Certified Organic Live (NOT POWDER) Sourdough Starter, Very Old and Mature - 46 year old Lake District Starter, Bread Starter - 70g for all types of flour with printed instruction by Kombuchaorganic

First time I’ve ever made a successful sourdough loaf. Failed multiple times after making my own starter previously, so I had stuck with instant yeast for years to avoid flat rock-like loaves. I fed this as instructed for a couple of days first to build it up, and boy did it build. Let’s just say this is very much alive! I shall be looking after and feeding this diligently, though there isn’t much to do as it seems very forgiving. Currently it is my favourite pet so my cat will be disappointed. I spend far more time scouring the web or my book supply for new recipes to use it in, this will keep me happy in my kitchen for ages. Also, the flavour of this loaf is fab. Not too sour, and the texture is very good. I used my usual ‘no knead’ recipe (3 cups flour - 1/2 spelt and 1/2 white bread flour, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2teas pink salt, 1/4teas instant yeast), but added 1 and 1/4 cups of fed starter instead of the 1/4teas yeast, and added 1tbls runny honey. I added the salt after 20mins of the dough resting to give the starter time to get going. I mix in the evening then leave it overnight to rise before shaping, but this one spilled out of the bowl. I use a Dutch oven to cook mine in to get the crisp rise. I didn’t follow the given instructions for how much starter to add to my loaf, probably because I have had horrid sourdough result before, but I think I could easily get away with only using 1 cup. The instructions are good and clear by the way, but I haven’t checked out the website yet. Can’t be more pleased with the results. Sourdough garlic and coriander naan breads next... Update: 3/4 cup of starter is plenty for my recipe. Also does a beautiful half and half whole meal sourdough with 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten added.

I am a total novice at bread making. This starter is incredible. She’s blonde, bubbly and put on an incredible performance so naturally I named her Dolly. My second loaf wouldn’t be out of place in an artisan bakery. I’m thrilled with it.

I have tried starting my own sourdough but without success and have given up. After a while I have found out that you can buy it online and decided to give this one a go and I'm glad I did. Everything was super easy. When you will first start looking into baking your own bread using a sourdough starter ( which is one million times healthier than with fast yeast) you will come across a lot of information and details that seem like a lot and it will put you off from actually doing it. I know because that's how I felt, but I'm glad I persisted. At first, after receiving the starter, I have done things by the book because I didn't want to mess up. And I mean things like perfect measurements, using certain flour, kneed a certain time ( on the clock) , very precise proofing (controled time and temperature) then left in fridge before baking; and other things like feeding the starter before using, only using it if it floats, etc. All of this required a lot of planning and time which I didn't have, but I couldn't give it up because I wanted to feed my little boy bread which was healthy and nutritious. That's when I left the tons of rules aside and started experimenting to see what the easiest option would be and it is like follows: When you first receive the starter weigh it; add the same amount of flour (any flour. It can be different flour every time. I haven't tried gluten free) and same amount of water in grames (yes, weigh your water to match the weight of the flour). Mix it and that's it. Leave it to double in size and you're good to go. After the first feed, you can double it again and again or add as little flour as you want ( doesn't matter what quantity, just add the same weight of water). Don't worry if you're a few grams off, nothing will happen. You can store it in the fridge without feeding it for months even. I have used the starter straight out of the fridge and it wasn't floating either. Dough still proofed and has come out great every time. I use a bread machine to kneed the dough for 10 min, than straight to a bowl for proofing. I have left it to proof between 4 hours to even over night (overproofed) and the bread still has come out alright. Haven't given it 3-4 kneading sessions at different intervals, haven't put it in the fridge before going in the oven and the bread was still great. To conclude, after all this typing: Don't listen to all that nonsense about doing everything by the book, because it will put you off and you'll go back to buying sponge like bread with 0 nutrition from the supermarket. Buy a good, organic unbleached flour and you'll see the difference. When I first tasted the sourdough bread I made with the starter I got all emotional... I remembered the taste of the bread my grandmother use to make for me and my sister when we were little, with flour from garains she used to grow, and she baked it in a wood fire oven. She didn't have some fancy kitchen scale to measure everything or worry about controling the environment for the starter to grow. She had a hundred other things to do around the house so she couldn't spend hours on the bread alone. Her bread was amazing every time. I will never go back to buying unhealthy supermarket bread with 20 ingredients in it. Add flour and water to your starter whenever you have the chance, even once a month if kept in the fridge is fine. Add strater to flour, kneed it, proof it, bake it. Done! Lovely bread doesn't need be complicated. I know this from my nan, may she and my grandfather rest in peace. Thanks for reading this and God bless everyone!

I didn’t expect the starter to be as liquid as it was on arrival, but this didn’t negatively affect its performance at all. After allowing it to come to room temperature, I fed the ~75g I received using a 30g rye / 45g strong white flour mix. Within a couple of hours it had doubled in size, so it’s clearly a very active culture. I chose to give it another day and a second feed before baking, scaling it up enough to make two loaves. For feeding, I continued using a rye/white mix, but baked both loaves using only strong white flour. I’m relatively new to sourdough baking but do already maintain my own starter, which has been producing good results. I purchased this mainly out of curiosity to see how using a much older, established starter would affect flavour. The difference in taste was immediately noticeable. While my own starter produces a pleasant, mild loaf, this one gives a much more distinct tang that you would expect from a mature culture. The resulting bread had a deeper sourdough flavour and smell were absolutely delicious. One thing to be aware of is just how active this starter is. Compared to my own, it fermented the dough much more quickly, and using my usual timings resulted in loaves that were noticeably more gassy during bulk fermentation. My final loaves ended up with some large internal caverns, likely due to over-fermentation. This isn’t a fault with the starter, but it does mean you may need to shorten bulk fermentation times or reduce inoculation until you get used to how quickly it works. If you’re looking for a more traditional, pronounced sourdough flavour and a very active culture, this starter is a great option... and to be honest, if you take care of it and feed it as the instructions indicate, for £10 it's great value. Flavour: 5/5 Activity: 5/5 Ease for beginners without process adjustment: 3–4/5

Update: 3 months later: starter still going strong, alive and well. Feeding once a day now or even less and it’s continuing to make fantastic bread! Wanted to try making sourdough after baking my own bread using my Panasonic bread machine for the past 8 months or so. I did not have the energy or time to cultivate my own culture so I bought this starter from Amazon. It arrives in a small plastic sealed bag, as other reviewers have mentioned. Its quite watery on arrival. When opened, the intense smell of sourdough bread made me realise that this is the real deal and the bread would turn out with amazing flavour! Instructions could do with a bit of improving. Searching online I fed the starter with 100grams of Wholefood Earth Organic Wholemeal/Dark Rye Flour and 100 ml of boiled and cooled down to room temperature water and stirred into a plastic container. Within 2-3 hours the starter had almost doubled in size and retained its volume for a good 12 hours or so. I then used the first 100grams to make a sourdough bread with white bread flour in my bread machine which turned out amazing! Used its sourdough programme, removed 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour from the base bread recipe and replaced with 100 grams of starter. It has a bit less rise than yeast but the flavour and texture was out of this world and a massive step up from the yeast type. Good open air bubbles in the bread, chewy and a very crunchy crust. Fed the starter again on the same day with another 100 grams of flour and water and it doubled again within a few hours and retained its strength. The culture is certainly very active and eats up the flour at an astonishing rate. Now I will split the culture in two and have one as backup in case I do something wrong and kill one of it. Have just prepared also a couple of pizza's to try tonight! Looking forward to tasting them and see whether they are like the Franco Manca sour dough pizza which I love! Highly recommended, the flavour, smell and rise is excellent!

I’ve been making sourdough bread for about 5 years, recently lost my starter and needed a replacement. After 3 feedings this starter is still not so lively. It’s been pretty disappointing so far.

Have had some success making my own sourdough starter, but there’s no denying it’s a bit of a faff and sometimes just doesn’t work well. So for speed, I decided to try this and was very happy. After 2 feeds, the starter had reactivated nicely and was ready to use (instead of faffing for over a week, trying to make my own and not knowing if it was going to work anyway). Baked my first loaf straight away with great results. Would recommend.

Very disappointed. Despite regular feeding it has still to produce a decent sour dough loaf. Dough only rises 50% of what it should, despite all other factors remaining constant.

Een paar dagen te laat, maar super krachtige starter. Verdubbeld in in enkele uren. Demeter biologisch dynamische roggebloem gebruikt, en iets meer water dan aangegeven. Zeer tevreden.

Sourdough did not work! I follow Everything on the page I am very disapoinned

Seguí las instrucciones, y la Levadura subió como una moto. Esta es la parte traducida correcta, que OTRO USUARIO NO LO HA TRADUCIDO BIEN, pone otras cantidades. (Cuando lo reciba, sí no tienes tiempo en ese momento, pon el sobre en el frigorífico, después alimenta tu masa madre con pesos aproximadamente iguales de harina y agua. Por ejemplo, aproximadamente 150gr. de harina y 120gr. agua, como viene en un sobre bastante liquida, son 80 gr. Batirla bien y dejar en un lugar cálido durante al menos 12 horas.), Calienta el agua a 40 grados y disuelve el sobre, después pones la harina sí es de Centeno Integrar ecológica mejor, la ecológica esta libre de pesticidas, sigue las instrucciones, pues tendrás que alimentarla, por lo menos 2 veces por semana, al principio hay que alimentar a partes iguales de Masa Madre, Harina y Agua a ser posible mineral y durante toda la vida si quieres conservarla.

The perfekt gift for a health conscious friend or even one who would need an improvement in lifestyle.

Ein triebstatkes aber mildes Sauerteig. Es reicht wirklich 1-2 EL für 500g Mehl auch ohne Vorteig. Sehr aromatisch und ausgewogen.