I've read a bunch of websites/faqs and stuff hoping to figure out how to do
all of this. Anyway, for my first try at making a starter I put a largish
pickle jar through the dishwasher to make sure it was nice and clean, poured
in some reverse osmosis filtered water, and then poured in a bunch of rye
flour (which I've had for one or two years now I guess) till it got kind of
hard to stir but not too bad. Kind of like really thick porridge maybe?
Anyway, I left it in my room to make sure the roommates wouldn't toss it (I
do pretty much all of the cleaning so I imagine they wouldn't anyway) and in
a day it was bubbling a little, the next day (today? not sure if there's
been a third day... I'm REALLY bad with time) the whole surface was
bubbly/frothy/slightly browner so I just stuck it in the fridge, with saran
wrap over it. It does smell yeasty. In fact my room smells kind of yeasty so
I've opened the window

After I mixed it up I saw another page which suggested starting with *way*
less flour/water, like a teaspoon or so, and doubling it till you get how
much you want to use and some to store, so I think maybe I overestimated the
amount I needed. I bet I have five or six cups of the stuff at least... it's
not a small jar. I haven't fed it more because there's so much there and I
don't think the level has gone down or anything like that

I'm going to be going away for a couple of days so I hope it will be ok on
its own in the fridge. You know I'm really not sure if it's supposed to be
ready to use now, or if you have to wait, or if you can't wait much
longer... but I do remember the sites saying the fridge slows it down

This would be a lot easier with a guide to show me things lol

After reading some more threads in this group, and the replies to other
newbies, I took it back out of the fridge, (it was only in for a few
minutes) gave it a stir, and dumped out all but about one cup of it, and
added about another cup of flour and some more water and put it up in the
cupboard above the fridge. Unless people recommend otherwise, I may continue
to feed it in that way... dump out half, replace the lost half. I'll feed it
again before I go away, and again when I get back. I'll wait a while before
I go to use it, of course

And I thought it smelled yeasty BEFORE I dumped some out :P


"Phoebe" wrote in message
news:qzOGe.111073$wr.88468@clgrps12...
I've read a bunch of websites/faqs and stuff hoping to figure out how to
do all of this. Anyway, for my first try at making a starter I put a
largish pickle jar through the dishwasher to make sure it was nice and
clean, poured in some reverse osmosis filtered water, and then poured in a
bunch of rye flour (which I've had for one or two years now I guess) till
it got kind of hard to stir but not too bad. Kind of like really thick
porridge maybe? Anyway, I left it in my room to make sure the roommates
wouldn't toss it (I do pretty much all of the cleaning so I imagine they
wouldn't anyway) and in a day it was bubbling a little, the next day
(today? not sure if there's been a third day... I'm REALLY bad with time)
the whole surface was bubbly/frothy/slightly browner so I just stuck it in
the fridge, with saran wrap over it. It does smell yeasty. In fact my room
smells kind of yeasty so I've opened the window

After I mixed it up I saw another page which suggested starting with *way*
less flour/water, like a teaspoon or so, and doubling it till you get how
much you want to use and some to store, so I think maybe I overestimated
the amount I needed. I bet I have five or six cups of the stuff at
least... it's not a small jar. I haven't fed it more because there's so
much there and I don't think the level has gone down or anything like that

I'm going to be going away for a couple of days so I hope it will be ok on
its own in the fridge. You know I'm really not sure if it's supposed to be
ready to use now, or if you have to wait, or if you can't wait much
longer... but I do remember the sites saying the fridge slows it down

This would be a lot easier with a guide to show me things lol

It looks you are growing starter to throw it away.

I would not do it in that manner.

First, you have a fresh starter - pretty young. It may be a good idea to
make some bread with it.

Then, keep smaller amounts - 1 cup or even less. Store it in the fridge.
I use 1 cup or 1/2 cup plastic containers.

If you want to make bread, take it out take all or a part of it, triple
it three times.

What you do is that you tripe the flour content with every step, then
grow until it rises, triple again, grow until it rises and for the third
time, grow it a bit longer. Then make bread.

Before you make bread, take some starter and put it into the fridge for
next time.

See how that goes.

You can keep it in the fridge for 1 - 1 1/2 month without refreshing.



Phoebe wrote:
After reading some more threads in this group, and the replies to other
newbies, I took it back out of the fridge, (it was only in for a few
minutes) gave it a stir, and dumped out all but about one cup of it, and
added about another cup of flour and some more water and put it up in the
cupboard above the fridge. Unless people recommend otherwise, I may continue
to feed it in that way... dump out half, replace the lost half.

You have a lot of waste with that. That's not necessary. If you go the
other way, doubling - as you do or tripling what I wrote above with
smaller amounts that can be avoided.



Samartha