Certified Organic Live 46 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter

Works great, I have kept it Rye, which is my first one that isnt white and wholemeal. I love this because it proves a lot quicker than other starters. Great value for money. The rye adds a really nice flavour to my breads, without over powering it.

Grew like wildfire , quite a potent sour flavour if you like that, I have put honey in my loaf mix to counter it,instructions dreadful for beginners so here is mine, get a tub or jam jar add the little amount of starter, add 50g water and 50g flour, next day add 100g flour and 100g water, keep going till it measures 500g, remove 300g( save it) so your left with 200g in the jar , now add 200 g water and 200g flour so by day 7 you will have 600g in total, give it a week on the kitchen side adding the same weight of flour and water (same as the starter weight) Right, easy huh YEAH, ok now for problems , water on the top ? Either tip it away or stir back in, its all good, it means your starter is good and hungry and ready for more food ( flour) the smell? Yes quite acid and sour smell, normal... so a recipe for your 1st loaf? Ok 430 flour bread flour 200g starter 70 g warm water ( grams) 20 oil (any)1/2 tsp sugar or honey, 1 tsp salt, in a food mixer add the dry ingredients then add the wet , Mix sugar/ honey into water and starter , as it mixes let it come together, give it 5 minutes, if it’s quite dry add increases of 15 g warm water till it starts looking and feeling soft but not wet and tacky , you must mix for at least 10 minutes, it will be soft and silky and in a ball , oil lightly a bowl and form a nice smooth ball with the mix , add to the oiled bowl and turn it over again and again till lightly coated, cover with cling film and a towel and leave it in the microwave (off) for up to 2 hours to double or more, preheat oven to gas 4/5 340 degree, oil and butter a loaf pan , tip out the dough and lightly knock out the air . Fold it into 3 and press out again and fold into 3 again, seal the bottom and side edges and put into your tin , cover again for it to rise just above it , gently score the top ( I use a stanly knife) bake till it looks good 15/20 minutes turn it out in the oven and give it 7 or more minutes to cook crispy and sounds hollow , and leave on a rack till cold

I've had a few sourdough cultures, both done it myself from scratch, and a donated culture from someone else. I always manage to poison or kill them eventually. This is an excellent idea: a sample of a proven live culture, in a plastic envelope, that just needs a home and feeding. So far, so very good. I didn't have any rye flour when it arrived so fed it first with some strong white, but since then it's had organic rye - and as the instructions suggest, that is what it really thrives on. I've made a couple of loaves so far, and the first was over-dense (rye+spelt+wholemeal). It needed a much longer proving time, The second was strong white - this got ~18hrs @ 18C and was much better. This culture seems more robust and easy to keep than the previous DIY ones. It comes with good instructions on how to look after it, so fingers crossed I'll be able to keep using it for a long time.

I've been baking bread for decades, and sourdough has always been one of my favourite loaves. Whilst staying with a friend recently, I suddenly needed to get hold of some mature starter so that I could teach them how make sourdough bread themselves: enter Kombuchaorganic. My starter arrived within 48hrs, and after feeding it twice, it was ready to rock and roll, all bubbly and gorgeous as shown in the seller's photo. After leaving it in the fridge for a couple of hours, I mixed the 80g of starter with 80g of organic rye flour and 80g of tepid water (= 240g of starter) and left it in a warm, cosy spot to do its stuff. The following morning, I added 240g of rye flour and 240g of tepid water (= 720g of starter) and by lunchtime we were making dough to bake the following morning. The bread was good and had that gently tangy flavour that comes from using a rye-based starter. At home, I have a rye starter that's probably seven years old now. There was not much difference in flavour between the 'new' rye starter and my old one; both almost triple in size after feeding and they stay that way for many hours in the cool environment of my pantry (around 12/14°c). When it's ready to use, a sourdough starter should have the appearance and texture of whipped mousse. it's well worth doing a little online research if you have little or no experience with sourdough cultures. Above all be patient; a new starter can easily be affected by the sudden change in temperature and food (the type of flour and quality of water you use will differ from that used at source) during the early stages.

Received the item in around 4 days which is ok for me. It works with my mixed ancient grain flour ok. But it came in a plastic sealed bag which I really have a problem with, as I would avoid anything with plastic bags. Also, it is totally different from the image shown here so I think it is misrepresented and misleading. If it comes with a plastic bag I wouldn’t have bought it. Hence 3 stars.

It looked unprepossessing when it arrived, and had virtually no instructions. In fact it worked beautifully - after I found good instructions on the King Arthur flour site (a US site). I managed to make two magnificent sourdough loaves on my first try: am a fairly experienced bread baker, but never tried sourdough before. Don't be put off by its appearance when it arrives: would give 5 stars except for the lack of instructions

I tried to make my own starter a couple times without much luck, making a lot of dense pancake-like loaves as a result. I eventually caved and bought this, hoping for better results. I live in a pretty cold climate and keep my flat quite cold, so I didn't have too high hopes that this would rise very well. After receiving it I gave it a quick feeding and left it overnight. The started grew so much that it outgrew its jar and spilled onto the countertop! My first loaf with this was easily my best ever - great rise, ear, and crumb. All my subsequent loaves have been great too. I've spawned off a few batches of the starter and will look into freezing some to make sure I always keep a bit of this alive to recover from any negligence or disasters.

Really pleased with this. As a newcomer to sourdough (and bread-making in general) I wanted a starter that would work well and reduce the risk. This one worked brilliantly! As others have said, the instructions are light, but then there is so much to learn about sourdough that you have to get a book or do a bit of browsing anyway, so this wasn't an issue. I was hoping to make spelt sourdough, to help with a low-FODMAP diet, and so the starter needed to be healthy. I allowed a couple of weeks playing with the starter, to convert to high-spelt content and understand how the process worked, before baking any bread. Only bake once a week, but used some of the starter for pancakes (the recipe on the instructions is yummy with some blueberries thrown in, and I recommend the baking soda version). I keep mine in the fridge in between times and this is working really well. Thank you!

A very lively starter! It was 7 days in transit during a heatwave and when it arrived, the starter was pretty much liquified. After receiving I immediately fed it as instructed and waited patiently. The advised 8 hours weren't enough to sea any activity, so I left it overnight on the kitchen counter. The next morning I found it almost bursting out of its container. I've baked already two loafs with it and they turned out great despite the ongoing heatwave. The last loaf even had a dough temperature of almost 32 degrees Celsius, so I had to cut the bulk fermentation very short. This starter is a nice addition to my two already selfmade starters. Although I don't notice much difference in taste with my own starter made from whole wheat, I like the idea that it is a San Francisco starter.