I'm really sorry that haven't been posting, but I have been continuing to take pics for y'all.

So, I split the liquid starter into 2 starters on Day 3, and I've been tending both ever since. I was feeding them every 12 hours, but they were both starting to smell like raw flour, so I switched to 24 hours (it must not be as warm in my kitchen as I thought).

There really hasn't been much action overall.

The liquid starter is pretty much stable and has a nice sour smell. It produces a gas and hooch consistently, but it isn't particularly active. The regular starter has taken until day 9 to develop a sour smell, and it produces a few bubbles everyday, but it's not increasing in volume yet. I think we just haven't captured a vigorous yeast.

Now time for the pics!

Pics

Day 3

Day 4 AM

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

Day 4 PM

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

Day 5

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

Day 6

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

Day 7

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

Day 8

I forgot to feed them on day 8 🙁. This mistake might have set me back a day or 2, because we were seeing improvement in gas production in the regular starter. You can see the pics from this morning below aren't as good as 2 days ago.

You can also see that the liquid starter just keeps on producing hooch. Looking back at the regular starter from day 4, I bet we can get a light rise from the liquid starter if we made a bread with it. I might try that out tomorrow.

We're not molding, though, so we can just keep feeding, watching, and smelling.

Day 9

Liquid Starter

Regular Starter

A much less exciting day yesterday. As you can see from the above pic from the morning, we're getting some good gas production, but it's gotten quite thin, so it might not be able to trap the gas and actually rise. I can't tell from the side pic if it rose and fell overnight or not.

Much less impressive activity when I went to feed it last night, but you can see from the foam that we're still bubbling away. I think we're getting some serious alcohol production, which is contributing to the thinness. I've heard some people pour off the hooch, but I've never done it.

Instead of using half the previous starter when feeding, I'll be going with 1:1:1 by volume to try to thicken it up, but I'm considering switching to 1:1:1 by weight as per one of my books, King Arthur, and probably our benevolent mod @[email protected].

Well, this was unexpected. The picture above is just over 33 hours after my previous post. It's a little early for me to trust it, since this is after the first feeding. I'll keep feeding it until it gives a consistent rise, but this is a great sign! It's smelling deliciously sour.

Here's what it looked like before the feeding (the morning after my post, T+17hrs):

And then here's the top-down shot about 16 hours later:

Nearly a full doubling, vigorous gas production. Just incredible.

Maybe it's a mistake, but I'll keep feeding it and posting the results.

Here I go again!

I'm creating a new sourdough starter from scratch, and I thought I should share the process. By "from scratch," I mean with just flour and water. I've seen recipes use active dry yeast, apples, grapes, or even 2 day old food, but your flour already has the yeast and bacteria you need. You just need to give them a hand! And be patient, as is the way of a good baker.

Recipe

pbv: part by volume

• 1 pbv flour (e.g. 1/2 c or 2.5 oz)
• 1 pbv water (e.g. 1/2 c or 4 oz)

1. Thoroughly mix ingredients in a container and cover while still allowing air exchange (use a thin towel, paper towel, or an upside-down lid screwed on loosely).
2. Let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.
3. Mix up a new batch, stir old batch, add half the old to the new, and mix thoroughly.
4. Repeat until starter doubles in volume between feedings.
5. Refrigerate starter and feed weekly.

Comments

• Keep smelling the starter and keep a good eye on it. When done it should smell appetizingly sour.
• Warmer kitchens need more frequent feedings.
• This can take a week or two, and you can go through an entire bag of flour creating a new starter this way.
• Use the flour you're going to be baking with. If you want to bake with both whole wheat and unbleached, use 1/2 pbv of each. Using whole wheat also adds more food for different bacteria to eat.
• What we're doing here is cultivating all kinds of yeasts and bacteria that naturally occur on the flour and in your kitchen, and then we introduce them to a new environment full of food. Those yeasts and bacteria that eat the flour quickly should eventually win out, but that's not guaranteed.
• If you see mold or it smells like rot, discard and start over. You might need to feed more often.

Other Pics

This is my actual toeknife that I've been using since before Sunny existed. The tip is too pointy, so botched toes are a real risk. I keep it dull, so I can also scrape the dead skin off my foot. What do you use?

I started boiling potatoes and noticed that the starches formed foam of the shape of the pieces on the surface 🤌