Building Your Starter

There are many ways to make a starter, some more effective than others. You’ll find numerous systems online, along with loads of information, misinformation, and folklore. Many people obsess over their starters, coddling them like newborn infants, keeping them on a regular feeding cycle, and fretting when the starter doesn’t bubble up the way they think it should. Because there are many ways to create a starter, let’s start by focusing on what a starter is and how it works. The most common misperception about wild yeast or sourdough starters is that the wild yeast is what causes the sour flavor. Within the dough, there’s an interesting microbial drama taking place. Wild yeast is living side by side with various strains of bacteria, and it’s the bacteria that cause the sour flavors as they metabolize sugars and convert them into lactic acid or acetic acid. Different strains of bacteria create different flavors and aromas, which explains why breads made in different parts of the world may have different flavors even if they’re made using the same formula. From a functional standpoint, the role of the yeast is to leaven and slightly acidify the bread by producing carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol, while the role of the bacteria is to acidify and flavor the dough and, to a lesser degree, create some carbon dioxide. This can be viewed as a symbiotic relationship, since the organisms harmoniously share the same environment and food source, and each supplements the work of the other. In a best-case scenario, the acidifying work of the bacteria lowers the pH of the dough sufficiently to create an ideal environment for the growth of the desired strains of wild yeast. Of all the mysteries of bread making, this symbiotic relationship is perhaps the most fascinating. As the pH lowers to more acidic levels, commercial yeast doesn’t survive, but wild yeast does. It all gets very complex, but fortunately this complexity manifests itself in the final flavor, as it also does in great cheeses and fine wines. If you feel intimidated by making or using a sourdough starter, realize that it’s simply a medium in which the microorganisms can live and grow in order to create their important by-products: alcohol, carbon dioxide, and acids. The job of the baker is to build the starter to a size that’s capable of raising the dough. Combining the delayed fermentation method used in this book with the complexity that a wild yeast starter brings to the dough allows us to create extremely tasty dough with many layers of flavor—or, as one of my students calls it, “Bread to the max!” First Stage: The Seed Culture, This starter comes together in two stages: first, you’ll create the seed culture, then you’ll convert it to a mother starter. In the first stage, you aren’t making the starter that actually goes into your dough; you’re making a starter (the seed) that makes another starter (the mother), from which you’ll make your final dough. There are many ways to make a seed culture. The simplest is with just flour and water. This does work, but not always on a predictable schedule. I’ve seen methods on the Internet calling for onion skins, wine grapes, plums, potatoes, milk, buttermilk, and yogurt. These can all serve as fuel for the microorganisms, and all of them also work for making a seed culture. But ultimately, a starter (and bread itself) is really about fermented flour. So in this book the goal is to create the conditions in which the appropriate organisms can grow and thrive so that they can create great-tasting bread. The following method produces a versatile starter that can be used to make 100 percent sourdough breads as well as mixed-method breads (breads leavened with a combination of wild yeast starter and commercial yeast). However, if you already have a starter or used a different method to make a starter, feel free to use it. The starter...