Sourdough Starter #6

This is the original sourdough starter the way frontier bakers and farm wives made it before commercial yeast came in cans. Just whole milk left to sour at room temperature, then mixed with flour and given a few more days to develop, lets airborne wild yeast and lactobacillus colonize the mixture. The result is a starter you’ll feed and use for everything from sourdough loaves to pancakes.

The scalding warning is the most important note in the recipe. Wild yeast cultures are easily knocked off course by competing bacteria, and an unsterilized container is the single most common reason starters fail or spoil. Boiling water poured into your jar (let it cool, then dry) kills off anything that would compete with your wild yeast.

Milk-based starters are softer and milder than the modern flour-and-water type, with a buttermilk-like tang. They’re traditional in Alaskan bush bread and old San Francisco recipes from before pasteurization changed the dairy supply.

Kitchen Tips

• Use raw or unhomogenized milk if you can find it. Modern ultra-pasteurized milk lacks the natural bacteria that traditional starters relied on.
• A glass jar is best. Metal can react with the acidic starter, and plastic can harbor old residue.
• Stir daily with a clean wooden spoon to introduce more wild yeast from the air.
• The starter is ready when it smells pleasantly sour and tangy with bubbles on the surface. A nasty or rotten smell means it failed and must be tossed.

Variations

• Use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose for a faster fermenting starter with more wild yeast.
• Add a peeled grape or a few raisins on day one for a yeast boost since fruit skins carry natural yeasts.
• Substitute buttermilk for whole milk to skip the souring step and start the bacterial culture sooner.