Watery Sourdough Starter

[Jetzs]

On my first several tries making sourdough starter, I also have problem with mold.

I ended up using two glass containers. I mixed the flour and the water for feeding in a clean glass jar at each feeding and then added the starter to this mixture and stirred. In between feedings, I thoroughly washed the previous container that the starter was contained in so it was ready for the next feeding. Most dishwashers clean well enough (if no visible soil is present) to eliminate any bacteria or mold that may be present on the jars (I did verify this with a short experiment in Food Microbiology class back in the day!).

With regular jar changes I have not had any more problems with mold.

Good luck!

[WWFSM]

Sorry, I've been away from the internet for quite a while, only now just coming back to it. Don't know if you're still around, but here are a few thoughts.

I'm using the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, which says to start with 2 cups rye flour and 2 cups water. Then, each day for 7 days, add 1 cup rye flour plus enough water to make it soupy. I've been doing that, and it's been great up until yesterday, which was the 6th day. There was a layer of grayish mold on the top. I scraped it off, added more flour and water and left it again. Today, the same thing. But now, it's maybe smelling less sour and more rotten. The smells have been interesting. For the first few days, it was kind of smelling like bacon, then it got a nice yeasty scent, and now, kind of rotten. I'm thinking I should dump it and start over.

In the starter we have two somewhat competing forces growing: the bacteria and the yeast. The yeast (which makes the bread rise) loves to be fed often, loves air, and adores a watery environment. The bacteria (which helps break down the starches to feed the yeast and makes a sour taste), on the other hand, it's not so fond of air, dislikes being fed so often, and would rather live in a very stiff starter. (totally oversimplified, but you get the idea)

The bacteria, is the main thing that keeps the mold at bay. The more sour the starter, the less likely to grow mold. (note I said less likely, some molds will grow on anything)

By altering how moist/stiff the starter is we can influence who get's to be dominant in the starter - the bacteria or the yeast. (wetter for yeast, stiffer for bacteria). Stirring the starter vigorously (for pro yeast) or softly (for pro bacteria) will influence how much air enters the starter. And how often, well... this depends on so many things from temperature in your home to the inches of rainfall where your wheat grew. But there are some guidelines to make this easier.

If I want to encourage yeast growing, then I will feed the starter when it's at it's most active stage. Lots of bubbles, whole thing is trying to escape from the jar, that sort of behaviour. In the summer, this can be every four hours, in the winter, every 48 (at room temp). Generally I'll feed it twice a day for encouraging yeast if I can't be around to constantly monitor it.

To encourage bacteria growing I'll feed it far less often. I'll let it be all active and bubbly, then I'll wait till it's collapsed and become almost limp, then wait another few hours before feeding it. This can be every 6 hours in the summer, or every few days in the winter (again at room temp). If I can't be there to watch it, I will feed it every 24 to 36 hours to encourage bacteria.

Fallon has some wonderful advice, but I am not a fan of her fermenting recipes. I find her way of making a starter needlessly complicated and wasteful of ingredients. If you can get your hands on Lawsons Domestic Goddess book, have a look at her sourdough starter, it's much simpler and faster.

No matter what starter recipe you use, when it starts getting active and bubbly, stop! You've captured your starter. Start using it. It may be a little insipid at first, but the more you use it, the more it will grow.

Here's a story about mold:

Every summer since I moved in here, my starter gets moldy. The blasted neighbour drains his heavily chlorinated pool and it seeps directly into our well so we have a month of horrible water. No matter how we filter it, it's still needs boiling before I can use it for fermenting. Of course, I forget this and use this water in my starter... and guess what, the antibacterial chemicals killed off my invisible beasties (yeast and bacteria) leaving it the perfect environment for mold to grow!

This year, instead of tossing it and catching a new starter, I remembered that the bacteria in sourdough discourages mold growth. So I put this to the test.

The first day I cleaned a new jar (with NOT-antibacterial soap) and ran some boiling water over it. I scraped off the mold and using a clean spoon, being careful to take from the centre of the starter, took about 1/4 tsp of old starter and put it in my clean jar. Added to it 1 Tbs of (rye works great, but I used freshly ground wholegrain wheat this time) flour and enough (boiled and cooled) water to make a very stiff pudding, almost dough. Stiff enough to stand the spoon in.

It grew bubbly and enthusiastic in about 6 hours, so the next day, I fed it again (one Tbs rye, enough water to make the stuff starter) - 24 hours total. Repeat for about 3 days until the starter smelled very sour. I took 1 Tbs of this very sour starter, in a different clean jar began encouraging the yeast by feeding it every 12 hours, and more than doubling the water to make a consistency like pancake batter. Took two days like this, and my starter was happy as Larry. No mold grew on the starter since. It makes quite a lofty loaf now. A loaf that keeps on the counter for almost 3 weeks before a single spot of mold even thinks of growing on it (starter or loaf).