What is the difference between a sourdough starter and paste?

16 years ago

I've been nursing a sourdough starter along for several weeks now. I started it in my warm kitchen and after a few days feeding, I moved it to my fridge, in a mason jar with a hole punched in the top. It gets fed weekly 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. It looks like oatmeal batter and smells like paste. My next step will be to make a sponge out of it by adding a cup of flour and a cup of water and letting it sit in a glass bowl for a while. Is that where the sour taste/smell will develop? Right now I am afraid I have a big jar of paste (really, the recipes are identical).

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Comments (5)

oilpainter
16 years ago
If your starter smells like paste it's dead. It should have a pleasant sour smell.

The recipe for paste and sourdough are not identical.
Sourdough starter starts out much like bread. Here's my recipe for starter.

1/4 cup warm water
1/8 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
3/4 cup flour.

put 1/4 cup of water in a large jar. Add sugar & stir to disolve. Sprinkle in yeast and let stand 10 minutes. Stir well. Add 1 cup warm water. Stir in 3/4 cup of flour gradually. Cover loosely with a piece of tin foil. Set in a warm place. Stir in 1/2 cup of warm water and 1/2 cup flour every day for 5 days. Now it should have a pleasant sour smell and you may use it or store in the fridge. Replace used portion with equal parts warm water and flour. If not used for 2 weeks, stir and put half the batter in a covered container in the freezer or give away. Add 1 cup warm water & 1 cup flour to remaining.

Warm to room temperature before using.

I kept mine going for quite a while before I gave up on it. It just became too much of a hassle to keep it going. It did make wonderful bread and buns though. It was a godsend for pioneers though who didn't have the access to stores like we do to buy yeast.
lindac
16 years ago

You can eat paste!! LOL!
Do you have any yeast in it at all? Or were you hoping to catch wild yeast?
Does it bubble?
If there are no bubbles....jar it up and take it to preschool!
Linda C
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I'm glad I posted this -- I'm learning all sorts of things! I didn't realize that sourdough isn't necessarily sour -- but it makes sense the commerical stuff is more so. (I had a friend's homemade sourdough recently, and while it was a very nice bread I remember thinking it wasn't nearly sour enough!) The sour taste is really what I'm going for -- if I can't get that going naturally, I'll looking into adding the taste in with other things. (I picked up a littl container of buttermilk powder for another recipe -- that might be a good taste to play around with!) Thanks for the explanation on acidity and the viscosity of the starter, Carol; that's helps a lot. The alchemy of baking has always intimidated me -- it's good to have a clearer idea of what's going on. I'll keep plugging away for a while longer with this starter, perhaps feed it whole wheat for a while and see if that builds up it's puny flour-lifting muscles. If not, the soured yeast dough may be the way to go, jessica; I didn't know you could do that. It might actually be better way to go, given the infrequency with which I bake. I'm still going to work with this starter -- Ill keep you posted!
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Thanks Plllog. I'm pretty familar with the good and bad of sourdough starters and recognize the difference between what is an acceptable "smell" and one that isn't. I've been baking sourdough for about ten years now. First starter I kept going for s number of years. The last one that I neglected to the point of no return was two years old. To be honest, since I'm not really a big fan of sourdough bread to begin with, so I lose interest. My family, especially Matthew loves sourdough so I make it mostly for him and share it with friends. I do get a sense of satisfaction out of being able to bake bread from wild yeast without the addition of commercial yeast. Hooch is something that usually develops if I let my starter go longer than 8 to 10 days. I don't care for it so I pour it off. It isn't necessary to keep it. I know that my new starter is good and strong since it baked the above bread when it was only three to four days old. And without the addition of commerical yeast. The flavour is already quite developed. I fed both starters again this morning before leaving for work. And I used the discard to make a rye preferment that will be going into a batch of rye bread that I will handmix tonight and probably bake on Monday. This is what the starters looked like when I got home. One fed with white and one with rye. and the rye preferment had more than doubled.
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User
16 years ago
You might want to try a starter that uses organic rye flour and spring water. A pure sour dough starter. No other additives.

I've tried other starters and none are better than the one from Amy's Bread.

Ann
lindac
16 years ago
I bought some organic rye flakes to make starter....where do I get "spring water"?
jojoco
Original Author
16 years ago
Here is the link to the recipe I used.
As you can see, ww're talking flour and water, same as paste. According to the recipe, there is natural yeast in flour, so I guess I was trying to catch "wild yeast". It does bubble up some, and gives off a half inch or so of brownish liquid at the top. But it does smell like nothing. I have a cold, so I'll give it another day before I declare it dead and try some of the above recipes.
Thanks,
Jo

Here is a link that might be useful: My starter recipe

What is the difference between a sourdough starter and paste?

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oilpainter

lindac

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What is the difference between a sourdough starter and paste?

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oilpainter

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