Processed

Wheat Starter

S tier

A wheat starter is a flour-and-water culture kept on white or bread wheat, lively with yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that know gluten dough. It is the everyday levain behind country loaves, baguettes with a wild raise, and pan breads that want a mild tang rather than a rye sour. Feed it wheat and it stays wheat-sweet; feed it rye and you have changed its character. A good wheat starter doubles in a few hours when warm and ripe, smells like yoghurt and apple, and never of paint or acetone. It will not put the acidity of a mature rye sour into a loaf unless you run it wet and long. Keep a stiff or liquid consistency on purpose—those are separate varieties in this catalogue.