On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 09:56:21 -0400, Feuer wrote:

Making a new sourdough starter requires primarily _patience_. If you
continue to feed for a while, with a reasonable feeding schedule, no
matter what the starter looks or smells like, you will eventually
succeed. If you throw it out at the least provocation, you never will.

I just got off the phone with the head baker at the Bakehouse that
supplies Whole Foods Market and Starbucks Coffee, among 40 customers
total in Houston. He has been there for over 10 years and still uses
the same starter from when he began working there.

He told me that from his experience making artisan breads for a
demanding customer base that I should employ the following steps for
making my own starter.

1. Mix 75% wheat flour (KA bread flour is OK) and 25% rye flour.

[The article discussed below states 50%-50%.]

2. Hydrate 50%.

3. Place in an open container in the kitchen.

4. Fermentation should begin by 48 hours.

5. Feed the starter according to the schedule he sent me (see article
discussed below).

6. Refrigerate when not in use and use sponge method to make the
bread.

We did not get into the details past the part about making the
starter, but he did send me some pages from the National Baking
Center, Dunwoody Institute, on the sourdough process. That article has
a detailed schedule for feeding the culture in six steps ranging from
22 hrs to 6 hrs. Feedings are all 1/2 the original flour and water,
after discarding 1/2 of the previous step.

I asked him about "catching" microorganisms and he said that is the
best way to get the starter to begin fermentation. He even suggested
using grapes to get things going. You lightly wash the grapes and then
put them in water for 8 hours and use the water for the first stage of
the starter.

I have no way to critique his comments - all I can go on is he sounded
very authoritative and appeared to have the credentials to back his
claims. He did say that my 5-day old failed starter should be
discarded.