Nov 04, 2003
Most of the starter recipes you're likely to find either _cheat_, by using commercial yeast to kick start the process, or are- quite honestly- too fragile in their early stages.
In the former case, you create a colony of whatever strain of commercial yeast that you used. Which sort of negates the point of _making_ your own starter; using home grown yeast.
In the latter case, you all too frequently end up with a smelly paste that is _definately_ not starter.
I know this to be fact, as I've tried, made and discarded many substandard batches of starter in my career.
_This_ recipe, on the other hand, works perfectly, rapidly and dependably. It creates a batch of wild yeast- soon enough enfluenced by whatever yeast are floating around in your area- and creates a powerful starter.
Powerful enough that no additional yeast is needed to leaven any recipe. (My advice to substitute this starter for packaged yeast in any bread recipe- leave out a cup of flour, add a cup of the starter. Add more flour, if needed, to get proper texture.)
Readers might be interested to know that this starter also well replicates the artisinal starters used in high end commercial recipes.
Meaning that- quite often- I have seen professional bakers scrape together all manner of thin skinned fruit, let it sit for a few days and use the fermented juice as a starter basis.
I really like this starter. In fact, I've just pulled a batch of it from stasis in the fridge- make certain to pour o
—Kendall Gray
