Recently I started a new sourdough culture in the usual way: I mixed flour
and water into a paste, set it aside, and waited.

Ordinarily it takes several days to "catch" a new wild yeast, but this time
the culture puffed up within 24 hours.

At the same time I was making this new culture, I as making some bread with
an long-established culture. The two were never closer than five or six
feet.

My question is, did the new one simply catch the old one, or did it catch a
new one?

I might add, the new one has a slightly different fragrance than the old
one. The new one has a distinctly cheesy fragrance.

Is it sour after your 24 hour puff?

Btw. I got fried sausage smell at one point after a short period of puff.

Samartha

Ray wrote:
> Recently I started a new sourdough culture in the usual way: I mixed flour
> and water into a paste, set it aside, and waited.
>
> Ordinarily it takes several days to "catch" a new wild yeast, but this time
> the culture puffed up within 24 hours.
>
> At the same time I was making this new culture, I as making some bread with
> an long-established culture. The two were never closer than five or six
> feet.
>
> My question is, did the new one simply catch the old one, or did it catch a
> new one?
>
> I might add, the new one has a slightly different fragrance than the old
> one. The new one has a distinctly cheesy fragrance.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rec.food.sourdough mailing list
>
> http://www.mountainbitwarrior.com/ma...food.sourdough
>

I'm going to produce my first starter soon.
What does the old one smell like???
Ray wrote:
> Recently I started a new sourdough culture in the usual way: I mixed flour
> and water into a paste, set it aside, and waited.
>
> Ordinarily it takes several days to "catch" a new wild yeast, but this time
> the culture puffed up within 24 hours.
>
> At the same time I was making this new culture, I as making some bread with
> an long-established culture. The two were never closer than five or six
> feet.
>
> My question is, did the new one simply catch the old one, or did it catch a
> new one?
>
> I might add, the new one has a slightly different fragrance than the old
> one. The new one has a distinctly cheesy fragrance.

The old one is the famous Carl's sourdough. It doesn't have an especially
distinctive smell, but it's very fast-acting.

Unless you just want to try to make your own starter, as I do occasionally,
you might want to just get Carl's starter -- it dates back to 1847. You can
get it free (donations accepted) from the following link:

http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/source.html


> wrote in message
ups.com...
> I'm going to produce my first starter soon.
> What does the old one smell like???
> Ray wrote:
>> Recently I started a new sourdough culture in the usual way: I mixed
>> flour
>> and water into a paste, set it aside, and waited.
>>
>> Ordinarily it takes several days to "catch" a new wild yeast, but this
>> time
>> the culture puffed up within 24 hours.
>>
>> At the same time I was making this new culture, I as making some bread
>> with
>> an long-established culture. The two were never closer than five or six
>> feet.
>>
>> My question is, did the new one simply catch the old one, or did it catch
>> a
>> new one?
>>
>> I might add, the new one has a slightly different fragrance than the old
>> one. The new one has a distinctly cheesy fragrance.
>

Ray wrote:

> Recently I started a new sourdough culture in the usual way: I mixed flour
> and water into a paste, set it aside, and waited.
>
> Ordinarily it takes several days to "catch" a new wild yeast, but this time
> the culture puffed up within 24 hours.
>
> At the same time I was making this new culture, I as making some bread with
> an long-established culture. The two were never closer than five or six
> feet.
>
> My question is, did the new one simply catch the old one, or did it catch a
> new one?
>
> I might add, the new one has a slightly different fragrance than the old
> one. The new one has a distinctly cheesy fragrance.

Hi Ray,

Cheesy, sounds like leuconostoc to me. Cheesy to vomit is what I've
noticed.

Don't forget how easy it is to catch a cold from touching something
someone has sneezed on. No, I'm not getting into the snotty
leuconostoc, lol, six feet or six miles if you're handling both with
the same equipment that hasn't been washed properly you might have the
same starter, leuconostoc aside. The leuconostoc can happen even in
established starters, (if you haven't looked after it properly) despite
what some will tell you. Some that have been doing the same thing for
years on end can get a bit stuck in their ways. But I've only been
baking for 17 years so I'm not quite such an oldy. lol.

Is there a reason you made a new starter?

Jim

About a month ago - I started making my first sourdough starter - I've
always used Carl's starter but wanted to try my own. Every day for
three weeks, I rejuvinated the starter by adding a cup of water and a 1
to 1/2 cups of flour being very careful to use non bleached flour and
distilled water. After the first week when my starter was limping
along. The resulting bread was passable (meaning my family would eat
it - but they missed Carl's). It tasted good right out of the oven and
toasted and, of course, had a terrible crumb. One day, last week, I
gave up decided to revive my back-up Carls starter. I dumped my own
starter in my back garden. I tookd Carl's starter and began to make a
spponge. I set the oven to 350 degrees to heat it up for 60 seconds
before I put the sponge into rise. oops ... I forgot to turn the oven
off and got a melted plastic covered sticky, goopy mess in return for
my negligence (and age related memory loss).

Now, I had no more starter. So ... In desparation (or probably jut
plain stubborness), I went to my back garden an picked up a large oak
leave with some crusty starter on it and was able to scrape off a
couple of teaspoons. I made a sponge and for the first time in my
dubious starter's history - I had lift-off. Bread is coming out great
but, honestly, I still like Carl's better. Maybe some time and
maturity will improve the flovor. What do you all think?

Thanks.
Mike

.... I should really learn to land the plane sooner

mjd wrote:
> About a month ago - I started making my first sourdough starter - I've
> always used Carl's starter but wanted to try my own. Every day for
> three weeks, I rejuvinated the starter by adding a cup of water and a 1
> to 1/2 cups of flour being very careful to use non bleached flour and
> distilled water.
I think you should have fed the starter twice a day. Twice a day is a
minimum for a starter at room temperature. If you feed it less, you are
starving it.

Also, it isn't clear if you discard part of the starter before feeding
it. A feeding should be enough to double the volume of the starter. If
you feed it less, you are starving it.

Distilled water is not necessary. People have been making sourdough for
thousands of years, and for most of that time distilled water was not
available. For that matter, clean water was a luxury. I do make an
exception for some heavily chlorinated waters. If your city uses
persistent chloramine, you may have trouble. Otherwise, probably not.

> After the first week when my starter was limping
> along.
Yeah... it was starving.
>
> Now, I had no more starter. So ... In desparation (or probably jut
> plain stubborness), I went to my back garden an picked up a large oak
> leave with some crusty starter on it and was able to scrape off a
> couple of teaspoons. I made a sponge and for the first time in my
> dubious starter's history - I had lift-off. Bread is coming out great
> but, honestly, I still like Carl's better. Maybe some time and
> maturity will improve the flovor. What do you all think?
>
Feed it more often and it will stabilize. Whether or not you will like
it is another matter. Luckily, it's easy to get more Carl's.

Mike

--
....The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world...

Mike Avery mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com
part time baker ICQ 16241692
networking guru AIM, yahoo and skype mavery81230
wordsmith

"mjd" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>>
> ... Maybe some time and
> maturity will improve the flovor. What do you all think?

In my experience it took three to four weeks for the full flavour and other
properties of my starter to become (what we consider) perfect.

Mary
>