Professor Calvel's Starter

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Professor Calvel's Starter

After the second world war, American GI's returning from France raved about the bread they had enjoyed there. However, after that time, the quality of French bread began to decline. There are as many explanations for this as there are people doing the explaining. By the 60's, French bread had become largely tasteless, bland, uninspiring and uninspired.

There is probably no one who had more influence on the revival of French baking than Professor Raymond Calvel. Professor Calvel not only acted as a cheerleader for the rennaisance of bread in France, but also shared the techniques that allowed French bakers to again move up to the levels that had been taken for granted a few decades earlier.

One of the best baking books I have ever read is his  "The Taste of Bread." It inspires bakers to seek greatness. It offers the tools to help the baker get there. The only drawback to this book is that it is so expensive. If you can find a copy for less than $75.00, grab it, it's a bargain.

In the book, Professor Calvel outlines how he makes a sourdough starter. It takes him about 2 1/2 days. You'll need rye flour, white wheat flour, dried malt extract (available from a brewing supply house or health food store), salt and water. Professor Calvel's starter is quite dense. The common technique when starting a starter is to use 1 part of water to 1 part of flour by weight. Professor Calvel's starter uses 10 parts of flour to 6 parts of water. As a result, mixing this starter usually involves energetic kneading.

A Polite Request If you are starting a starter using my instructions and have trouble, I would greatly appreciate it if you would contact me FIRST if you are having problems with your starter. I really do care about your sourdough success, and if there are problems with my instructions, I would like to correct them. On the menu of each page at this web site is a "contact us" link. Please use it so I can help you. Thanks, Mike

The starter should be kept around 81F, though this is not as critical as some might think.

A recurring question with regards to sourdough starter is what sort of water may be used with it. Many people insist that sourdough starter can be killed by chlorinated water. Others say that it can not be started with chlorinated water. In my experience, chlorinated water has not been a problem. I have started, fed and used starters with chlorinated water with no problems. However, I have heard that the more persistent forms of chlorine used by some cities, such as chloramine, can cause problems.

In general, if your tap water smells and tastes good it will probably work well with sourdough. If you have problems with your starters, you may want to try using dechlorinated water. Since few home filters will remove chlorine from water, and from what I am told neither boiling nor standing will remove chloramine, I suggest that you try bottled water if you are experiencing what you think might be water related problems with your sourdough.

Time	Starter	Flour	water	Salt	Malt
0 hours (start)	0 grams	300 grams rye and 300 grams white flour	360 grams	3 grams	3 grams
22 hours	300 grams	300 grams white flour	180 grams	1 gram	2 grams
7 hours	300 grams	300 grams white flour	180 grams	1 gram
7 hours	300 grams	300 grams white flour	180 grams	1 gram
6 hours	300 grams	300 grams white flour	180 grams	1 gram
6 hours	300 grams	300 grams white flour	180 grams	1 gram

At this point, the starter should be doubling its size between feedings, and should be sufficiently mature to use. It is one of the fastest ways I know of to start a good starter. I have tried scaling this process down, and it does not work well when cut back to 1/10th the size given here. If anyone scales this process with success, please drop me a note.

In each step after the first, 300 grams of starter are brought forward from the previous step. The rest may be discarded, or saved and used to make pizza shells.

If you are curious about why malt extract and salt are used in this process, I suggest you buy the book to read Professor Calvel's explanation.