Comments on: Amazing But True Sourdough

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:44:23 +0000

Ooooppps! Forgot the starter in the ingredients. sorry.

David,
I am new to NKSD but yesterday baked my first ever “Rye” bread. It turned out great! I’m not sure it is a formal recipe, but this is what I did.

50g Light Rye flour
50g Dark Rye flour
315g White flour
2 tsp salt
388g water
100g starter
caraway seeds

I let the dough ferment for 18 hours. Then I turned it out on a board, french folded it 5 or 6 times adding the caraway seeds along the way. I formed the dough into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl to proof. It proofed for about 2 hours before baking.
As you might imagine, this concoction turned out to be a little wet, but for the first try not bad. I didn’t get the oven spring I am looking for, but the crumb, crust and taste is great. I am going to increase the white flour to 340g the next time. I cooked the bread in a cast iron dutch oven.

Good luck with your rye bread.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:30:50 +0000

David,
I am new to NKSD but yesterday baked my first ever “Rye” bread. It turned out great! I’m not sure it is a formal recipe, but this is what I did.

50g Light Rye flour
50g Dark Rye flour
315g White flour
2 tsp salt
388g water
caraway seeds

Good luck with your rye bread.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:52:53 +0000

It’s always been very interesting to know about the origins of a particular culture. Somehow that’s a link to the history of the region, its people and its culturel environment. Ed Wood at Sourdo.com does a great job of giving that kind of information. If you do a search, you’ll find that Dr. Wood has also done a great deal of research into bread, grains and the production of breads.

By: breadtopia

breadtopia — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:41:47 +0000

Ok, cool.

By: Bob Packer

Bob Packer — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:58:06 +0000

Eric,

The two Italian starters Chuck was referring to are commercial starters from Ed Woods. I have both and they both make a medium sour bread. I noticed on both that the sour increases considerably the next day.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:02:41 +0000

The two starters I purchased were from Ischia and Camaldoli (regions in Italy). I managed to destroy the Camaldoli and after my frustration with attempting to get it activated, I tossed it out. The Ischia starter, on the other hand, activated within several days and does a great job of leavening. “Italian” starter refers to the region of the world from which it came. I think it’s always interesting to try giving a short history of the starter and information about it whenever you give someone either a “care” loaf or a starter for their own use.

By: breadtopia

breadtopia — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:57:27 +0000

What’s an Italian starter?

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:41:44 +0000

I bought two of the Italian starters and one absolutely died; the other does a great job of leavening but never achieves more than about a half-inch of foam on top. I recently activated another starter (non-Italian) and it practically jumped out of the jar after only two days. With the first starter, I tried everything I could think of – watching it closely, “washing” it, etc., etc., and nothing seemed to work. It may just be a characteristic of that particular starter but I can’t understand why yours worked as it did. It may just be that you have a magic touch.

By: breadtopia

breadtopia — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:43:32 +0000

Hi Judy,

I’d be interested in hearing how your testing (on yourself) goes with adding more and more grains. I’m sure others would too. I know some people have found that their intolerance for grains turned out to be some other additive or commercial yeast and that they can gradually transition to freshly ground organic grains leavened with wild yeast cultures (sourdough).

I just dropped your starter and thermometer off at the post office. It’s an all white flour starter, but it’s real easy to switch it to a whole wheat or rye starter if you want just by feeding it those grains for a couple days.

It’s okay if your house is on the cool side. Cool is actually a better temperate to proof bread in than warm. Things take longer but you getter better flavor development with the longer and slower rises.

Good luck with everything.

Eric

By: Judy Davis

Judy Davis — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:48:15 +0000

Hi Eric, I started a sourdough one week ago and at the same time found your website. My starter recipe called for one cup of freshly ground rye and one cup of water every day for seven days. I think the worst thing about sourdough is the wait!! During this past week I saw some bubbles, the starter developed a nice sour smell, but never did any rising. Yesterday, I decided to add spelt instead of rye to see if I could get some action going and much to my dismay, found the top of my starter covered with little while powdery-looking “things”. I guess I knew it was mold, but not wanting to believe it (it still smelled okay), I added my freshly ground spelt anyway. Well, it did do a little bit of frothing, still never rose and this morning was covered with those little colonies again. So, I guess I have to throw the whole thing out. Until just a few weeks ago and the last five or so years, I have not been able to tolerate any grains at all. A few months ago I started adding rice, and when I had no reaction, got braver and braver and began adding more and more grains. Trial and error has taught me that commercial bread is a no, and as you can imagine, I am yearning for some good bread. I have a book called Nourishing Traditions that has helped me navigate this healing process I’ve had to go through and that is where I found the sourdough starter recipe. However, since I am so impatient, I have just ordered your sourdough starter so that I can at least anticipate something tried and true while I try my recipe again. My kitchen isn’t very warm right now as we are in-between seasons here, therefore, the furnace runs part of the time, but during the day it warms up enough that it doesn’t come on. Otherwise, I have no idea why my starter didn’t work.
Just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed your website…found many in my search and yours is definitely the most helpful!! I’m thinking that without your forum and videos, I might just have given up. I’ll let you know what happens after I receive your starter!