Dig into the science behind what makes Farrell Monaco’s legume sourdough bread starter, Marcus Atillius, so monstrous… and then watch the beast himself being fed! ?
See the original recipe post here: https://tavolamediterranea.com/2020/08/30/pliny-elder-chickling-vetch-sourdough-bread-starter/
About the author:
Farrell Monaco is an award-winning Classical archaeologist and food-writer whose research centers on food, food preparation, and bread in the Roman Mediterranean. She writes regularly on the role of food and food preparation in Roman daily life on her site, Tavola Mediterranea, and publishes in both English and Italian. Farrell has also written exclusively for Atlas Obscura and BBC Travel. Her work has been featured prominently by National Geographic, Popular Science, The Atlantic, the BBC, The Guardian, The Economist, Esquire Magazine, SAPIENS Magazine, Verve Magazine, Saveur Magazine and Milk Street. In November of 2020, Farrell co-produced, wrote and presented a video on the history of the date palm fruit with The Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA).
I live in San Francisco, the undisputed capital of sourdough .I’ve tried getting established starters from a couple of old bakeries but was rebuffed “Our starter is our secret ( some of the doughs date back well over 100 years and we don’t share our starter. If you like our bread it’s available at any large grocery store. I tried making a starter using unsprayed Pinot Noir wine grapes from my yard, didn’t work. Long story short, I made one from water from boiled potatoes and spring aka bottled water. I used a couple cups of the cooled potato water and a half cup unbleached flour. I scalded a large mason jar ( this kills any unwanted bacteria ) and my whisking fork, added the flour to the potato water, whisked it until it looked like pancake batter, covered the jar with a piece of paper towe held down with a rubber band, set it on my kitchen counter and a couple days later noticed tiny bubbles, bingo, it was alive with lactobacillus. I then added a bit more unbleached flour and enough spring water to maintain the consistency and did this daily over 6 days. Some people discard half and build it up again. You can do this and keep the discards in the refrigerator in a separate jar for waffles and pancakes. When the starter is fully active and bubbly, store it in the refrigerator in a quart sized glass jar between baking’s. To keep it alive, use it at least once a week and if you don’t want to make bread, use it for pancakes. I use an Italian canning jar with a glass lid and wire clamp. sans the rubber gasket for storage.
I too have a Potato Water starter, I got the recipe from an early 1800’s Pioneer Cookbook. It required freshly dug potatoes, boiled and tossed using only the water and an equal amount of freshly grated raw potato and flour. It took about 10 days to be fully formed, been about 10+ years now. I have carried it all over the Country from my summer home in the U.P. to South Texas for winter with a couple of trips to North Dakota as well. Same drill 5-7 days if refrigerated I believe left on the counter in moderate temps, you could use it every 36-48 hours?