Well, Sports Fans, it looks like Ol' BBQ Bob (that's me) had gone and
done his first batch of authentic genuine sourdough starter. None of
that olddough for Ol' BBQ Bob anymore. yuk

For those who might be interested in first hand observations of a
first time amateur (that's me), here are some comments. For the rest
of you, now is the time to use that DEL key.

1. I used whole grain rye flour I got at a health food store. I could
not get ordinary store-bought Pillsbury Medium Rye Flour to start,
probably because it was treated too much.

2. When I bought the rye it was being kept in a refrigerator. I asked
the owner why he kept it there and he answered with the obvious - to
keep it fresh. Why one would have to keep rye flour fresh that way is
beyond my understanding, but I am going to keep mine in the
refrigerator too.

3. I mixed 1/2 cup with 1/2 cup of distilled water and put them in a 3
quart rubbermaid container with a loose fitting lid. I do not trust my
activated charcoal filter to get all the chlorine out of our
heavily-chlorinated Houston drinking water, so that's why I used
distilled water. Also our water is very hard - 8.0 - and I do not
believe calcium is filtered out because my filter is not an
ion-exchange device.

4. The mix did not start visibly fermenting after 12 hours but I added
another feeding of 1/2 cup rye flour and 1/2 cup water anyway, as
instructed. I read that you have to provide sufficient nourishment to
the starter to get it going, so each 12 hours I fed it the same amount
of rye flour and water again.

5. I did not take 1/2 the previous mixture out each time I fed it, as
some advocate. I suspect the reason for doing that is because then
there is only half the fermenting agents to have to feed. But I will
start removing half on the next feeding.

6. It will have been 3 days total this afternoon at 5:00 pm CT. This
morning it was bubbling away creating a foam appearance, but it was
not a vigorous fermentation. In fact it was rather subdued compared to
what happens when I used baker's yeast before on white flour. I am
looking forward to seeing this rye culture take off when it reaches
"critical mass" (which is the "knee region" of the exponential growth
curve).

7. After the culture erupts and falls a couple of times I plan on
converting to white flour. I plan to use only a cup of the starter
which is still pure rye flour and add 1/2 cup white flour and 1/2 cup
distilled water. After that I plan to keep the culture alive by the
traditional feeding techniques discussed on the web.

8. I am still waiting for Ed Wood's book "Classic Sourdoughs: A Home
Baker's Handbook" from the library. Once I get it I am going to
consult it for any corrections to the above procedures. I will likely
start a new culture based on his recommendations just to see if there
is any difference. No one ever said you can't have two starters
available.

So there you have it, Ol' BBQ Bob's first encounter with authentic
genuine sourdough starter. I sure hope this all works out because I am
looking forward to the final bread - "Chewy Sourdough Baguette".