How to capture wild yeast for bread (and WHY it works)

The above site also contains instructions for gathering data about your starter and sending it to researchers at NC State. If you send them your data, you can also email it to me with "sourdough project" in the subject line and I will thank you by name in a followup video later this year. Use my address that appears on-screen at 12:43 (I'm trying to foil the spambots).

[aragusea]

Q: What if I don't like sourdough? Can I use a method like this to make dough that isn't sour?
A: Not really, no. That's why yeast harvested from breweries (and later dried commercial yeast) was such a big advancement for baking. It allowed the development of yeast-risen "sweet" breads — sweet meaning not sour, in this context. (You can actually make fantastic desserts with sourdough.) If you're having trouble finding commercial yeast but you want to make yeast bread that isn't sourdough, there are some other options. I've heard it's possible to grow some yeast from an unfiltered beer. Never tried that, but sounds interesting! You can also get a small amount of commercial dried yeast reproducing in a little wet dough (or other mixture of carbs and water) and keep it going in the fridge for some duration of time. I've heard of people doing that, but I imagine that it would eventually become a sourdough starter, since bacteria are gonna get going in there eventually. That last part is a guess.

Q: Can I cook with the starter I discard every day?
A: Absolutely, there are lots of "discard" recipes on the internet. It's popular to make pancakes with it. However, be aware that in that first 1-2 weeks when you're getting your starter going, your discard might taste and smell terrible, and it might not have much rising power. In a mature starter, the acid-producing bacteria have "defeated" all the other bacteria and undesirable fungi. (Yeast are acid tolerant, that's why they work so well with these bacteria.) If I had cooked that nasty pink 3-day-old starter I showed you in the vid, it probably would have tasted like foot rot, because it was filled with undesirable microbes.

Q: Does it really have to be unchlorinated water? Does it have to be unbleached flour? Does it have to be X, Y, Z?

A: Yes. You can make a sourdough-like product by simply making a dough with commercial yeast and letting it sit in the fridge for a week. I'm a fan of that. And it may literally be sourdough. I'm not sure, but the folks at the Dunn Lab have some ideas about how we might use science to determine exactly what's going on in my old fridge dough. Stay tuned. But yes, a sourdough starter is too much work for me. As I said in the vid, the only reason I'm interested it now is because of the COVID yeast shortage. Also I try to make videos about things that might be interesting to you, even if they're not terribly interesting to me.

[trusarmor]

my Dad and i used to rise before the Spring Sun and Hunt the Wild Yeast across the warm rain swept Plains of Brooklyn.

[marjoriejohnson]

50+ years ago I started my starter in several places on my property..and yes with same water ( rain water), same flour ( organic from healthfood store...the first one in my area) and hanging it in several places...the starter hanging in the woods from a pine tree tasted different from the one started in the orchard near a very large hay field that was full of wild flowers..

[omegamatsu]

From the yeast's POV theres a Thanos snap every 24hrs

[krovek]

When you "discard" have your starter it doesn't have to go in the trash! it can be useful for adding to other types of baked goods simply to add some flavor. King Arthur has a great recipe for sourdough crackers. You can also just drop it right in a fry pan with some herbs or whatever you want to make a savory pancake.

[christosbelibasakis]

Why I capture wild yeast and not domesticated yeast

[TaylorIserman]

These researchers are crazy good on camera. Most researchers I’ve met would probably not be as good at YouTube videos.

[squelchedotter]

Once you have a starter going, you can actually fry the discarded starter in a pan! It tastes pretty good.

[belmin]

I made my starter waaay back before all this stuff. So I'll just tell you a few things from my experience:
- It's probably best to use rye flour, it's easiest to sustain
- You can make it without discarding any, just start with small amount, and before using it calculate desired weight and feed it like that
- If you calculated it good, you'll be left just with scraps in your jar, but don't worry, just keep those scraps in fridge, and when you want to use it again, just feed it 2-3 times to desirable weight
- Don't keep it longer then 10 days in fridge
- It's gonna be sticky oh boy
- It's easiest to use grams when feeding, sou you feed it in 1:1 ratio (exp. 10 grams of water:10 grams of flour)
I'll edit if I remeber of something new.

[chris]

Lets get this bread: No
Lets MAKE this bread: YES

[billjoyce]

Using a starter that has been in my wife's family for decades. One relative tried using whole wheat flour with it and it eventually got weaker. I have two sets, one using unbleached all purpose flour and one using whole wheat flour to feed it and after about 2 years, both are running strong.

[Shinigami]

fun fact: the symbol on the right at 1:01 is called the Rod of Caduseus and is associated with the god Hermes. It is often misconstrued as a symbol for medicine but the correct symbol for that would be what is called the Rod of Asclepius which only features one snake.

[КрасныйКайзер]

I grew up in North Carolina and my high school statistics teacher had us make sourdough starters and take data on how our starter developed every day, which we then submitted to that lab at State. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but that was such a great lesson. Let us learn about statistics and help advance research in the food sciences.

[corsun]

1:23 "researchers are actively recruiting HOME BAKERS like YOU and ME"
me: :’D

[apollyon]

I love your journalistic approach to cooking. Its refreshing. Unlike anything I've seen before. Just like a good journalist, you're just trying to inform people of raw facts using scientific data.

[bbstucki]

I've had a starter for about 3 years now. I made it myself with wheat flour, and orange juice which was swapped out for water after week one. Once it was established (week 2) I began experimenting. I have fed it with fresh ground whole wheat flour, bleached AP flour, 100% rye flour, unbleached AP flour, bread flour and a mixture of many of those. I'm sure I have cycled through several bacteria and yeast strains to get to the point it is now. It has gone through a range of smells from sweaty socks, to fruity vinegar in the first year, but I never abandoned it. I've put it in the fridge for 4-6 weeks and left it to come back to a greyish top with a 1/4" of hooch on top, you just stir it up, discard some and feed it. I've made some amazing bread and pizza in the last 3 years. I now use a mix of bread flour with 20% whole wheat and 10% rye for feeding. It seems pretty consistent now. These microbial biomes are pretty resilient.

[churchgest]

These scientist look like they are having a bunch of fun

[dillpickle]

The fact that you involve the food science in explanations of your already delicious recipes is what sets you apart from other youtubers. I’ve been subscribed for a hot minute. Today I made your roast chicken recipe, but I stuffed the chicken with orange, sage, and garlic, instead of the lemon, rosemary, and shallot. absolutely delicious. I simmered the sage and garlic in the gravy, and I squeezed a bit of that roasted orange into it as well. Thanks for the inspiration for my own recipe dude, and thanks for always putting out quality content!!

[diablominero]

I started my starter with wild elderflower yeast that settled to the bottom of some elderflower champagne, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and yogurt whey. It's still going great a year later.

[ogreunderbridge]

Man, this channel covers a lot of things I several times have tried and failed looking into. I´m binge watching!
Thanks a lot :)