I am a lurker who enjoys reading the discussions as I get closer to
getting brave enough to start to making sourdough bread......

I have a question. I see posters who write about their starters. How
many people keep multiple starters and why? Is it to have an AP flour
starter and a whole wheat starter?

Thanks
Donna

On 13 Sep 2006 08:40:34 -0700, "Jahosacat"
> wrote:

>I am a lurker who enjoys reading the discussions as I get closer to
>getting brave enough to start to making sourdough bread......
>
>I have a question. I see posters who write about their starters. How
>many people keep multiple starters and why? Is it to have an AP flour
>starter and a whole wheat starter?
>
>Thanks
>Donna

Hi Donna,

I keep three because they produce breads of different
tastes.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

"Jahosacat" > wrote:

> I have a question. I see posters who write about their starters. How
> many people keep multiple starters and why? Is it to have an AP flour
> starter and a whole wheat starter?
>
Hi Donna:

I am an amateur who bakes three to five 1.5# loaves a week. I have had no
training, not even a baking class.

Recently, I purchased a second starter from Sourdoughs International. It is
their Russian starter.

I had visions of using it in my breadmaker and other goals involving whole
grain bread. The Russian supposedly rises whole grain wheat and ryes better
than the Original San Francisco (OSF) that I started with. It is also
extremely quick to peak - a good feature for use in a breadmaker. To date,
my affair with the Russian starter has only produced two loaves of bread
(Yet, my fling was cheaper than buying a new red sports car. <g>).

Alas, I have returned to my OSF. I know it better. I understand it better.
I am used to it and comfortable with it.

To date, I find tinkering with the recipes, inoculations, blend of grains,
hydrations, etc., provides more than enough variety and challenge for my
skill level. When I want to use the OSF for mixed grain bread, I just start
feeding it the flour blend when I begin to grow the starter. It works OK
for me, but I don't have to please anyone or pay the bills with the results.

While I am certain I will tinker with the Russian starter at some time in
the future, if I had it to do over I would have delayed the purchase.
Frankly, I have enough fun with just one.

So in my opinion, it depends on your goals, objectives, skill level,
refrigerator storage space and your personality. However, I would encourage
you to either purchase a known, stable starter versus trying to start your
own. There are reliable commercial sources such as: http://www.sourdo.com/
or you can get Carl's virtually free from:
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/ . Many posters on this site use Carl's;
it has a strong, loyal following steeped in tradition.

That said, I understand that bread made with 100% whole rye is a different
animal. I do not have sufficient knowledge or experience to even comment on
rye starters. I hope this helps.

Regards,

Ray

Jahosacat wrote:
> How many people keep multiple starters and why?

Donna,
First I had one (an OSF from SDI). Then I started one from commercial
rye flour, but it wasn't what I wanted so I started over again and that
time it was better, but it was still not as reliable as the OSF
(learning is a continuous process). Then I got a Danish starter from a
relative in Denmark and for a few years baked Danish rye every few
weeks, then baked it less often but kept the starter refreshed anyway.
Then for a while I was also maintaining an SDI "French" starter which
was less acidic - mostly because my kid didn't fancy a tangy loaf and I
didn't understand how to control the acidity of the bread with the OSF
starter. But over the years I have gone back down to just one, the OSF
in its current manifestation which works for everything I want it to do
(after some amount of "trial and success"). It will make tangy white
bread, mild white bread, Danish rye bread, ciabatta (but I generally
add some commercial yeast for that one and use the starter for flavor),
whole wheat bread, olive walnut bread, cracked wheat bread, wheat berry
bread, "half-wheat" bread, and Krusticks. There are something like 30
nonlinear coupled partial differential equations that govern the
sourdough bread process. I have a hard enough time keeping one starter
under control. I will happily let others to try to tame other
cultures.
Cheers,
Doc