SC - Sourdough starter

[Leslie Lansdowne]

At 10:02 AM 10/20/00, you wrote:
>Does it smell sour or decaying?  Is the color dull and beginning to gray?
>If it smells decaying, looks dull and is beginning to gray, the yeast is
>probably dead.  If not, then you may be able to save it by feeding it, as I
>will describe later.  If you try to save it and there is a surface crust,
>remove that and discard it, because it makes a good culture for molds.

The color is a pale yellow.  It is thin in consistency--like pancake batter 
that has been watered down too much.  As for smell, it has a smell not 
unlike buttermilk.  I covered the container with cheese cloth as it said in 
the recipe.

>The starter should have mild sour odor which is odd but not unpleasant.  You
>may not even notice it, unless the cover is off the starter container.  In
>an older starter, a heavy odor of alcohol says that the yeast is overactive
>and there may be a die off in progress.  A decaying odor similar to that of
>a refrigerator science project, says the starter has serious problems.

the starter was bubbly less than 2 days after starting it.  As instructed, 
I stirred it 3 times a day.
Now, all the bubbles are gone and it is just flat.

>Giving the starter a good stir when you feed it
>re-aerates the starter and allows the lactobacilli to go back to work.
>
>Sometimes a starter won't begin to ferment, which usually points to a lack
>of wild yeast in the vicinity.  But that is obviously not the case here.
>
>BTW, whose instructions were you following?

I was using a recipe from a Gold Medal/Fleischmann's yeast bread machine 
cookbook.
Here is the recipe they gave:
1 1/2 tsp Fleischmann's bread machine yeast
4 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees) mine was 110 degrees
3 cups Gold Medal all purpose or better for bread flour (I used better for 
bread flour)
4 tsp sugar

Now, it says to leave it sit for a week or until bubbly and has a sour 
aroma.  Another recipe I had from the Better homes and Gardens bread 
machine cookbook said to let it sit 10-12 days.  I guess they are assuming 
that the wild yeast in the air is low to non-existent.  It is very damp 
where I live so I'm sure we have higher levels of yeast and molds---The 
thing is, when mine was bubbly, it hardly smelled at all---I wasn't sure if 
it was sour or if I was imagining it was sour because the smell was so 
faint.  Now, it is definitely sour.

I guess I'll just give it another try and I'll be ready to feed it a day 
and a half after starting it instead of waiting a week.

Thanks for your help!

Marsaili:-)




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