How To Capture And Use Wild Yeast

I have a secret weapon in my kitchen. It makes my daily bread taste amazing (and far more digestible than anything store-bought). As long as I take care of the starter, this weapon is an endless material. And the best part of all? It’s free for the taking. I’m talking about wild yeast — a faithful little organism that can be harnessed by anyone who takes time to get to know it.

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英语单词酵母来自古英语的“gist”和古高地德语的“jesen”，意思是发酵。这种微小的真菌很可能是第一个被驯化的生物，几个世纪以来，它被捕获并被用于为人类制作酒精饮料和面包。没有它，生活将会少很多快乐和更多的饥饿，这是肯定的!

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Forming a relationship with wild yeast is a declaration of independence. Once you understand how to use your own locally captured wild yeast strains, you’ll never need to go to the store to buy yeast again, and you’ll have truly unforgettable bread and brews in exchange.

For the purpose of this article, I will be describing the means, method, and maintenance of a sourdough starter; the wild yeast that’s used to bake delicious bread. For those interested in catching wild yeast to make boozy concoctions, I cannot more heartily recommend Pascal Baudar’s bookThe Wildcrafting Brewer.

Where Is Wild Yeast Found?

Defining sources of wild yeast is a bit of a nonspecific endeavor when you think about it, because wild yeasts are everywhere. They form the bloomy layer onwild grapesand blueberries. They can be extracted from pine cones, flowers, or tree leaves. Your skin is even home to different types of yeast.

Wild yeast ubiquity is a confident assurance that you, too, will be able to capture it with ease. As long as you don’t live in an autoclave, you will have wild yeast in your environment. It’s there in your kitchen. You merely need to give it a nice place to colonize and thrive.

How To Capture Wild Yeast

I’m probably going to offend some purveyors of specific sourdough strains with this section, but I don’t mind. Come join me in a starter insurrection, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: A wild-yeast sourdough starter is so easy to capture, a child could do it with a jar, flour, and water.

相关文章:How To Make Sourdough

You don’t need to buy a kit from an online store. You don’t need to delve through endless threads on sourdough forums trying to hack the process with pineapple juice, organic grapes, or whey. You don’t need to attend some workshop to glean the carefully-guarded, month-long, secret process not available to the non-baking, ignorant hoi polloi. A sourdough starter is dead easy to make and maintain, and it is only a recent phenomenon that this knowledge has dropped out of our culture.

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关于这个题目我读了很多书。烤面包是我的一项日常活动，我被印刷的过程描述得如此复杂而震惊。多年来，我自制了几十种开胃菜，这些开胃菜都做出了美味的面包。我相信，我精心制作的简单开胃菜对任何细心的人来说都是万无一不可的。

This is just one of many different methods for catching and using wild yeast, but it works for me as a busy homesteader, and it can work for you too.

Supplies

• 1-quart mason jars (2)
• Non-chlorinated water
• Whole wheat flour or whole rye flour
• Chopstick/non-metal utensil
• Rubber band
• Clean washcloth or double-folded section of cheesecloth big enough to cover the mason jar
• One week of time (or less depending on the weather)

基本的前提是我们要为野生酵母创造一个理想的生存环境，然后维持这个环境。如果你是发酵新手，这将是一个有点狂野的旅程，但坚持住，这是非常值得的。Though there may be some weird smells at the outset, the final product is going to be pleasantly fragrant and will raise your home-baked sourdough bread.

Day One

In one of the mason jars, use a chopstick to thoroughly mix 1 cup whole grain flour of your choice with 1 cup of NON-CHLORINATED water. If you have city water, this means you can’t run water from your tap straight into the mason jar. The chemicals will kill the wild yeast in your starter.

The whole grains are also important. Though you can technically make a starter with white flour (I’ve never tried it), whole grain flour offers better results as it feeds the yeast more complete nutrition.

这种混合物应该有非常厚的煎饼面糊的稠度，你要在接下来的一周保持这种稠度。用一块布盖上混合物，用橡皮筋固定好，然后把罐子放在厨房里——不要让阳光直射，但要放在你能看到并不会忘记的地方。

Day Two

混合一半的水和面粉，然后加入半杯水和半杯面粉，用筷子彻底混合，根据需要加入更多的面粉或水，使面糊变厚。你刚刚所做的是将酵母数量减少一半并为剩下的酵母提供食物。这些食物是它们成长的动力。覆盖了。

Day Three

Depending on the ambient temperature of your kitchen, you may or may not start seeing little bubbles form in your starter when you stir it. There may also be a layer of clear liquid starting to form on the top.

Additionally, you may notice a rather unpleasant smell coming from the jar. If you notice these, take heart! Your starter is alive and beginning the process of becoming stable. Don’t worry, that smell is going to change for the better in a few days. And if you don’t see these signs yet, no worries. Starters develop more slowly in cooler temperatures, and there’s still time to get your wild yeast established.

Ason day two, reduce by half, feed, and cover.

Days Four Through Seven

Continue reducing by half and feeding as above. If all is going well, you will start to see your starter change in character. Bubbles will become a regular sight, percolating up like a carbonated milkshake. The clear liquid will also become a normal occurrence. It’s the (vaguely alcoholic) waste of the yeast.

相关文章:Bread Proofing

The volume of the batter in the jar will start to increase after feeding as the yeast produce hundreds of carbon dioxide bubbles (the power to raise bread has arrived). Finally, and most pleasantly, the smell of the jar is going to change dramatically. It will shift from that rotten cheese funk to something that smells downright pleasant like a nice, dark beer or wine.

Days Eight Through Forever

After the mix in the jar has become active, smells good, and has changed in volume after a feeding, give yourself a pat on the back: You have a sourdough starter, and can now decide what to do next. If you bake every day, the starter can live happily on your counter.

你会想要经常更换罐子，这样你就不会在罐子的开口周围有一堆硬皮的起动器(因此在供应清单中的第二个罐子)。现在你的发酵剂完全培养，你不再需要堆肥减少发酵剂材料。这是你用来烘焙的东西。

If you bake weekly, you can store the starter in a refrigerator to retard its activity when not in use. Take it out the night before you bake, then reduce and feed it enough that you’ll have plenty for breadmaking. After you bake, feed the starter again before putting it back in cool storage.

如果你不是每周都烤(也许你应该开始)，确保你把发酵剂储存在冰箱里，继续减少，每周至少喂两次，以保持它的健康。

As long as you give your starter basic care and attention — keeping the jar clean, covering it, reducing and feeding at regular intervals, and of course, baking with it — you should have a happy symbiotic relationship for as long as you desire.

Troubleshooting And Common Problems

• Problem:Nasty surprise! The starter has maggots in it.
• Solution:Your starter is ruined. Start over, then cover the new starter with a thicker or more densely-woven cloth. Fruit flies love starter, and they’ll go to great lengths to get it.

• Problem:The starter is covered by a layer of clear or yellowish liquid.
• Solution:Your starter is just hungry. The liquid is a byproduct of fermentation, so pour off the layer, reduce by half, and feed.

• Problem:发酵剂是生长粉红色、绿色、蓝色、白色或黑色的绒毛霉菌。
• Solution:Your starter is ruined. Under-maintenance allowed invading mold to overtake the weakened yeast. Start over, and put your starter someplace where you’ll remember to feed it daily.

• Problem:发酵剂被一层液体覆盖着一层奇怪的、白色的、像皮肤一样的薄膜。
• Solution:Your starter is REALLY hungry.Kahm yeast(是什么使电影)是一个指示，你的starter需要尽快喂养。You may want to give your starter a recovery day before you bake with it again — just to get it back to full strength.

• Problem:The starter doesn’t seem to be very active.
• Solution:试着给发酵剂喂全黑麦粉(这是发酵剂的超级食物)或者每天喂一次以上。这个问题也可能是冬季气温较低的结果。试着把你的开胃菜放在冰箱温暖的顶部(只要你不忘记它)。

• Problem:Something else not listed here.
• Solution:请在下面的评论中告诉我!我很乐意尽我所能帮助你。

How To Use Your Wild Yeast Starter

当我开始我的酵母之旅时，我已经放弃从商店购买酵母五年了，我相信如果你愿意重新学习这种“旧的就是新的”的面包制作方法，你会发现在你的厨房里购买商店购买的酵母是不必要的。只用酵母发酵剂作为发酵剂，我就能做布朗尼、蛋糕、松饼、饼干、披萨面团、馕饼，以及各种各样的甜面包和咸面包。

The best way to get to know your sourdough is to bake with it often, and there’s no better reason to fire up the oven than to make a homemade loaf of real, whole grain sourdough bread. You can findmany, many recipes for making sourdough bread online, so I may as well offer our homestead’s super-simple recipe as well.

This is a straightforward bread recipe that I’ve developed over the years, and even though it only uses four ingredients, it produces a nourishing, delicious loaf that we make nearly every day.

相关文章:25种美味的酸面包食谱，为你的家庭入门

Since it doesn’t have an overnight ferment, the resulting loaf is hardly sour, and perfect for pretty much any use. It is 100% whole grain and won’t make the exact same lacquer-crust and a spongy interior that you may expect from a commercial bakery’s white sourdough, but you can’t beat the flavor and nutrition.

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Ingredients

• 8 ounces recently fed starter (basically 1 cup)
• 3 ½ cups whole wheat flour (increase to 4 cups if you grind your own) *
• Filtered water/non-chlorinated water (start with 1 cup — you’ll need more)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal for dusting baking surfaces

*注意:如果你有选择磨自己的面粉，我建议磨三份有机硬红冬小麦和一份有机黑麦谷物的组合。这是我们最喜欢的搭配，可以做出丰盛、美味、易于揉捏、口感极佳的面包。这也是一个很好的组合来满足你的开胃菜)。

Optional, But Helpful Equipment

• Cast-iron cloche
• Danish dough whisk
• Banneton with linen liner
• Pizza peel
• Baking stone
• Instant read thermometer

Directions

1. Remove Your Starter From The Fridge

The night before you bake, remove your starter from the fridge (if applicable), reduce, and feed twice as much as you usually do. I like to have at least 2 (or more) cups of starter available when I begin a baking day.

2. Add Flour To A Bowl And Slowly Mix In Water

Place the flour in a large bowl. Slowly mix in enough water to make the dough stick together without being sticky and wet. It’s okay if it looks crumbly. Allow to rest for 20 minutes.

3. Add Salt And Starter

Add salt and starter, and incorporate using your hand until the wet flour begins to merge with the starter. Once they are mixed well, allow to rest for 10 more minutes. Feed your starter in the meantime, and put it back in its place.

4. Knead The Dough

Wet your hands with water, and start to knead the dough in the bowl. Ideally, the dough should be pliable enough to work easily, but not so sticky and wet that it mushes and doesn’t hold its shape. Allow the dough to rest for five minutes.

Don’t be too frustrated if this stage is difficult for you. Learning the right consistency of dough during and after kneading is truly more art than science, and can be best learned through experience. Resist the urge to add too much flour. With whole grain, adding too much flour will result in a dense and crumbly, dry bread.

5. Continue Kneading Into A Round Ball

Knead for about 3 to 5 more minutes with a wet hand. By this point, the dough ball should be smooth. Cover and allow it to rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours.

6. Punch The Dough And Allow It To Rise

Gently punch down the dough mass, shape into a round boule (这里塑造教程), and place in a banneton lined with flour-dusted linen. If you don’t have these traditional bread-raising baskets, a flour-dusted cloth napkin in a large mixing bowl can also work. Allow to rise again in a warm place for at least three hours.

7. Preheat The Oven And Prepare Your Baking Cloche And Stone

将烤箱预热到450华氏度。如果你的闹钟是铸铁的，在烤箱加热的同时预热空闹钟25分钟。如果你用的是钟形罩，烤箱里也有烘焙石，确保它放在钟形罩下面的架子上，而不是直接接触到它。如果你只使用一块烘焙石，把它放在烤箱里第二低的架子上。如果你没有这些东西，一个烤盘也可以。

8. Dust The Cloche And Prepare The Loaf

Carefully remove the hot cloche from the oven, then dust the bottom of the cloche with cornmeal, or if using a pizza peel or cookie sheet, dust the peel with cornmeal. Turn the loaf onto the cornmeal, and slash the top with a serrated knife to allow for expansion in the oven.

Cover with cloche top (if applicable), slide onto a pizza peel (if applicable), and place in the oven for 25 minutes.

9. Reduce Heat And Check The Loaf

把火调到425度，去掉钟盖，再烤15到20分钟，或者烤到面包内部温度在190到200华氏度之间。敲击面包底部会发出一种空心的声音，这是检验烤熟程度的传统方法。

10. Allow Your Loaf To Cool And Enjoy!

在切片之前，让面包在干燥架上冷却10分钟，然后用大量的黄油和自制的蜜饯享用。它应该可以持续5天左右(用餐巾布包着)，随着时间的推移，它会变得越来越酸——尽管我们的面包从来不会持续那么久!

野生酵母还是商店买的?

When reading sourdough bread recipes online, you’ll often see that both professionals and home bakers combine the sourdough starter with store-bought yeast to make sure the process works. This is not only unnecessary; it may hamper the success of your bread. Wild yeast and store-bought yeast are different materials entirely.

Wild yeast is the common name forSaccharomyces exiguus这是一种自然产生的酵母，在不同的地区有着惊人的差异。烘焙面包要用到的发酵剂是一种发酵剂由野生酵母和产酸耐酸细菌混合而成。

相关文章:How To Make Irish Soda Bread

这两种微生物共同作用，发酵面团，产生二氧化碳气泡，使面包充气并提起，并提供独特的酸面团的味道。我喜欢天然酵母，因为它是特定的地方。我在欧扎克厨房里发酵的开胃菜会和你在你家做的不一样。你不可能在当地收获比这更多的了!

In contrast, store-bought yeast isSaccharomyces cerevisiae. It was originally a byproduct of the brewing industry but has been selectively bred in laboratories since the 1840s to shortcut the long fermentation process in favor of quick gas production. Commercial yeast doesn’t form a relationship with any bacteria which is why bread that’s made with it lacks that distinctive sourdough acidity.

The rapid rise provided by lab-refined yeast may get you a loaf in record time, but many of the minerals and nutrients in wheat will remain in a form that is relatively inaccessible to the human body. Without the acidification of being cultured from a long, fermenting rise, bread just won’t offer you the same food value.

When you understand this difference between the active, bubbling culture in your jar and the packet of dried, pale pellets that you get from the store, you’ll finally be on your way to trusting your starter to let it raise your bread, muffins, and biscuits on its own merit. It may take longer, but it’s worth it.

The Benefits Of Wild Yeast

The long fermentation process used to make sourdough products doesn’t just give it a complex flavor, it also does you the service ofpredigesting your food,making it far easier to benefit from the nutrition otherwise locked away in wheat.

There is considerable evidence that those with a sensitivity to gluten may benefit from long-fermented sourdough products. Though they may not be able to eat wheat products made with quick-rise yeasts, many gluten-sensitive individuals can eat organic, sourdough-leavened bakerywithout problems.

The health benefits notwithstanding, the difference in eating experience between a store-bought, chemical-laden loaf of bread and a crusty, wholegrain sourdough loaf are nothing short of extraordinary. After biting into a complexly flavorful, toothsome, bite of homemade bread, the flabby, featureless, store-bought stuff can seem downright insipid.

If you’re as absurdly passionate about real sourdough as I am, you’ll not have any trouble finding a daily use for your sourdough starter. If you start falling into the deep end of bread independence, you may even find yourself grinding and blending your own flour (it really makes a difference), geeking-out over excellent books likeThe Bread Buildersor anything byPeter Reinhart, and upping the consistency of your baking game by learningbaker’s percentages.I challenge you to give it a try. Reclaiming bread independence is a delightful, healthy, and delicious endeavor.

如果你有任何问题或需要帮助排除初学者或面包的问题，请在下面的评论中告诉我!