Sourdough can be a real passion. It's your friend in the fridge that grows and develops a personality over time - sad and starving if you neglect it, happy and fluffy if it's fed when hungry, it may try to escape if you feed it and don't tame it by taking some out. I'll always try a sourdough if offered a selection of breads because regardless of recipe each individual starter has its own particular character and I'd hate to miss out on trying one. If you find a bakery with a sourdough bread that just sings to you - remember them and patronize them because nobody else in town will ever have the same flavour (even theirs will evolve with time). Other bakeries may be just as good, but never the same. One day, when I get to San Francisco for a reason other than changing planes, I'm searching out one of the bakeries with a starter over 100 years old. I even wonder sometimes if a starter can be insured - if a bakery burns down, sometimes the starter may be one of the greatest losses.
While making a starter is relatively easy, the commitment to bread production is the larger task at hand. What if you go on vacation? You may trust your neighbour to feed the cat, but will they feed the starter? For this reason, commercial operations are usually where you'll find starters, but if you make a lot of bread at home already, by all means you should have one on hand. This recipe is relatively basic, but the potential variations are endless and you can develop your own according to your taste.
Developing and maintaining your starter's particular character is eventually a product of the feeding process - be regular and consistent with the formula you choose. You can change things up by changing the feeding flour, just remember there will be a gradual transition as consistency re-sets itself. I used to use a really good rye starter, but over time the regular additions of rye flour really darkened the product up, so we'd periodically give it a meal of white flour just to lighten it and keep it a bit more versatile (we used it for more than just rye sourdough). Certain infusions can help give your starter a nice flavour too (herbs or aromatic vegetables such as fennel), just remember to take anything you added out after a couple days - you don't want it decaying on you, and it gets frustrating dealing with random bits floating around the starter.
Feeding the starter. It's possible to wing it, but consistency is always a better idea. A good idea is to weigh the bucket or whatever vessel your starter will call home, then write the weight down - even right on the bucket. Assuming you keep your starter in the fridge, once a week, when it's time to feed, weigh the bucket, starter and all, then subtract the weight of the bucket itself. Calculate 1/3 of the weight. For that 1/3 weight, measure out 60% flour and 40% filtered water (chlorinated tap water is best avoided if possible). Add the flour and water to the starter and stir vigorously before returning to the fridge. If you have something like a rye starter, you will want to work out a ratio of rye flour to bread flour for your flour portion. If you don't have filtered water, leave tap water out for a day or so to let the chlorine dissipate.
If your starter gets a bit large to handle, move it along. Give it to friends, make more bread (even pancakes), or you can store it as insurance in case something happens to the main starter. One way is to feed the starter, then freeze it in an airtight container. This way, the starter has some food to eat as it thaws out. The other way is to feed the starter, then spread it out on paper lined sheet pans and let it dry in the open air for a couple days. Then you can break it up and store it in an airtight container in the pantry. When bringing it back, just rehydrate it with a little filtered water.
You will need:
500ml / 2C whole wheat or rye flour (you can switch to bread flour once the starter is alive)
500ml / 2C filtered or bottled water
1-2 potatoes
1 white onion
Method:
- peel and chop the potatoes
- cover the potatoes and cook soft over low heat
- strain the potatoes out and let the water cool
- cut the onion in half and char the cut sides in a fry pan
- mix the flour and the water with a whisk
- submerge the onion
- cover the starter with a loose lid or cheesecloth (it needs to breathe) and keep at room temperature
- after a day or so (depending on your climate), the starter should look foamy and smell like sourdough
- cover the starter with a tight fitting lid and store in the fridge
- remove the onion after a couple days
- use as needed and feed accordingly
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