Storing sourdough starter

15 years ago

I made my first sourdough starter this week and am wondering what to store it in.

Right now I have it in a 1 liter canning car, but the narrow neck doesn't make it very conducive to scooping out the starter when I need it. I am not crazy about the idea of storing it in a plastic container.

Anyone doing anything creative, or am I putting to much thought into this? :o)

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grainlady_ks

15 years ago

Teresa-

Starters are as individual as the folks who use them - is the best answer I can give you... Over the years I've collected a file of recipes found in books and on-line, as well as news articles about "Everlasting Yeast"; and as you point out, it's not just one method or recipe.

Everlasting Yeast was popular just over 100-years ago and was made with fresh cake yeast (or even homemade dry yeast made with hops), potato water, sugar, and flour - so it wasn't the flour/water mixture of traditional starters. The cake yeast quickly was taken over by naturally-occurring yeast (so called "wild" yeast) found in the flour.

When I received my Everlasting Yeast I also received instructions for how to use it. My friend, who was in her early 90's when she gave it to me, had never made anything other than loaves of white bread with her Everlasting Yeast. She said she tried her daughters regular sourdough starter but always thought her Everlasting Yeast made better bread. She was very particular that you NOT call it sourdough starter.

I made it according to her cryptic instructions once, and then did my own thing with it after that and used it for multi-grain breads, 100% whole wheat bread, rye bread, cookies, crackers, dinner and cinnamon rolls, hamburger and hot dog buns, pancakes/waffles, cake - all kinds of things using starter. I never made it according to her instructions ever again (we don't eat white bread around here). I used a completely different ratio of ingredients. Sometimes I used just water and flour, and often used agave nectar instead of sugar when adding a sweetener. I also switched to using freshly-milled wholegrain flour.

There was never any "toss 1 cup" associated with Everlasting Yeast. You made the overnight sponge and put a portion back into the refrigerator to use the next time. You could wait as long as a month before using it.

The only trick I discovered was to use it as soon as possible after the sponge would start to deflate in the morning. That's when you'd get your best rise to your breads.

-Grainlady

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Comments (6)

teresa_nc7
15 years ago
A pottery or glass bowl with a "shower cap" cover will do as will a wide mouth canning jar or a straight sided crock. I would not use plastic - the alcohol in the starter can eat or etch through the plastic. I have seen this! Just don't store the starter with a lid screwed down tight. It needs a little breathing room and - it could explode.
grainlady_ks
15 years ago
I've seen starter in humble recycled plastic deli containers with a few holes poked in the lids. A friend had three of them for different kinds of starter they used and only kept about 1/2-cup of starter in each container. I've always thought the glazed stoneware crocks so charming for starter, but just couldn't justify the cost.

I use a wide-mouth glass canning jar with a "Quick Cover" (looks like a small shower cap) on it, and I poked holes in it with a fork for off-gassing). When I got my starter from a friend in her 90's, she had a square of waxed paper with a few holes poked into it covering a quart canning jar, secured with a rubber band. A method she'd been using for the 75-years she'd been using her "Everlasting Yeast".

Just give it plenty of room in whatever non-reactive container you decide to use (no stainless steel of decorative tin). You won't want it filled to the brim.

Be sure to clean the container thoroughly in hot soapy water after each use, and a scalding of boiling water for the final rinse to kill any bacteria that could contaminate your starter. Allow it to air dry. The famous "they" say not to wash your container in a dishwasher because the residue from the sheeting action of the detergents and rinse-aids can kill your starter.

Until you know how your starter is working, you may also want to place a glass pie or baking dish under your refrigerated starter. Occasionally they get a little crazy and will escape the confines of the container and you'll thank me later if it was caught in a dish.

-Grainlady
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I'm sure your starter is fine, but I think you'll find that after a year it'll be that much finer, especially if you stress it occasionally (let it go a little too long between feedings) to thin the herd. :) My own journey is a big old muddle of learning wild yeast (sourdough starter) and whole wheat at the same time, combined with water restrictions that made me look for ever less cleanup. Whole wheat actually requires at least eight hours of soak (in the liquid of the recipe) or rise, to fully hydrate, along with some acid to reduce the anti-nutrients. Along the way, I experimented with a number of traditional recipes, some white or with a large enough percentage of white to handle the same as white, many of which I documented in this forum (search on 'sourdough"). What worked for me was making a preferment (i.e., biga or levain--The Kitchn says "leaven") in the evening, and baking in the morning. I can't remember the timing well, because I have a bad relationship with mornings. There are some hours involved for the dough to rise. It only rises as fast as commercial yeast when you're counting on it not to! My best advice is twofold: One, get in the habit of baking bread so that it becomes part of your rhythm, and you'll have it ready before your chicks turn up hungry. The other is just to try some recipes and learn what it is you all like best. There may be one that does it for your daily bread, or a base dough that you can make up differently as in the 5 minutes method, or it may be a rotation of different flavors and textures. While learning one at a time seems wise, there's also something to be said from learning a bit from each thing you try and bringing the total learning back around when you try them again. Nine people, minimum, if I got that right, is plenty to be experimenting on, and should give you plenty of scope for learning what you're doing. So, do you want sour or just good bread with wild yeast? Sour takes some time to work, remember the rule of less starter = more sour taste requires longer rise. If you have your starter on the counter and feed it every day (maybe twice a day while it's young), you'll be ready to bake a lot sooner. I don't quite agree with some of what is said at The Kitchn about starter. It is an acidic environment (not "likes" one). It's also not finicky once established. While it's young, you have a number of organisms fighting for supremacy. The yeast will win, and as it strengthens, it'll do away with new organisms introduced in feedings without any protest. Once it's established, it's very hard to completely kill. Just feed it up and it'll start burping again. I'll also mention, that no matter the original source, all wild yeast in starter is the same kind. The whole location thing is silly. "San Francisco" sourdough is the name used for really really sour. That's about how hungry the yeast is, not the location (French fries aren't from France, either, though, I believe they got their name because frying was in vogue in France at that time, just as really sour bread was commonly made in San Francisco, and they did up beans mighty fine in Boston). Rather than getting too wrapped up in how long the process is going to take, it's best to just go with what you know and work it into your life. Eventually, you'll be able to adjust the timing. Like maybe you know if you set your dough to rise at noon, it'll be ready to bake after the school run, and before dinner. Or that if you make your levain after breakfast, you can mix the dough up after dinner, and bake after breakfast the following day. Also, have some interim breads, either quick to produce commercial yeast breads, or bisquits, waffles, cornbread, or whatever it is you can fill in with if your bread just isn't ready yet, while you're learning. You'll get there.
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ilovetn
15 years ago
I got on the forum this morning to check out sourdough and here was this thread! I was just given a starter from a friend this week, but I did not like the bread.

"They" will be out to get me. I have the starter stored in a plastic jar that had been washed in the dishwasher AND it has a screw-on top! Next on my agenda will be moving the starter to a glass or ceramic container.

The starter I was given has been used by my friend's sister for nearly 20 years, so I'm pretty sure the starter is good. The directions said to feed it and leave it on the counter for 8-12 hrs. Feeding directions were to add 3/4 cup sugar, 3 TBS potato flakes, 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup warm water. The finished bread was too dense and far too sweet for my taste. Can I leave out some of the sugar when feeding? I think I could rescue this starter if I knew what I was doing.

I would really like a good recipe, especially for wheat sourdough (Grainlady?). My mother loves sourdough, but does not like wheat, so I guess I need a regular recipe also. The ingredients are too expensive nowadays to do a lot of experimenting on my own! Thanks to all the experts on this forum!
grainlady_ks
15 years ago
ilovetn-

You have been given a modern adaptation of a starter and you can certainly take a small portion of it and convert it to a traditional flour/water starter with a few feedings. You could use whole wheat flour as easily as bread flour in the starter, if you'd like.

Try this and see if you can get it revived: To 1/2 cup of starter add 1/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour.

Check out the King Arthur link below for recipes. I use a starter called "Everlasting Yeast" (which was popular about 100-125 years ago) and it includes a really cryptic recipe that is completely without measurements (I go by the "feel" of the dough) and it isn't a typical "sourdough" recipe, although I use the starter in any recipe calling for starter.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: King Arthur Flour - Sourdough Recipes
teresa_nc7
15 years ago
Grainlady,
I've been reading about the Everlasting Yeast; why do some recipes have you make the starter with only 2 TB of flour and some call for 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour when making the starter?

What do amount do you use, and why?

Thanks!
Teresa

Storing sourdough starter

grainlady_ks

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