Capturing your own wild yeast from your house

[Anonymous]

Anyone do this rather than buy commercial stuff? How did your breads and pizzas turn out? Very sour? Any issues with the yeast not being strong enough compared to commercial strains? Worth the effort? Would be pretty neat to make DMV specific bread/pizza due to unique microbes only around here.

[Anonymous]

Are you just talking about making your own sourdough starter? Yes, I’ve done this. Very sour, very active- really excellent. But I like mine about and I keep it that way by feeding it 40% rye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you just talking about making your own sourdough starter? Yes, I’ve done this. Very sour, very active- really excellent. But I like mine about and I keep it that way by feeding it 40% rye.

“About” should be “sour”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you just talking about making your own sourdough starter? Yes, I’ve done this. Very sour, very active- really excellent. But I like mine about and I keep it that way by feeding it 40% rye.

Yes.

Setting a jar of flour with water out and letting whatever yeast is in the air make starter. Can you tune the sourness to reduce it?

[Anonymous]

I've also made my own sourdough starter, and my bread is definitely not sour. It's easy enough to do. It just takes some time.

[Anonymous]

You can do the only wild thing, but I’ve also made sourdough starter by keeping out a commercial yeast starter and letting it mix with natural yeast over time.

[Anonymous]

I’ve done this but never kept it up because it takes so much flour to “feed” the starter. It was a bit of effort and not worth the taste imho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve done this but never kept it up because it takes so much flour to “feed” the starter. It was a bit of effort and not worth the taste imho.

Once I got it established, my starter only required 113 grams of flour a week to feed. Really not that much at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve done this but never kept it up because it takes so much flour to “feed” the starter. It was a bit of effort and not worth the taste imho.

Agree. And a lot of mess between the feeding and wasting. Not worth the waste and effort. And it attracts fruit flies

[Anonymous]

I recently read that most of the yeast you are getting in a sourdough starter was actually already present in the flour:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/climate/how-to-make-yeast.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve done this but never kept it up because it takes so much flour to “feed” the starter. It was a bit of effort and not worth the taste imho.

Once I got it established, my starter only required 113 grams of flour a week to feed. Really not that much at all.

Same exactly. And if you bake every week or two, there are really no wasted feedings. I make a savory sesame sourdough pancake with any leftover starter and it’s a family favorite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve done this but never kept it up because it takes so much flour to “feed” the starter. It was a bit of effort and not worth the taste imho.

Agree. And a lot of mess between the feeding and wasting. Not worth the waste and effort. And it attracts fruit flies

You can save the leftover starter in a jar in the fridge and make crackers, coffee cake, or pancakes/waffles with it. (King Arthur Flour has a great website for recipies to make with leftover starter.) You can also give some away on your neighborhood listserv.