been making my own bread for a while now and wanted to give sourbread a go, i know how to make a starter but it’s the long term care of it that i’m not sure about.

i intend to keep it in a wide neck glass jar (kilner jar or similar) but can it be kept with the lid sealed? i know when it starts it’s life it needs to be loosly covered to get the natural yeast out of the air but after a week or so is this still the case?

cheers for any advice

sour breads ok – but in Santa Cruz evan the pancakes are made with sour dough/ floyur or something!

kids were a bit put out when their breakfast pancakes tasted like someone had added vinegar!

River Cottage – from this Wednesday

Look about half way down the page for the video.

You may need to find the full programme on 4OD as they cover making the starter too.

The river cottage bread book is worth getting

I have a book by Andrew Whitley,called Bread Matters and was recommended by many people…..Been baking sourdough for over a year now.

i might get the river cottage book, but in the meantime can it be stored in an airtight container or does it always need an air hole?

We bake most of our own bread, (at least Mrs Mc does the majority).

Experimented with sour a few months ago, but after a couple of weeks, it all got a bit ghastly and we ceased to believe the “pet” (we kept feeding it in the proper way – or so we thought) was safe to apply to our flour. In the end our little creature got abandoned on the compost bin. Shame really, perhaps we need a better sort.

I’d like to find a baker who could donate some good sourdough starter and then we could “grow it on” so to speak.

(On Sourdough, if anyone has Riverford orders, do try their 100% rye. It’s utterly brilliant).

The starter can be stored in the fridge for a week or so,in a plastic ice cream tub(with the lid on),then it is fed again with the leftovers from your next ‘bake’.