re: #136 calochortus

I have known people who made their own starter, but it is way easier to get some from a friend, or order some on line (King Arthur Flour, for example) My first ‘do it yourself’ starter was pretty toxic, too, so I got some from a friend.

Once you have starter, you just need to remember it has to be fed every 12 hours if it is at room temperature, which is a huge nuisance if you don’t bake a lot. Or you can feed it once a week or so and keep it in the refrigerator. If you chose the latter, you just need to take it out of the fridge a number of hours ahead of your baking, and feed it every few hours until it is really active and bubbly.

To feed add water and stir it in, if you have too much starter, pour off the excess now. Then stir in about twice as much flour by weight.

My basic bread recipe is 1 part water, 1 part starter, 2 parts flour and some salt.

There’s a lot of information available on line. (TheFreshLoaf.com is a good source of all sorts of bread information) Many people do view sourdough baking as more of a religion than a way to get food on the table, so take what you read with the traditional grain of salt. There are wet starters, dry starters, hydration levels, various proofing methods, etc.
My interest in sourdough stems from having a gluten intolerant husband who is, however, able to eat a sourdough wheat bread if the dough sits in the refrigerator for about a week so the lactobacilli can work on the gliadin component of the gluten.

Many thanks!