cup flour, and put into a
warm place.
Repeat this procedure until the batter starts to smell sour and fruity. Then,
sift out the grape skins, and refrigerate.

4. The shortcut approach
The idea here is to use commercial cultures to get the starter going, and then
hope that the
organisms will evolve into a symbiotic realtionship. The recipe is the same as
the purist approach, exept that the batter is innoculated with commercial yeast
and yoghurt or buttermik cultures.

Mix 1 cup of water, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp active dry yeast, and 1/3 cup buttermilk
or yoghurt in a bowl, cover, and put into a warm place.
After 1 day, add another 1/2 cup water, and another cup flour, and put into a
warm place.
Repeat this procedure until the batter starts to smell sour and fruity, which
is usually within 2 days. Then, refrigerate.