Tartine Starter

So I've been baking bread for a few months now and have used various sites and books for assistance.  A couple good books are The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, and Rustic Italian Food by Marc Vetri.  Both books are great but Rheinhart's is completely focused on bread.  Recently I picked up another book called Tartine Bread.  This book is by Chad Robertson who is the owner and baker of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco CA.  There are also some great videos on youtube of Chad and his renowned bread.  Anyway the book is great and has step by step instructions on how to come close to making the kind of bread that Chad does at Tartine.  The first step, and the one I'm documenting with this post is the wild yeast starter.

A bread starter is like a little dough that you make the night before (usually) and let ferment until you add it in when making your bread dough the next day.  The idea is that it adds flavor, and because it is already pre-fermented it gives the dough a boost when it comes to the rising process.  Most standard starters like poolish, biga, pate fermentee use yeast water and flour to get the starter well, started.  A wild yeast starter is only water and flour, about equal parts, mixed together and left to sit and ferment.  The idea is that the wild yeasts that are in the air at all times come together in the flour/water paste and naturally ferment.  This is how sourdough is made.  I'm no expert at this so this is just the process to my understanding if there is anyone who wants to correct me feel free to leave a comment.

Robertson recommends half all purpose flour and half whole wheat mixed together in a small container, covered and left in a shady place for two to three days until you can see bubble forming and a dark crust has formed on the top of the mixture.  A clear container works best, as you can see if the bubbles are forming or not.  I used a small wonton soup container from take-out Chinese.  Here's what the starter looked like after three days.

The smell is strong like stinky cheese.  Pull back the crust and discard, then discard more leaving about 20% of the starter. 

At this point mix in equal parts flour (half whole wheat half AP) and water and mix.  I used 2/3 cup for each.  This is what is referred to as "feeding" your starter.  One the starter is mixed to a smooth paste again, cover and let sit for another day till it is time to feed again.

For more information about wild yeasts and fermentation check out Sandor Katz's book Wild Fermentation, there's a ton of information on the subject and not just for bread.  Thanks, and check back for more posts on the progress of this starter!