2 General (sourdough)

This text is a translation of  these pages, at  www.der-sauerteig.de created and maintained by Martin Stoldt.

2  General

To make a sourdough you will need only three ingredients:

• Flour
• Water and
• a sourdough culture of 50-100g

The correct phrase for the “sourdough culture” is “storage leaven”. We are going to adopt this phrase immediately, so that we’ll be using the correct terminology throughout and express ourselves in the same way as bakers do.

Flour and water are mixed in the same proportion with the sourdough starter, the storage leaven and left to rest in a warm place.  This allows the the micro organisms which are present in the flour and air to multiply and they begin to settle in the “new terrain” of flour and water.  The dough begins to become acidic. We will discuss this in the chapter “Preparing a ready to bake sourdough” and in detail  in the chapter:  “Feeding a sourdough”.

You can usually obtain the sourdough cultures/storage leaven from bakers (if they bake with real sourdough),  be given it as a present by an enthusiast (or “buy” it in exchange for a some small  expenses) or  (and this is the most elaborate but most rewarding method) rear one yourself.

The onset of souring can even happen all by itself  (”spontaneous leavening”), when water and flour are left to rest in a warm place. This is the real cause and original form of creating sourdough cultures. It is somewhat easier if you can fall back on a stable and reliable sourdough culture.

v. 1.0  Date 27/05/2009