Started My Starter

[momoreg]

Is that a whole wheat starter? Looks like it.

You CAN use a starter after 5 days, but you won't get the same amazing results, as if you waited 2 weeks. And there is a visible difference between a 5-day-old and a 10-day-old.

On the other hand, the method I use begins with grapes in cheesecloth. I have never done it as you describe, beginning w/ raisin water.

Just curious; have you begun your daily feedings? I find that is what really transforms it into a living, breathing creature. Before that, it's just a "bucket of stink", as the sous as work eloquently refers to it.

[KyleW]

The Crust & Crumb starter begins with a cup of whole wheat flour. After that it is fed with unbleached bread flourn for 5 days and is then ready for use.

The grapes and cheese cloth approach is described in Nancy Silverton's book Breads From the La Brea Bakery. It is a 14 day process as she describes it. I have her book, grapes and cheese cloth on my counter

To The Big Hat: You weren't kidding about telling Peter Reinhart, were you

[thebighat]

No, I wasn't. I just got mail from him and he's said he's gonna be watching you. He really is a nice guy. I wouldn't settle for that loaf of bread on your web page. You apparently didn't make, so I feel safe saying that. The first time I baked a sourdough from his book, it came out very much like the one on the cover. Follow his method and you'll get the same results. I took pictures all week at work, going out now to get them developed if Walgreens is open. Otherwise tomorrow. I made incredible looking and tasting stuff today, on a deadline no less. I had to push the baguettes a little to have them ready, but they came out beautiful.

[KyleW]

I am looking for a better pic. It seems that Peter and I may become PenPals. How great is this place? Where else am I going to get hooked up with the Chef whose book I'm playing with?

For those of you keeping score at home, the Day 2 results are posted at:
http://pages.zdnet.com/kwarendorf/wi...ari/index.html

Thanks again TBH!

[thebighat]

Talk about duuuuhhh. I just went to walgreen's and decided not to have the film done now because there are 9 frames left on the roll which I don't want to waste. And I'm sweating on what to do, develop and print and then scan on the nifty kodak thingie there, or have a cd made, except that the images are huge, and all the time there's a schtoopid logitech camera hitched to this dumb puter! I've never used it with good lighting.BTW, I make a double batch of Reinhart's poolish on page 32 of the book almost every day and that separation happens every time. If you notice, a lot of his pizza and focaccia formulas don't use the whole 50 oz. I scaled them up so they do, and then I double that. It gives me either a full sized sheet pan of focaccia, or 10 loaves of bread, which I shape like a ciabatta.

[KyleW]

I'd go to Photoworks If I were you. They can do pretty much anything you want with film and image files.
http://www.photoworks.com/main.asp

If you do decide what to do with your filmm maybe I can use your bread on my site

I can't wait for the weekend when I will be able to use the barm! It will be a litlle longer before the Silverton Starter is ready, she says 14 days. In the meantime I am starting a bread course @Peter Kump's on Monday. In for a penny...

[Kimmie]

Well KyleW, your starter looks ugly, just the way it's supposed to and you're own your way to having a pretty mean loaf of bread here. Better than the one on your pic. Sorry I didn't want to tell you but since thebighat brought it up

All kidding aside, you're doing great, I mean it.

Don't panic with Silverton's starter: it's going to look much worse than your first starter. I think the 4th and 5th day are the worst (smell and sight). The first time, when I saw the mold floating, I threw the whole thing out in disgust! I finally got more reasonable after 3 or 4 trials

I look forward to day 3... and Silverton's Day 2.

[ July 04, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[Kimmie]

Dear KyleW,

Remember in a previous thread, the question came up about feeding a starter three times a day (either you or someone else mentioned that it was impossible for him or her to keep that schedule).

So here's the answer, excerpted from Breads from La Brea Bakery, p. 58

Making your own bread schedule

Ideally, for instance, a starter should get three meals a day. But most home bakers with jobs and busy lives will want a more practical solution, and the truth is, like many of us, a starter can survive on one meal a day. But you must give it the equivalent of three meals at once.

THE FORMULA

If you've got 9 ounces or about 1 cup of starter, that means you feed it 1 pound 3 ounces or about 4 cups flour plus 5 tablespoons of flour and 1 3/4 pounds or 3 1/2 cups of water at once.

And you should try to feed it at the same time each day. The important thing is to be consistent.


I think this information is quite timely, in the event you haven't read this chapter before.

Hope that helps!



[ July 05, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[KyleW]

It will become very useful when I begin to feed here starter. It's curious to me that she and Peter Reinhart have such radically different approaches. BTW I have improved, IMHO, the pic on the website

My Site

[Kimmie]

Looks much more appetizing!

...and Steve Sullivan's approach is different too. Another interesting baker is Joe Ortiz. Check his approach in Baking with Julia. He adds cumin in his starter!

It makes breadmaking a non-stop learning experience!

[ July 05, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[thebighat]

I don't know Ms. Silverton, and I took her book back to the library without baking anything out of it, and I am sorry to say that even knowing that contempt before investigation will keep me ignorant, I can't bear to even think about her sourdough method. If one feeds a one cup starter once a day with one lb or more of flour, one will quickly have a swimming pool full of starter. Even Reinhart's gets to a point where you split it in half. Feeding it three times a day for two weeks borders, for me, on obsessive compulsive anal retentive behavior that would have me climbing the walls in a nervous frenzy. Once established, these cultures can stand lots of neglect and abuse. Please, someone go read The Bread Builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott. He talks generically about starter cultures, without numbers and measurements and takes something that I think people overcerebrate about and simplifies it. Then read and follow Reinhart's formula and you'll get a loaf of bread that you won't believe you made. This is just me, I'm right now an overtired motile mass of irritability. I've had it. I'm going to walgreens.

[Kimmie]

You sure are grumpy today, thebighat!!

KyleW,

Here's another book:

World Sourdoughs from Antiquity by Ed Wood.

This updated and revised edition of the successful manual for sourdough-lovers traces the history of sourdough baking from ancient Egypt to modern times.

[ July 05, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[KyleW]

Other than that, how did you like her book TBH

I suppose I am too new at this to know any better. It seemed to me that her method required the same level of attention as a child and I don't have children. That said, I do have a curious nature so I am trying both. The gory progress report is available on my site in about 30 minutes.

How did your pictures turn out TBH?

[thebighat]

Sorry, kids. I apologize.

go here:

Reinhart's sourdough
acme baguette from Artisan Baking
flat ciabatta
this is oven bang
in case you were wondering who McSnoogle was....

[KyleW]

They all look good enough to eat, except McSnoogle that is. My progress has been posted.