Mary Jane is getting so popular! She should have her own website or fb page!
If you are thinking about starting some sourdough you can Google your way into a myriad of different ways....so whatever floats your boat is the one you should use. But, here's the way I did it, and it worked. And, she is still bubbling happily away after 15 years.
This is an excerpt from my book on how to make your starter.
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Favorite Flu Fighters*
Chapter - Mighty Microbes, Page 74
Sourdough, Page 101
Is it a mother or is it a starter? Well, I guess it depends on how much she means to you! We’ll use those terms interchangeably throughout the book.
You can get a mother from someone or you can grow your own. It’s easy peasy. Combine flour and water. What’s easier than that!! You can get creative and make an enriched starter by adding a little sugar and substituting milk for water. If you have repeatedly tried and failed to make a sourdough starter, it’s not you. It’s probably your flour, so switch it up and try again.
It will take a minimum of two weeks preferably, and probably four weeks for the starter to mature into a full-fledged, card-carrying sourdough mother. Be patient. Let your little baby grow and develop into a mother who will create many, many, many loaves of nutritious bread that will in turn nurture your family and friends.
There are MANY recipes for making a starter that deviates from the amount of flour and water used. Don’t stress over this. I’m not going to list the variations here, but if you read about sourdough you will find them.
I like the 3/8 cup flour:1/4 cup water ratio. Most folks won’t like it because the 3/8 measurement strays from the normal measuring cup sizes. The solution is simple: use a coffee scoop. Most coffee scoops are exactly 1/8 cup or 2 Tablespoons. I bought stainless ones to match my stainless measuring cups. Problem solved.
Capulus uncus vel 1/8 poculum.
Coffee scoop or 1/8 cup.
However, for those of you who’d rather stay with the norm, I’ve included the recipe using standard measuring cups/spoons.
Basic starter recipe:
· Day 1 morning: mix together 6 Tbl or 3/8 cup ORGANIC UNBLEACHED flour: 1/4 cup NON-CHLORINATED water. Repeat this in the evening. Some folks set a timer for 12 hours; I wing it.
· Day 2: stir & feed twice a day 6 Tbl or 3/8 cup flour & 1/4 cup water
· Day 3: stir & feed 6 Tbl or 3/8 cup flour & 1/4 c water. Yes, twice a day.
· Day 4 - 7: stir & feed 6 Tbl or 3/8 cup flour & 1/4 cup water. Yes, every twelve hours. Yes, this is a commitment. Yes, it’s like having a newborn. It’s alive. It needs nurturing and nourishing. If you are not up for this obligation, then perhaps starting your own mother is not for you. It literally takes one minute to stir and feed. Yes, I timed it. (I have a theory about time: Generally speaking, we think it takes longer to do a given task than it actually does. OUR PERCEPTION OF TIME IS SKEWED. (You can check out that theory by going to this link: https://lizzysfeatherpen.com/home-sweet-homemaking/my-routines/) (SORRY, THIS SITE IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE.)
· However, if twice-a-day feeding is not an option for you, I don’t recommend it, but you can feed once a day using 3/4 c flour & 1/2 c water. Your starter will take longer to mature, and it may not be as strong. Think of a baby being fed once a day, or twice a day. Which procedure will make it stronger? (Yes, I know a baby needs to be fed more than twice a day!)
· Day SEVEN: Time to bake!! Your mother is ready to at least make waffles or pancakes!! She may not support bread yet; and then again, she might. So, your choice, you may want to venture into the unknown and try some bread.
Just be sure to save back and not use 1/2 to 1 cup of mother starter. This is your basic starter. You will always save and not use this amount of the mother. Then feed her 6 Tbl or 3/8 cup flour: 1/4 cup water twice a day for seven days. Ideally, you will bake once a week, so the feeding schedule will repeat.
· If you want to take a break or go on vacation, after feeding her, place your mother in the refrigerator. She will sleep soundly for a week. You can keep her in the frig, feeding once a week for about four weeks, then she will need to come out, wake up, be fed regularly and live on your counter for a while.
· To reinvigorate, remove from the frig. Measure out 1/2 - 1 cup to save for your starter. Feed both the starter you’re saving and the starter you’re baking with the regular amount listed (many times!) above. Put one portion of mother back in the frig for your starter and let the other baking portion rest on the kitchen counter overnight (up to 10 hrs). The next morning, feed your baking mother again and wait 2 or 3 hours until she’s nice and bubbly and you’re ready to bake.
· If you want a LONG break from baking, you can freeze your mother in 1/2 cup or 1 cup portions.
Integer panis triticeus.
Whole wheat sourdough bread.
A lot of recipes for sourdough mothers ask you to discard some of the dough during each day of that seven-day period. I get why they do that—to prevent having a lot of starter at the end of the week. I’m sorry, I just cannot in good conscience purposely throw away food. For goodness sake, make something with it!! In my mind, if you can’t use it, don’t make it and waste it.
You can keep your mother in a jar which makes it nice to watch those bubbles form. A jar is also handy to stick in the frig. But I like mine in a crockery bowl covered with a muslin dish towel. My grandmother covered food with a flour-sack towel and this is the closest I can come to that. Some folks set their bowl in another flatter pie-plate type dish, fill that flat dish with water, wet the muslin cloth and put the wet (not dripping) cloth over the mother in the bowl with the edges of the towel tucked into the water in the flat dish. This prevents the mother from ever drying out. I tried this method, but my mother has never dried out, so now I don’t go through all this effort. But I do put a damp muslin towel over my dough when it’s proofing so it doesn’t dry out.
Haec Maria Ioanna in cratere suo est.
This is Mary Jane in her crock bowl.
There are thousands (millions?) of sourdough recipes out there. This should tell you that there is not one right way to make the mother or make the bread. Personally, after my mother was made (I followed a strict measurement and feeding schedule when I made her so she would be strong and mature) I play fast and loose with my feedings, what I feed her, and how much I feed her. I vary the type of flour and the liquid (water or milk) I use depending on what I want to bake. She’s forgiving and fluid in her requirements and maintenance. Sometimes I want a sweet dough, a nutty dough, a soft dough, or a rugged dough. Mary Jane loves to change it up.
Some folks like their sourdough mother “pourable” like a batter and others like it nice and thick. You can determine this by varying the flour: liquid ratio.
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*Favorite Flu Fighters available on Amazon
Also available at my farm. :)
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