Friendly Neighborhood Sourdough

Creating a sourdough beast was part of my plan.

November 15th was the day I was going to start trying to catch another wild sourdough culture.  It takes about a month and a half to get a culture optimally healthy for making great breads, and I wanted to start making breads in January when I leave the traditional workforce.

Catching the wild yeasts and lactobacilli is not as easy as it looks when one works with fungi for a living.  Within a week of my first attempt, the culture became contaminated with Rhizopus (bread mold) spores from work... so I'd decided not to start it until all my Rhizopus work for the year is done.  Plus, I was not really going to have the time for caring for ANOTHER culture on top of the 650 at work until classes were pretty much over in mid-November.

Another way presented itself.



This week my relatively new coworker was talking about how his friend made a sourdough starter culture 3 months ago, and just gave him some... it was super healthy and made delicious tortillas.  He also accidentally fed part of it some masa (corn flour), and it stayed healthy and made tortillas that were even better.  As you might have guessed, I was extremely interested.

The next day, he brought me some!  By the time I got it home, it was ready for food again.  It hissed with delight as I unscrewed the jar.  Or, it hissed with the built-up pressure of carbon dioxide.

I split the culture into twins.  In mason jars, of course. 

What are the odds that someone would randomly give me a new-yet-perfectly aged starter one week before my secret starter deadline?  I'm going to take this as a sign, and wait to catch my own sourdough organisms when I have a lot of time on my hands and need a sciency project.

I've fed the new pet several times (half flour, half water), and it is bubbling nicely.  It also smells heavenly.  Mmmmm.
 
I knew exactly what to make with it first:  a back-up to stick in the freezer, which will last for 6 months.  All you do is feed it 1/4th the normal amount, let it sit at room temp for an hour, and then freeze it in an air-tight container. 

I've been playing with making dough for some sourdough loaves since last night... it'll be interesting to see how they turn out!