Capturing Yeast Out Of The Air

That's a fast & easy method for folks who leave things as-is.

My OCD problem is that I like to group the ingredients that belong together in each step. If you look at the way I wrote the above recipe, you'll see ingredients grouped together for each step with a space in between, rather than just a continuous unbroken list. The same goes for my directions.

It makes it so much easier for me to follow. It makes it easier to gather the stuff together and prep before I begin assembly. I also like to modify the recipe as I read the comments folks have made, if I'm grabbing it from a website.

I put the printout on my fridge at eye level with a magnet and move a Post-It note along as I step through the recipe if it's a lengthy one.

Maybe that's why I like to cook...I get to exercise my control issues!!!

 

It has been two days today since I started the sourdough experiment. The house is really cold, especially the kitchen (probably barely 60 ); so I moved the jar into the bedroom, and put it on the bedroom heater vent.
Today I checked it, and it is starting to smell like sourdough, although it is not bubbly like the starter I see in the youtube videos. Maybe just needs more time ?
I took out about half of it and added enough flour to make a nice dough, and have that on the heater vent to see if it will rise.
I added more flour and water to the starter jar, so it has fresh food to eat. If the dough rises, then I will make bread or rolls or flatbread out of it and see how it turns out.

 

Cool!

My Italian bread starter sits on the kitchen counter for several hours until it starts to get bubbly, then goes in the fridge overnight, where it gets slightly more bubbly. My kitchen is cooler than the rest of the house because it's "around the corner" from my wood stove.

My pizza dough sufficiently rises in the fridge for 3 days without getting bubbly and without being started off at room temp. It's a true dough recipe and not a starter.

I keep my fridge at 37°F and the above things progress as expected.

You got a link to one of those vids? Are you following their exact process?

As an aside, my new-ish convection oven and my dehydrator both have a "proof" function that I dearly love (although I've reall never had an issue getting dough to rise, even in my chilly laundry room.)

 

I started out with the sourdough pancake recipe that is on the first page of this thread, then I have watched several videos about making sourdough starter, and getting it to turn out to be some kind of bread.
Here is one which explains the “yeast from the air “ idea, and how the grain fits into that. It is only about 6 minutes long, so you should be able to watch it.
If you have Kindle , Amazon also has books about sourdough bread in the kindle store. I use Book Bub and they give me a list of books I might be interested in, and I grab them when amazon has them for free, or at least very cheap.

 

The guy said you should start seeing bubbles in 3-5 days, and he's in L.A. (it's 70°F there right now.) So I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I also did a quick internet search to see if yeast in the air is a seasonal thing, and found that wild yeasts may be more active in the warmer months (makes sense.) This guy who makes mead from wild yeast says: Consider the time of year. While I’ve made perfectly good wild ferments in the fall and winter, I’ve found that my spring and summer meads get going much quicker. Even if you keep it by a heater vent or near a stove or have a consistently warm house, it’s almost as if a wild ferment can sense the outside weather. Part of this may be that there are less wild yeast floating through the air since the rest of the wild world is resting. Don’t let this stop you from making mead all year round but give your mead a little extra time and care if making it in the cold months.

So it seems as though you are fine. You are only two days into it during the dead of winter, yet you see activity.

 

I made my first loaf of sourdough bread today. The texture of the bread is good, but it is really, really sour. Maybe after I have the starter for a while it will do better.
I like the sourness, just want it to have not quite this much of it in the flavor. I might have used too much starter for the amount of bread that I made.

 

Success!!!

I've never made bread from bulk starter...my recipes include making a dedicated starter for that specific loaf. I know some recipes call for "x cups," but not only would it be difficult to measure something like that, you point out an interesting thing regarding homemade starter...variations in strength.

I bet those who have done this most of their lives just smell the starter and then tear off an appropriate amount.

 

This is more of the mortar and pestle kind of a thing, but instead of being used for pounding something down into a powder, it is used to mash (for want of a better term) the cabbage until it is soft and tender and most of the juice has come out and mixed in with the sea salt to make a brine for the sauerkraut or kimchi.
The tamper for the Vitamix is different . It is used to push foods down into the blender blades, from the sides of the Vitamix. It is made exactly the right size so that it can’t accidentally get caught into the blender blades , but long enough to be able to push the food down to be blended better.

 

Thanks for that.

I have a medium mortar and pestle like so:



and an herb crusher kinda like so:


...so I got no problem buying another kitchen gadget. Making sauerkraut keeps finding its way one (and off) my culinary bucket list, just as Yorkshire pudding does.

 

I forgot to add...I already have a blender spoon