Starter time

I've decided to make my own sourdough starter. (I know, I know, I was supposed to be making mozzarella. But that's now on hold until I get my hands on some raw milk. Thanks to Cooking Diva for the link.) There's something really exciting to me about creating food out of almost thin air: just a bit of flour and some water (and salt when it comes time to making the bread).

I've done it before, with moderate success. But the thing died after a couple of weeks, before I got a chance to use it. So I'm going to try again.

I'll be following the same instructions I followed last time, from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. But the basic idea is simple: half-fill a jar with organic whole-grain flour and filtered (crucially chlorine-free) water. Cover loosely and wait half a day. Pour out half and add more flour and water. Cover and wait. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. After two or three days, the liquid should have picked up enough wild yeast from its surrounding environment for a culture to have formed. The thing should be bubbly and sour-smelling, rising and falling every few hours as the living yeasts discharge gases after feeding off the flour.

That's the theory, anyway. I'll keep you posted on what actually happens.