Sourdough Starter from Grapes - Part I

Have you ever tried a sourdough starter from grapes? This is a new one for me but because I've owned the book, "Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery" for years, I really wanted to give it a try.

The reviews on this book were all good but after reading it, I became discouraged for three reasons.

1. The fermentation takes at least 10-14 days before you're able to use the starter.
2. Because it supposedly turns out much better using a large quantity, you end up throwing a lot of the starter out while feeding it.
3. The feeding times would be difficult because I am gone from home early mornings to late evenings.

Even though I was discouraged, I still wanted to give it a try and find out what all the hype was about! However, I was still having a hard time with the idea of throwing part of the starter out. So because I am the way I am, I altered the directions by quartering the recipe. Ha! Should be fine, right? By doing this I was taking a risk, but hey, even after downsizing, I still ended up with a lot of starter!

Sourdough Starter:

1/4 c. grapes
1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 t. wheat flour + enough all-purpose flour to equal 1/2 cup

Day 1 (Sunday, Dec. 6) ~
Place grapes in a double layer of cheesecloth and squeeze juice of grapes into the water.

Add the flour and mix with a rubber spatula.

Place cheesecloth bag into jar and cover tightly to contain the fermentation gas.

I decided to use my Perfect Pickler for the fermentation.

Shake the mixture up each day.

Day 4 (the following Wednesday) remove bag of grapes and add ~
1/4 c. lukewarm water
1/2 t. wheat flour + enough all-purpose flour to equal 1/4 cup
Mix and place the grape bag back into the jar.

Leave until Day 10-14 (Tuesday, the week after) when regular feeding begins.

On Tuesday evening, December 15 the grape bag broke and I had seeds and grape pieces throughout my starter. I strained the starter into another jar before I fed it:

1/4 c. lukewarm water

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 t. wheat flour

After this you are to feed the starter three times per day for five days and then for two days before you bake bread. By this time I had a lot of starter on my hands so I thought, let's try using half the amounts. Here we go again! Feeding amounts:

2 T. lukewarm water

2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. wheat flour

I started regular feedings on Wednesday morning at 6:20. I pulled my son into the act to take the 2:00 feeding. Hmmm ... the first day he forgot but after that he managed the task pretty well.

On the following Sunday evening, I wondered what would happen if I added unwashed, broken up grapes because I questioned if there was enough natural yeast going on. So I added a few smashed grapes. Only this time I didn't use the cheesecloth. I just put them into the jar along with the starter.

On Monday I removed the grapes and fed the starter once again. I was anxious to use my new starter and find out what the results would be. Stay tuned for my next post on my first loaves of bread using this starter!

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