[Sca-cooks] bread starter

[Decker, Terry D.]

There are a number of ways to produce starters, but the one I recommend
(roughly the one the CIA uses) is mix two cups of flour and one cup of water
in a bowl and set it on the kitchen counter for a couple of days.  If you
have a mold problem, cover it with plactic wrap.  If you have roachs or
similar bugs, cover it with cheese cloth.  Since flour isn't sterile, there
is usually enough wild yeast and lactobacilli in it to get a starter going
even if you don't expose it to the air.

Once it gets going, the starter will need to be fed about every twelve
hours, if you leave it on the counter or every two or three days if you
store it in the refrigerator.  I usually freeze a cup or so of starter, just
to be able to restart the starter if I lose the current one.

You can make a starter with baker's yeast, but Saccharomyces cerevisiae is
not usually happy in the highly acid environment of a starter.  The starter
may lose potency after several uses.

There have been a number of discussions on this subject over the years,
parts of which can be found in the Florilegium, www.florilegium.org .

Bear

>
> Message: 2
> From: "Marcus Antaya" <mantaya at cogeco.ca>
> To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] bread starter
> Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:16:21 -0500
> Reply-To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>
> I'm not sure, but I haven't seen it.
>
> Has anyone actually posted a bread starter recipe?
> I know I'd like it.
>
> Gyric