Sourdough Starter: Day 01

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I baked some bread. It turned out pretty well, but is lacking a bit in flavor. Truth be told, I think the bread would have benefited from much more time proofing and rising. My yeast was a bit sluggish. ...And I forgot the salt. Yeah. Bland. Yeah...

Well, I did a little research and decided I'd like to follow Nancy Silverton's recipe for sourdough starter and make a couple of breads from her book Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. This requires a 14-day process, but you theoretically only have to do it once in your lifetime...or until you forget about it...or otherwise murder it. SO TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT!!!

Okay, so I ordered the book online and also checked it out of the library because I just can't wait for it to arrive. I didn't read the foreword or intro yet, but it's pretty dang long. I do plan to read it, but the way I see it, I have 14 days to catch up. I flipped through the recipe for the starter in the library and stopped at the market on my way home. I bought 20 pounds of bread flour, some grapes, cheesecloth, a large container (actually this is to store my open bread flour, not for the culture), and a jar of wheat germ. The wheat germ isn't needed until I actually bake some bread...in 14 days...but I'd be pissed if I'm missing ingredients when bread-day arrives.

Day 01 requires just flour, water, and grapes. I couldn't get organic grapes, so I bought regular red grapes and rinsed them gently. I wrapped 'em up hobo-style in cheesecloth and added them to my mixture of flour and water. I squished the fruit and dunked it a bunch of times, then sunk it to the bottom of my pitcher (you can see 'em in the photo above). I covered it tightly with plastic wrap and walked away. Tomorrow I should see some bubbling. I don't actually have to do anything until day 04, unless mold starts to grow.

P.S. You can see some bubbles here, but they're in there just because I whipped some air in when I mixed my flour and water.