Seed Culture

Before: Finally, some activity


After: Phase 4

Six days later and I'm finally able to post an update. My culture finally started to look alive yesterday morning. I decided to give it another day before moving on to phase 4.

I realized that the real reason my culture is taking twice as long to develop as the book directs is that it's cold in here. I should have kept it in the pantry (where our heater is). It's always warm in there.

This morning I proceeded to phase 4: discarding half of the phase 3 culture and adding 2 ounces flour and 1.5 ounces filtered water. This is supposed to swell and nearly double in size in 4-24 hours (so in my case, 2 days...). The next step is making the mother starter. Finally. I may actually be able to make some bread this weekend.

So, I think I prematurely gave up on my first culture. It's just slow, probably because I don't have the (optional) diastatic malt powder. I couldn't find any and didn't feel like waiting for it to ship if I ordered it online.

This morning I moved on to phase 3, which is adding 1.5 ounces of flour and 1.5 ounces filtered water. The mixture gets a bit thicker at this stage. I'm supposed to move on to the next phase whenever it starts getting bubbly - 24, 48, 72 hours? Who knows.

So, this one is acting the exact same way the last one was. Moved on to phase 2.

Attempt #2

I started a new culture this morning because I have a bad feeling about my first one. I'm hanging on to the old one, just in case it starts to show some activity.

The first culture was showing promise until I stirred it the first time. It had changed consistency. Reinhart recommends stirring with a wet utensil so the mixture doesn't stick to it, so I wet a spoon with tap water and stirred it. I think the tap water may have contaminated it, because the next time I checked the mixture, it had gone flat and there was a layer of liquid on the top. It's been like that ever since. From now on, I'm only using filtered water.

Phase 1 sponge


After adding more flour and juice

My culture isn't really doing much of anything. It seems to be separating and I'm not sure that's supposed to happen. I moved on to phase 2, which is adding another 1/2 ounce of flour and 1 ounce of pineapple juice. It's supposed to show signs of fermentation in the next day or two and become bubbly or foamy. If it doesn't I guess I'll have to start over.

The frist step in making the starter is making a seed culture. Reinhart provides two different methods and I opted for the pineapple juice solution. On the first day 1 ounce of flour is mixed with 2 ounces of pineapple juice. I'm supposed to stir it a couple times a day and in about 24-48 hours it should start to ferment. After 48 hours I'll proceed to Phase 2.