# Wild Sourdough



## IrishLass (Apr 7, 2020)

Made my first wild sourdough starter 5 days ago and then made my first sourdough bread with it today:

Before popping it into the oven:







Fresh out of the oven:







I haven't cut into it yet because it's still hot. I can only hope it looks okay inside, because I didn't use a very strong flour to make it. I used my favorite homemade blend of 3 parts All purpose flour mixed with 1 part whole wheat flour, some wheat germ, and a bit of vital wheat gluten to make my version of a healthier high protein bread flour......but wouldn't you know it, I forgot to add the vital wheat gluten to the mix. Grrrrrr!!! So....the grain might be more dense than airy. Oh well..it should at least have good flavor.  

I've made sourdough bread before lots of times, but it was from a 'cheater' starter.....by 'cheater', I mean I injected a tiny bit of active dry yeast into the flour to get the starter going, but this time, I wanted to try and see if I could get a starter going  by letting nature take its course without my help.....

Over four days, I mixed up tablespoon increments of Arrowhead Mills organic wholemeal rye flour and water in a jar which I covered with cheesecloth, and lo and behold- it's alive!!! By Day 4, my jar was so alive with naturally occurring yeast that it was 1/4 of an inch from flowing out the top of the jar if I didn't do something about it (the starter had tripled its size), so I made a 'sponge' using most of it, let the sponge sit over night and then proceeded to make bread dough out of it. The remaining small bit of starter I put into the fridge.

I followed YouTuber Mary Nest's Foolproof Sourdough Starter recipe to make the starter, and then after that, I ran into Youtuber Bake With Jack's video on his stretch & fold/long ferment technique for sourdough, and decided to use his method for making my actual dough. 

I've also decided to adopt no waste/no-discard method of taking care of sourdough starter that Bake With Jack talks about in the video I've posted below, which I think is absolutely brilliant (where has that method been hiding all my life?)......especially during these recent times when access to flour has been pretty much a no-go in my area........ 

My neighborhood grocery stores have been out of flour and yeast for weeks now, and my usual online sources (King Arthur Flour, Pleasant Grain Mills, Breadtopia) are totally wiped out of their stock and there's a long waiting list for it. It's crazy! Thankfully, I was able to order some flour online to reinforce my dwindling supply for a good price from a restaurant supply store I found that also sells to home bakers, although the shipping was a bit high for the smaller amount I bought..... but it's hard to complain about that when area shelves continue to stare back at me empty......or at least they do whenever I happen to venture out to the stores. Who knows, though...maybe I have bad timing and keep getting there a minute too late. lol

Here's Jack:


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## penelopejane (Apr 7, 2020)

Good one IrishLass.  So much better than yeast. 
Sourdough is all the rage here but very rarely can you buy one without yeast. 
I tried making one but it turned out like a frizzbie.


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## Jersey Girl (Apr 7, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Made my first wild sourdough starter 5 days ago and then made my first sourdough bread with it today:
> 
> Before popping it into the oven:
> 
> ...




That’s awesome!  Wish I could have a bite!


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## shunt2011 (Apr 7, 2020)

That looks delicious.


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## Steve85569 (Apr 7, 2020)

I am realizing just how spoiled I am. I live 4 miles from a nearly completely vegetarian market ( they do sell a little meat VERY little). Flour AND yeast are still available. The 5 LB. bags are not to be found but bulk and 20 pounders are still on the shelves.

I can get locally grown rye flours and wheat flour not to mention germ barley malt and several other flours. Makes sourdough starter fairly routine. If there's a jar on top of the fridge with "something" growing in it DW starts watching it for me. Natural local yeast is like local honey. Much better for the people that live with the yeast and pollens on a daily basis.


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## cmzaha (Apr 7, 2020)

Yum, I just might have to start making sourdough again. Years ago I used to make my starter out of potatoes but I would have to start digging through a lot of boxes to find my old recipes.


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## Misschief (Apr 7, 2020)

That looks amazing!! My sourdough starter was started about 3 years ago and is still going strong. Lately, the bread that I've been making uses both discard starter and a bit of yeast. I will be watching that video with great interest. 

Thankfully, I have enough flour for now and I have more than enough yeast in the freezer to last me quite a while.


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## IrishLass (Apr 25, 2020)

Baked my second loaf of sourdough today! Here are some pics:

My 3-week old wild sourdough starter (which I have named Wildfire) just before forming the dough for my recipe. The bottom rubber band indicates the level of starter when taken out of the fridge just before feeding (the last time I fed it was on 10th of April, two weeks ago). The middle rubber band indicates the level of the starter just after feeding it the flour/water amounts needed for the amount of starter my recipe calls for, and the topmost was four hours after feeding. It's quite a lively little starter! :





Below: My shaped, slashed and stenciled dough in the Dutch Oven just before popping into the oven. I saw some videos of folks stenciling their breads and thought it looked so pretty, so I made my own impromptu heart stencil out of scrap paper, slightly dampened the parts of the dough I wanted stenciled, placed the stencil over them one by one, dipping an artists paintbrush into some cocoa powder and dabbing the powder on over the stencil, and voila! Two got a tad smudgy, but not too terribly shabby if I do say so myself:






And my fished loaf fresh out of the oven:






I haven't cut into it yet, but I will add a pic of it sliced when I do so later.

For what it's worth, I baked this loaf in a cold-start oven (i.e., I did not preheat the oven). I actually shaped my loaf yesterday afternoon about 3:00 pm, placed it in a floured banneton, and then set it in the fridge to slowly proof all yesterday afternoon/evening/overnight until this morning at 9:30 when I took it out slashed/stenciled it, put it into my room temp Dutch Oven (covered) and then placed it right inside my cold oven. Turned the oven on to 450 degreesF/232C and baked for 40 minutes with the cover on, then 10 minutes with the cover off. The final internal temp of the bread was 207 degreesF, which is perfect (anywhere from 205F to 210F is good in my book for this type of bread).

I can hardly wait to cut into it!


IrishLass


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## Misschief (Apr 25, 2020)

Beautiful!


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## IrishLass (Apr 25, 2020)

Thanks, Misschief! 

Here she is cut!:






I still can hardly believe this was made from naturally wild yeast, without any help from commercial yeast. It's got some lovely air holes going on there thanks to Bake with Jack's tutorial on how to knead and shape sourdough! Hubby, son and I all had a piece and it was yummy.....and thankfully, not very sour, because my hubby hates tangy tasting sourdough, although I myself don't mind tangy. It tastes just like my overnight no-knead dough made with my regular active dry yeast.....very nicely flavorful, but not sour. I'm very happy......and so is hubby. 

Apart from the rye in the starter, the main flour I used for the remaining bulk of the recipe is a combo that I call my makeshift 20% reduced bran flour. I got the recipe from Dan Leader's book Bread Alone. It's basically 1 part whole wheat flour to 3 parts all-purpose flour, with 1 tbsp wheat germ added per every cup of all-purpose flour in the mix. I normally mix up 5 lbs of it at a time to keep in my fridge at the ready.


IrishLass


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## Misschief (Apr 25, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> I still can hardly believe this was made from naturally wild yeast, without any help from commercial yeast. It's got some lovely air holes going on there thanks to Bake with Jack's tutorial on how to knead and shape sourdough! Hubby, son and I all had a piece and it was yummy.....and thankfully, not very sour, because my hubby hates tangy tasting sourdough, although I myself don't mind tangy. It tastes just like my overnight no-knead dough made with my regular active dry yeast.....very nicely flavorful, but not sour. I'm very happy......and so is hubby.
> 
> Apart from the rye in the starter, the main flour I used for the remaining bulk of the recipe is a combo that I call my makeshift 20% reduced bran flour. I got the recipe from Dan Leader's book Bread Alone. It's basically 1 part whole wheat flour to 3 parts all-purpose flour, with 1 tbsp wheat germ added per every cup of all-purpose flour in the mix. I normally mix up 5 lbs of it at a time to keep in my fridge at the ready.



Feels so good, doesn't it? Yesterday, I made a Rugbrot (Rye Bread), a recipe shared by someone in the Wild Sourdough group on FB. It doesn't used added yeast either. It turned out really well, too. Tasty, with a nice moist crumb. It's things like this that make baking so rewarding.


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## IrishLass (Apr 25, 2020)

Yes, it feels so good!  Oooooh! Rye bread sound yummy! Thank you for the inspiration! I believe the the next bread I shall bake with Wildfire is rye bread with caraway seeds. 

And here is an experiment I decided to try out ........I was reading online yesterday and saw that some folks prefer to dry their starter and powder it for long term storage. My interest was piqued, and so I decided I would try this out with some of my Lazarus starter for experiment sake.

Basically, you just take some of your recently-fed starter when it's puffing up quite lively, but not 100% peaked yet, spread it thinly on parchment lined baking sheets, and let air dry at room temp. Once completely dry, you either crumple it into pices or powder it and store it in an airtight jar. Some store the jar in the freezer and some store it at room temp. I shall put some in the freezer and some at room temp to compare.

I took aside a 50g portion of Lazarus out of the fridge yesterday and put it in a tall canning jar. I fed it 10g rye flour/10g water in intervals every once in a while throughout the day to get him going. He began to rise up bit by bit, but it was slowwww going compared to how quick Wildfire puffs up when fed just 10g flour/10g water in just one solitary feed, so on a whim I decided to stir 25g of Wildfire into Lazarus, and hoo boy-  that got him excited, and he tripled in size pretty quick!

I didn't want to spread him out to dry while he was tripled and too near his peak, so I stirred him down, fed him 10g more rye flour and 10g water, and put him in the fridge overnight, and this morning I saw that he had puffed up only a little bit while in the fridge. Sweet! So I took him out, fed him one more 10g dose of rye and water, and waited until just nearly doubled in size, which took only 1.5 to 2 hours and then spread him out to dry. I'll let you know how it goes!

Lazarus nearly doubled:






Lazarus spread out to dry (he filled 2 sheets, but I've only pictured one):







IrishLass


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## Steve85569 (Apr 25, 2020)

It's ALIVE!!!


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## Misschief (Apr 25, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Yes, it feels so good!  Oooooh! Rye bread sound yummy! Thank you for the inspiration! I believe the the next bread I shall bake with Wildfire is rye bread with caraway seeds.
> 
> And here is an experiment I decided to try out ........I was reading online yesterday and saw that some folks prefer to dry their starter and powder it for long term storage. My interest was piqued, and so I decided I would try this out with some of my Lazarus starter for experiment sake.
> 
> ...


I did that when my starter was at its peak. I keep in one of kitchen cabinets, just in case.


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## Lin19687 (Apr 27, 2020)

can you make sourdough in the bread machine ?
I mean does it turn out good?  I don't really like crispy crust anyway so I know I won't get that.

Darn you all, now I am going to have to watch videos on making a starter !


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## moodymama (Apr 27, 2020)

Sourdough needs long fermentation to be actual sourdough. I have never made bread in a bread machine so I don't really know if it has that option.  I always kill my mother so I always put some in a ziploc bag and throw it into the freezer to get quick start the next time I want to make bread.


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## IrishLass (Apr 27, 2020)

Lin19687 said:


> can you make sourdough in the bread machine ?
> I mean does it turn out good?  I don't really like crispy crust anyway so I know I won't get that.
> 
> Darn you all, now I am going to have to watch videos on making a starter !



There are a few folks that do sourdough in their bread machine. It's still a little bit of a lengthy process though, because natural yeast is not as quick-working as commercial yeast and it needs a period of fermentation time for best results as Moodymama pointed out. *This guy* makes sourdough in his bread machine (without any added commercial yeast at all.....just uses his starter) and gives you step by step instructions on how to do it. It's not a quick process, but the majority of the time is completely hands-off as the dough just sits and ferments. He also gives you instructions for a quicker version using starter _and_ commercial yeast if you want to go that route.

As far as making a starter goes, the below video is the one I followed in order to make my Wildfire starter at the beginning of this month, only I didn't use fresh ground wholegrain rye like she does in the video. I blasphemed by using Arrowhead Mills wholegrain rye that I had stored in my freezer and which was actually stamped with a 'Best if used by" date of August 2016.   lol  Anyway, as you can plainly see, it worked successfully for me nevertheless. Skip to timestamp 12:44 on the video if you want to get right to the instructions of how to actually make the starter:




IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (Apr 27, 2020)

Oh boy would I love a piece of that!


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## Jersey Girl (Apr 27, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Yes, it feels so good!  Oooooh! Rye bread sound yummy! Thank you for the inspiration! I believe the the next bread I shall bake with Wildfire is rye bread with caraway seeds.
> 
> And here is an experiment I decided to try out ........I was reading online yesterday and saw that some folks prefer to dry their starter and powder it for long term storage. My interest was piqued, and so I decided I would try this out with some of my Lazarus starter for experiment sake.
> 
> ...



Kids...they grow like weeds!


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## Lin19687 (Apr 27, 2020)

Started the Starter this afternoon  Thanks


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## Misschief (Apr 27, 2020)

Well, if this one is any indication, my experimental starters should be looking good tomorrow. This starter is 8 days old now. It was fed at about 8:00 this morning and at 5:40 p.m., it had dropped by only 1/2". It's a combination of rye and AP flours and it let me know this afternoon that it's name is Cooder, as in Ry Cooder.

Tomorrow is for Peanut Butter Cookies and Wednesday is for Raisin Bread; I think I'll try making bread with this starter at the end of the week.


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## Misschief (Apr 29, 2020)

I made a batch of Light Sourdough Rye last night. I was going to let it proof in the fridge overnight but it got to a point where I knew it needed baking or it would have overflowed the bannetton. This was made with my discard starter from my second starter (rye and ap flour), Cooder (as in Ry Cooder), which I started on April 21. We haven't cut into it yet but I'm pretty happy with it.


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## Jersey Girl (Apr 29, 2020)

Misschief said:


> I made a batch of Light Sourdough Rye last night. I was going to let it proof in the fridge overnight but it got to a point where I knew it needed baking or it would have overflowed the bannetton. This was made with my discard starter from my second starter (rye and ap flour), Cooder (as in Ry Cooder), which I started on April 21. We haven't cut into it yet but I'm pretty happy with it.
> 
> View attachment 45587



You guys are killing me! Lol.   I can almost smell it!  I so need to learn how to do this but I have not been able to find rye flour in the stores lately. This looks soooo beautiful and yummy!


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## IrishLass (Apr 29, 2020)

Jersey Girl said:


> You guys are killing me! Lol.   I can almost smell it!  I so need to learn how to do this but I have not been able to find rye flour in the stores lately. This looks soooo beautiful and yummy!



I was recently able to purchase some rye flour from Baker's Authority online to replenish my dwindling stock. It's an online restaurant supply store located in NY that thankfully also sells to home bakers in quantities that are practical for the home baker. It took 17 days to arrive on my doorstep, and shipping was little steep (I live 3,000 miles away on the opposite side of the country), but it was the only place online or in local stores that I was able to find the types of flour _in stock_ that I like to use.....except for one day 2 weeks ago when my local Safeway got in a shipment of Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour and I just happened to be there at the right time to be able to purchase a bag before it was all gone.   

 
 I was just looking on their site and they still have the wholegrain rye in stock in small enough packaged quantities to be practical for the home baker. Look for the Ardent Mills Rye Meal Pumpernickel Flour....that's the one that is their wholegrain rye. Since you live in NJ, it'll probably quicker and cheaper than it was for me if you decide to order some.


IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (Apr 29, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> I was recently able to purchase some rye flour from Baker's Authority online to replenish my dwindling stock. It's an online restaurant supply store located in NY that thankfully also sells to home bakers in quantities that are practical for the home baker. It took 17 days to arrive on my doorstep, and shipping was little steep (I live 3,000 miles away on the opposite side of the country), but it was the only place online or in local stores that I was able to find the types of flour _in stock_ that I like to use.....except for one day 2 weeks ago when my local Safeway got in a shipment of Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour and I just happened to be there at the right time to be able to purchase a bag before it was all gone.
> 
> 
> I was just looking on their site and they still have the wholegrain rye in stock in small enough packaged quantities to be practical for the home baker. Look for the Ardent Mills Rye Meal Pumpernickel Flour....that's the one that is their wholegrain rye. Since you live in NJ, it'll probably quicker and cheaper than it was for me if you decide to order some.
> ...



Thank you!  I actually ordered lard a while back from Bakers Authority. 50lb was only $14+ to ship since in close. I hadn’t thought of them for the flour.  I’ll check it out!  I made a big pot of chili today that would go perfect with that bread. Lol


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## IrishLass (Apr 29, 2020)

I just found this wonderfully creative lady on YouTube who scores her sourdough in such a way that they bake up into beautiful works of art. I'm going to try her scoring method on my next loaf:




IrishLass


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## amd (Apr 29, 2020)

Thanks for sharing all of this information. I tried and failed (don't ask me how) Amish bread years ago. Decided to dive in to sourdough as the hubby has asked me repeatedly to either learn to make it or he was going to buy some from the ladies who make the bad GM soap. NOT ON MY WATCH BUDDY! Anyways... I'm going rogue on mine (see below in response to Carolyn)



cmzaha said:


> Years ago I used to make my starter out of potatoes but I would have to start digging through a lot of boxes to find my old recipes.


This was how I started mine on Saturday. Just potato and water. It finally started getting bubbly on Monday, so now I'm using the potato water liquid as the liquid for my flour based starter. I discarded today to do 1:1:1, because the starter was trying to escape from the jar (it's a pint jar and I'm only doing 50g qty). Side note: I used the discard to make a pancake with a bit of green onion, salt and pepper, and made a taco shaped sandwich with it for lunch, it was very tasty. Anyways, I'm not sure how many rules I'm breaking with my potato water method, but at this point it's keeping me busy for 5 minutes a day... and the half hour I spend pinning sour dough bread recipes at night.


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## Misschief (Apr 29, 2020)

amd said:


> Thanks for sharing all of this information. I tried and failed (don't ask me how) Amish bread years ago. Decided to dive in to sourdough as the hubby has asked me repeatedly to either learn to make it or he was going to buy some from the ladies who make the bad GM soap. NOT ON MY WATCH BUDDY! Anyways... I'm going rogue on mine (see below in response to Carolyn)
> 
> 
> This was how I started mine on Saturday. Just potato and water. It finally started getting bubbly on Monday, so now I'm using the potato water liquid as the liquid for my flour based starter. I discarded today to do 1:1:1, because the starter was trying to escape from the jar (it's a pint jar and I'm only doing 50g qty). Side note: I used the discard to make a pancake with a bit of green onion, salt and pepper, and made a taco shaped sandwich with it for lunch, it was very tasty. Anyways, I'm not sure how many rules I'm breaking with my potato water method, but at this point it's keeping me busy for 5 minutes a day... and the half hour I spend pinning sour dough bread recipes at night.



As long as it's working, there are no rules!


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## IrishLass (Apr 29, 2020)

Ditto! ^^^ There are videos of folks making starters using water and potatoes, water and dates, water and raisins, not to mention Misschief's original starter made with grapes from her yard. Whatever works!


IrishLass


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## IrishLass (May 10, 2020)

Here are my latest sourdough breads. The first one was made last week with Lazarus, and the second one was made just this morning with Wildfire. I'm finding decorative scoring to be quite fun!:

Before:





After:





Before:





After:





My slashing implement is a scalpel blade, which worked great.


IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (May 10, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Here are my latest sourdough breads. The first one was made last week with Lazarus, and the second one was made just this morning with Wildfire. I'm finding decorative scoring to be quite fun!:
> 
> Before:
> View attachment 45923
> ...



So pretty!  You have all inspired me.  I ordered some rye flour from Bakers Authority and I’m gonna give this a try!


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## Lin19687 (May 11, 2020)

Last nite I put the sourdough starter in the fridge. I forgot to add to it a day here or there. It's been about 11 days (?).
Definitely sour. Now to get a recipe to make a loaf this week.


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## amd (May 11, 2020)

My first loaf last week failed. I blame the operator for being impatient and not letting it proof long enough. You'd think that soapmaking would have taught me better right? Well, my starter should be ready to use again tomorrow so I will try again. I did try making (mostly) flourless brownies with the discard starter following a recipe on Pinterest. It was the most disgusting thing I think I've ever added chocolate to. It was like a chocolate omelette.... gag. I don't know if adding flour would help the recipe or not. I'm trying to find things to do with the discard other than make a pancake or crackers.


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## IrishLass (May 11, 2020)

amd said:


> My first loaf last week failed. I blame the operator for being impatient and not letting it proof long enough. You'd think that soapmaking would have taught me better right? Well, my starter should be ready to use again tomorrow so I will try again. I did try making (mostly) flourless brownies with the discard starter following a recipe on Pinterest. It was the most disgusting thing I think I've ever added chocolate to. It was like a chocolate omelette.... gag. I don't know if adding flour would help the recipe or not. I'm trying to find things to do with the discard other than make a pancake or crackers.



Yuck! That sounds like a heinous crime committed against chocolate! lol  

Re: discard: If you're tired of having to come up with recipes in which to use discard, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Bake with Jack's 'no waste/no discard' scrapings method that I posted a video of in the first post of this thread. I've been using it for a little over month now, and so far, Wildfire and Lazarus are doing quite well with it. It's very nice not to have to find things to do with discard....or worse-  have to throw portions of perfectly good starter away.......which is what I always eventually ended up doing because it was such a pain in the tukhus for me to try to find recipes that my household would actually find pleasant enough to eat in order to use it up. lol

Basically, I keep a mere 2 tbsp. of each of my starters (about 50g each or so) in their own separate jars (tall/skinny 24oz canning jars) and store them in the fridge until the night before I want to use one of them to make bread. My recipe calls for 106g of starter, so when I take a starter out of the fridge the night before using, I vigorously stir in 53g water and 53g of rye flour, cover the jar loosely and leave it to sit on my counter for the whole thing to feed overnight, and when it's ready to go the next morning I remove 106g worth, and then cover the jar/remaining 2 tbsp starter and pop it back in the fridge for next time. I've been baking 1 loaf of sourdough a week, alternating Lazarus and Wildfire.....so, basically, each of them go 2 weeks before being fed/used. So far, so good!


IrishLass


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## amd (May 11, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> I just wanted to give a shout out to the Bake with Jack's 'no waste/no discard' scrapings method that I posted a video of in the first post of this thread.


Thank you for mentioning the video! I had forgotten that I had added it to my watch later list. Just watched it and I'm going to try it this week. If it works (patience Sherry let the dang dough rise) I could theoretically just save all the starter I already have right and gradually use it up... Maybe... Hmmm. Further experimenting coming up. (And by experimenting I just mean trying something I've never done haha)


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## bookreader451 (May 17, 2020)

I have deli rye proofing right now.  I used 100% hydration rye starter at 25% in place of the yeast, and rye and wheat flour ordered from this fabulous mill I found in Texas.  Barton Springs Mill | Texas Heirloom & Modern Grains, Corn, & More.  This mill has some wonderful flour and I have already placed a couple of orders since the pandemic began.  

My regular starter is in a crock in the fridge but hubby isn't a huge fan of sourdough so I only make it occasionally and only feed the beast about once a week.


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## Jersey Girl (May 21, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Made my first wild sourdough starter 5 days ago and then made my first sourdough bread with it today:
> 
> Before popping it into the oven:
> 
> ...




@IrishLass,  is this the video you used to make the bread?  
Is this in your opinion easier than Mary’s Nest technique?  My starter is ready and I’m trying to decide which way to go so I don’t end up needing to be up at 3 am making bread. Lol


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## SPowers (May 21, 2020)

Misschief said:


> That looks amazing!! My sourdough starter was started about 3 years ago and is still going strong. Lately, the bread that I've been making uses both discard starter and a bit of yeast. I will be watching that video with great interest.
> 
> Thankfully, I have enough flour for now and I have more than enough yeast in the freezer to last me quite a while.


I have a starter that I keep in my fridge - take it out a couple of days before I plan to bake so I can feed and revitalise it.  I don't like waiting so use a small amount of yeast in my recipes as well as the starter.


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## IrishLass (May 21, 2020)

Jersey Girl said:


> Is this in your opinion easier than Mary’s Nest technique?  My starter is ready and I’m trying to decide which way to go so I don’t end up needing to be up at 3 am making bread. Lol



Hi Jersey Girl........yes, Jack's video that you posted is the technique I've been using to make my bread, and it's been working out really well for me:

1) Two nights before baking the bread I take my starter scrapings jar out of the fridge and fill it with equal amounts of water and rye flour up to the weight amount of starter that my recipe calls for (I do this right before I go to bed).

2) Sometime the next day when it looks like the starter has good activity like you see in the video, or better, I weigh out the starter I need, put the (covered) scrapings jar back in the fridge for next time, then I start making my bread dough and go through the stretch & folds like Jack does in the video.

3) After the final shaping, I plop the shaped dough into a proofing basket and stick it in the fridge overnight, and then I bake whenever I feel like it the next day. 

I find that the coldness/firmness of the dough from the slow proof in the fridge really helps when it comes to carving designs in the dough with the razor, as compared to trying to carve into room-temp dough. I have much better success if the dough is cold.

I was reading under the comments of Jack's video and he says that if you don't want to do the slow overnight proof in the fridge, you can do what he does for his sourdough classes where an overnight rise is impossible.....After putting the shaped dough in the proofing basket, let it rest at room temp for 45 minutes, then rest again in the fridge for 45 to 60 minutes, then bake it right from the fridge. He says they come out lovely this way, but an overnight rise in the fridge is well worth it.


IrishLass


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## Marsi (May 21, 2020)

I have been inspired by your amazing looking breads 

My wild sourdough starter has failed to start
The bleached flour might have been a problem

I have not found any rye
Wish me luck with the unbleached flour I was able to buy


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## amd (May 21, 2020)

My second attempt was much better, although I think my starter was too aged, the bread was quite vinegar tasting. I'm attempting a second (third) loaf this weekend with the scraping method again if my day drinking doesn't get in the way...


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## Jersey Girl (May 21, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Hi Jersey Girl........yes, Jack's video that you posted is the technique I've been using to make my bread, and it's been working out really well for me:
> 
> 1) Two nights before baking the bread I take my starter scrapings jar out of the fridge and fill it with equal amounts of water and rye flour up to the weight amount of starter that my recipe calls for (I do this right before I go to bed).
> 
> ...



Thank you for this info. I was stressing about the timing of everything. What do you use as a basket for proofing?  I don’t have one.


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## Misschief (May 21, 2020)

Jersey Girl said:


> Thank you for this info. I was stressing about the timing of everything. What do you use as a basket for proofing?  I don’t have one.


You can use a well-floured tea towel in a bowl.


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## IrishLass (May 22, 2020)

Jersey Girl said:


> Thank you for this info. I was stressing about the timing of everything. What do you use as a basket for proofing?  I don’t have one.



I have a *coiled brotform/banneton* made of rattan, but like Misschief said, you can use a well floured tea towel in a bowl. Brotforms/bannetons come in different sizes, depending on the weight of the dough for your your loaf. I have an 8" round one (measured rim to rim) and it fits my batches of dough weighing from 1 to 1 1/2 lbs (roughly a a 2 to  3-cup flour loaf).

 I don't know how big your loaf is or what size bowls you have, but I find it helps to have an appropriately sized bowl as per the weight of your dough in order to help keep it's shape from spreading out too much during proof. These are from my notes, which you can use as a plumb line for your bowl size:     

Dough Weight to Banneton/brotform Size:

· 8" rim to rim x 4 1/4 depth " Round Banneton/Brotform will accommodate 1 - 1 ½ lb of dough
· 10" rim to rim x 4 3/4" depth Round Banneton/Brotform will accommodate 1 1/2 - 2 lb of dough
· 12" rim to rim x 6" depth Round Banneton/Brotform will accommodate 3 - 4 lb of dough


IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (May 22, 2020)

I’m finding out there is quite a learning curve for this sourdough thing. Lol. I didn’t get a lot of activity from my starter even though I followed Mary’s Nest recipe to a T an waited 5.5 days. I ended up following through with her bread recipe because Of the timing and this am the dough had increases in size somewhat but was very sticky. I went ahead and shaped it anyway and it’s resting but I don’t have a lot of hope for the final product.  I made two new starters following her method again and one other method. Trying this again!  I’m determined to get this right!  Soaping is much easier!


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## IrishLass (May 22, 2020)

What kind of flour did you use?


IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (May 22, 2020)

I used white rye flour that I ordered from Bakers Authority for the starter. It really didn’t come to life like it should have. I’m trying again.  The end result was a fail. It didn’t rise properly.  I’ll try Jacks technique next try.


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## IrishLass (May 22, 2020)

Jersey Girl said:


> I used white rye flour that I ordered from Bakers Authority for the starter. It really didn’t come to life like it should have. I’m trying again.  The end result was a fail. It didn’t rise properly.  I’ll try Jacks technique next try.



Were they out of the whole meal rye (the Ardent Mills Rye Meal Pumpernickel Flour)? I use wholemeal for mine and it took off like gangbusters. 


IrishLass


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## Jersey Girl (May 22, 2020)

IrishLass said:


> Were they out of the whole meal rye (the Ardent Mills Rye Meal Pumpernickel Flour)? I use wholemeal for mine and it took off like gangbusters.
> 
> 
> IrishLass



No, it was plain white rye flour. I am happy to report though that i started two more last night, one of Mary’s again and the other Jacks technique. Jacks doubled in size overnight and I just fed it again As he instructs. I have a good feeling about this one.


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## Misschief (May 22, 2020)

A market friend of mine sews fabric baskets (this is sourdough related, trust me); they're quite firm and she's been experimenting with different designs. She wonders if these sculpted



 baskets would work as a banneton and asked if someone would be willing to give it a go. She dropped this one off this afternoon and I have it floured up and ready to go for tomorrow's bread baking.


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## Jersey Girl (May 22, 2020)

I think it’s working!  My kitchen must have been too cold so the first starter wasn’t happy. Stinky is living on top of the hot water heater in the laundry room and is thriving there!  I started it last night.  Yaaaaaay!


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## SPowers (May 23, 2020)

Yes, they can be temperamental!  This one does look happy.. good luck going forward,


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