SC - Sourdough starter

[Stefan li Rous]

Marsaili asked:
> I am coming out of lurkdom once again for some assistance.  Sunday night I 
> whipped up some sourdough starter.  The directions said to let it sit for 
> 10-12 days.  Two days later, it was frothy and bubbly and smelled a little 
> sour, but since the recipe said to wait 10-12 days, I didn't do anything 
> with it.  Now it is 4 days later and it is flat and no longer bubbly.  Is 
> it ruined?  Should  I feed it or is it supposed to be like this?  It 
> definitely smells sour, it just looks dead.

>From earlier comments here, I suspect your yeast has either died of
starvation or gone to "sleep". I'm not sure if it can be roused or
not. You might try feeding it and see.

For a bunch more info on sourdough and sourdough starters, take a look
at this file in the BOOD-BREADS section of my Florilegium:
brd-mk-sour-msg   (36K)  1/14/00    Breadmaking -Period sourdough bread recipes.

And maybe:
yeasts-msg        (72K)  7/ 6/00    Medieval use of yeast. Using it in
the CMA.
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****