March 22, 2009 - 10:11pm
How to Reconstitute a Mail-Order Starter?
I sent away for a free oregon trail sourdough starter with which to embark on my sourdough journey. (I read in a forum that it is better to start baking sourdough with a stable start to see what one looks like before attempting your own) I got mine in the mail today, and opened the envelope to find a baggie of starter flakes but no instructions for bringing them "to Life." Help Please?
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http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/OTbrochure.html
Thank you so much! I got the address from a friend and didn't know there was a website. Thanks!
Thank the power of Google :)
and please let us know how you are progressing with this!
Cheers,
Jw.
JW - It is free within the US with a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and there are instructions here for outside the US to send about $1 in postage or currency. Here is the full website for more info.
I don't have a scale, so I'd say about a teaspoon of dehydrated crumbs and flakes
Sorry JW, I read that too quickly and I mistakenly thought you had asked how much the starter cost rather than how much was sent...thanks Mylissa for clearing that up.
I did take a good spponfull to kickoff the starter. Just got back from a trip, will see tomorrow how it turned out. There was a lot of 'water' on top. I will also make a pain du provence, just to compare the taste. My family complained about the fact that we were out of bread and they had to get one of the freezer.... Cheers, Jw.
Mylissa20 - the link provided above is to the original brochure that went with the starter, however, if you look further on the Carl's Friends website, you will see this much more up to dat set of instructions on how to revive the starter, it is these newer instructions that I was sent with my dried start a few years ago and they work fine. You do not need to add sugar, potato water, milk, or anything else except fresh unchlorinated water and flour as per these newer instructions to revive the starter. Depending on the temperature of your starter's location, it should start bubbling anywhere from 12 to 24 hours after initial mixing, don't feed it any more fllour until it starts to bubble, but you can give it a good stir every 6 hours or so, and keep it warm (75F-80F) if possible.
Good luck, you will be able to do some great baking very soon. This starter is very strong! It is a very fast riser compared to my home-grown starter, and is has a more mild pleasant flavor also.
I live in a cold state, and in a basement. How can I best maintain 75-80 degrees for my start? For weekly baking I use my warmed oven, but that wont work for this :)
The warmer temp (75-80F) is more to just get the starter active more quickly. Once it is active, and you are feeding it according to a regular schedule, you can get let it sit at cooler room temps like 65F or so, it just may take a little longer to peak between feedings the cooler it is, you have to experiment. It will certainly work more predictably for you, esp. if you are new to sourdough, if you can keep it warmer (I would not go higher than 80F though).
In terms of finding a warm spot in cold weather for either your starter or your rising dough, if you search the site here for "proof box" you will find numerous past threads on this subject. Many people hunt around the house for a warm spot like the top of their frig, their water heater closet, their laundry room, etc. Some people use a heating pad or reptile heat lamp set to the lowest setting, some people find a sunny window...a good simple method that is pretty effective is to use either a picnic cooler or a plastic storage container with lid, and place a bowl of just boiled water inside the container with lid on, the hot water will significantly warm up the container for a few hours, you may need to replace more hot water to keep the temp consistent.
Here is an example of a storage container rigged with a heat lamp by SteveB. I have a very similar setup (but not the insulating blanket) when I need to bulk ferment dough and my house is too cold, but I've found that even just using a bowl of hot water makes it unnecessary, most of the time, to use the reptile lamp, I keep an instant-read thermometer in there with everything to make sure it doesn't get above 78F or so, and sometimes I have to vent it a little.
Let us know how you like the Carl's starter once you start using it. Happy Baking!
Thanks for the great ideas. My husband thinks I'm nuts because I've started placing thermometers in random spots of the house looking for a warm home for my start. :) Maybe I'll make him part of the fun and make him build me a proof box. I'm going to try and activate the start today, so wish me luck!