hi all!
Awhile back I was surfing the net and found a nice, simple intro to
sourdough page - Sourdough Baking - The Basics, by S. John Ross.
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm - and I was interested. After a few
weeks, I decided to give it a go. Seems like the simplest thing on the
planet - dump flour and water together, wait a few days and then bake bread.

So far so good. So we started our new pet (my wife named him "Ralph" -
partly because it's a funny name for a starter, partly because she doesn't
really like sourdough bread) - a cup of warm water, a cup of ap flour, in a
tupperware container. I put Ralph on our dresser in the bedroom (warmest
place in our apt - it's hot here, but the AC is on all the time, but it
doesn't get to that part of the place) and layed the lid on top - just to
keep dust and spiders from getting in, but still let the gas out. Every day
I dump about half (or less) of Ralph and add a 1/2 cup of water and flour.

Within 24 hours - noticable bubbles throughout Ralph. Within 48 I had an
appreciable amount of hooch and froth, and a distinct "sourdough" smell.
Pretty strong. Wendy thinks it smells gross, I think it's smells just like
sourdough bread just times 5 or so. Seems right to me, not knowing any
better at least.

Seems really weird to me all the stories I've read on here about people
having trouble getting a starter started - I saw one somewhere who just
started getting bubbles at day 9?? Seems very strange. Maybe pollution in
the city kills of the native yeastie beasties. We live in the desert in
Western Colorado at 5500ft. Seems wild yeast is plentiful enough here.

Anywho, yesterday was day 3, and all seemed well, so I figured I'd give
Ralph a try actually raising some bread. the web page said that if I
wanted to bake in the morning, I should make the sponge and proof it
overnight... So at 1am I poured Ralph into a big plastic bowl and added some
water and flour and put the bowl in the cold oven overnight to do his jazz.

This morning I got up and checked on Ralph - he was bubbly and thick and
sticky and the smell was sour but not offensive. Seemed good to me. What
do I know? So I start making bread! I'm no newbie to making "regular
bread," so I'm not afraid of getting messy (as long as I clean up before my
wife sees the mess - I'm afraid of her).

In a new clean plastic bowl I put 2 cups of sponge, 3 cups of ap flour, 2
tbs oil, 4ts sugar, 2ts kosher salt (I watch good eats waaaaay to much), and
a tbs of wheat gluten (makes the "regular" bread work better, figured it
couldn't hurt!) mixed and kneaded by hand. Dough seems nice, kneaded well
as any I've done before, smells slightly and pleasantly like sourdough.

Oiled dough and popped into a bigger plastic bowl to rise in a warmed oven.
I'm sure it's going to take FOREVER to rise. It's been in about an hour and
a half so far, but it looks a little bigger than when I put it in.

I fed Ralph a half cup of water and flour and put him in the fridge with the
lid on. I made a hole in the lid for gas escapage.

Been fun thus far - will be more fun when bread is hot and in my mouth...

Michael Packard

"Michael Packard" > wrote in message =
...

> we started our new pet (my wife named him "Ralph" -=20
> partly because it's a funny name for a starter) ...

There are some places on the Internet where SD cultures
have personal names. But "Ralph" is a terrible name in the
first place, particularly for a sourdough starter.

>Wendy thinks it smells gross.

It, or He? Who is Wendy, anyway? Well, anyway, there is=20
another good possibility for renaming.

--
Dicky
(renamed already)