Sourdough Starter

April 19, 2020

Sourdough Starter

Ruby - my sourdough starter

Something tells me I need to write a post on sourdough starters. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what a starter is, how you use it, and why you name it - yes, you name it. If you feel confused about it, that's because it is very confusing!

When I first started learning about sourdoughs and how this amazing bread was made, I knew I needed to first get or make a starter. So in doing a little research on starters, I quickly learned it was referred to in more than one way: leaven, mother, chef, chief, head and sponge - basically all meaning the same thing. Except the word leaven could also refer to the entire mixture you add to your dough which causes your bread to rise. "Levain" is the French word for starter, so in France starter is called leaven. Confused yet? Me too...

Either way you refer to it, sourdough starter is a fermented mixture of flour and water which contains a colony of microorganisms of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria (LAB or lactobacilli). Fancy names, I know. I like the use the term "microbial magic!"

Just over two years ago, I found myself with a little extra time at home and decided this was the time to learn how to make sourdough. Sound familiar? I spent a week making my starter from scratch, feeding and discarding daily, then after a week or so attempted my first loaf. It was a total fail. Then I gave up. With a week and half of my life poured into this project and the frustration of not getting it "right' the first time, I quickly gave up. My life got busy again and there was NO time to pick up that project again! So instead, I started buying sourdough. I searched for the best bakeries, with the best ingredients and flavours, and spent copious amounts on artisan loaves. It was worth every cent! Then, one day, I picked up a sourdough book by total fluke - or was it? Again, finding myself with some extra time, I started reading and devouring as much information about sourdoughs as I could. However this time I told myself 'no more making a starter from scratch business,' I'm going to hunt someone down who has one and harass them until they give me a piece. Turns out I didn't need to do either. One day after studying my sourdough book front to back, a homemade loaf of sourdough shows up to my house. Shortly after, a little baggie of starter. It was then I realized I have no idea what to do with this thing! All that reading and researching didn't prepare me for this new life that just arrived at my house? What do I do now?! I started reading all I could about starters, got even more confused and all but gave up. Then I thought to myself, 'C'mon Heather this isn't rocket science! It's flour and water!.' So I picked a flour, added some water, and Ruby was born. Again I really had no clue what I was doing but I persevered and started making bread immediately. Instantly the bread turned out. I was totally blown away! I've said it from the beginning, my Ruby is a strong girl. When I received my baggie of starter, it was 70 years old. Now at a very mature age of 71 years, Ruby is going stronger then ever and making the most delicious loaves I've ever eaten - but I could be biased;)

You might want to know why you name a starter? For one, it's alive. Bakers culture and nurture a colony of symbiotic microbes in a pot and must keep it alive to make sourdoughs, which must be fed at least once a week. Secondly, it's uniquely yours. Your flour, your water, your kitchen, your environment, your equipment, but most importantly, your bacteria! All of these elements go into your starter and it becomes a piece of you. Weird yes, but also totally fascinating. I have a few reasons for naming my starter Ruby, but one of the biggest reasons is that I use a flour called Red Fife to feed her. Cocoalicious on the other hand, my chocolate starter birthed from Ruby, is named for obvious reasons.

Now, a starter needs to be maintained and refreshed (fed) to ensure that the microbes are flourishing and that's what makes a great sourdough. The type of starter contributes to the flavour and textures of sourdoughs, as does the flour you choose, the dough temperature and the length of fermentation. Who knew there was so much to flour and water? Literally you could write an entire book on sourdough starter. But if there's one thing that helps you to remember what a starter is and does it's this; it's the original yeast. It's what makes the bread rise and gives it it's structure.

And if you think it's still complicated, just imagine taking care of the 125 starters! That's what Mr. De Smedt does at the Sourdough Library in Belgium. It's true, there's a library for starters. And equally fascinating is the 86 year old Whitehorse woman who has baked sourdough her entire life and whose starter is 120 years old! So when Mr. De Smedt met up with the 86 year old Christensen, who made him a special breakfast, you better believe he went home with some of her starter! I'll post the two articles below for anyone interested in some other good sourdough reads:)

Ruby has been shared several times; turning into Mona, Ruby J(Jr) and most recently, Toby. So far I haven't heard of any neglect of her children and they are all making great bread. Thanks to whoever started my Ruby 71 years ago, many people are now enjoying delicious sourdoughs and being able to digest every bite.

Happy baking, from Ruby and Heather

xoheather

CBC article on 86 year old Christensen & her 120 yr old starter
Yukon 120 year old starter