What is "white starter"?
#99173 - 08/18/04 01:10 PM
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atomic rose
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 7013
Loc: Maine (IBS-A stable since July '05!)
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I sent my darling boyfriend out to get me a loaf of bread, explaining what needs to *not* be on the ingredients label. What he came back with was a La Brea Bakery French Loaf, with the following ingredients: unbleached enriched flour, water, white starter, yeast, and salt.
What is "white starter"? Is that like a sourdough starter, d'ya think? It's probably safe, but I wanted to make sure... I'm already paranoid about it, because it's a dense, heavy loaf, and anything heavy (even if it's safe) seems to be not agreeing with me lately.
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My guess is it is like sourdough starter. I'm sorry it is heavy. Sounds good though. 
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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You're probably right. I just worried it was something dairy-based.
It *smells* heavenly. I'm sure I'll get brave and try it later. I was actually floored that he found bread without unpronounceable additives - even the stuff I normally buy at the supermarket bakery has a few things that twist my tongue.
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You'd have to check with the bakery to be ABSOLUTELY SURE, but with about 98 percent certainty you can figure that starter consists of flour, yeast, sugar, and water. Maybe no sugar, but probably sugar, but not very much, and the yeast eats it up. Most starters (almost all) do not contain dairy, though MY starter often contains "potato water" or water left over from boiling spuds. This is not likely with the bread your DB bought, but it would account for the "heaviness" (spuds do that to bread).
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Funny you should mention that... I looked at the label again, and there was a website. No information there, but I did email them, and I'll see what they have to say. La Brea is a bakery (franchise, I guess?) based out of California; I know that if I go back to the grocery store and ask, they aren't going to know a thing about it either.
Thanks for the info! I always wondered what was in starter anyway... guess this was a good opportunity to find out! 
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Yeah it could be pigs feet and such like what goes in jello! j/k
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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LaBrea makes some of the best breads on the planet. I didn't realize you could get their stuff on the Right Coast; glad you can! Funny you emailed them, I did too. We'll see if we get the same answer!
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Funny you should ask about the white starter, since I have one fermenting on my counter as I write--this can also be called "Biga"--and Kelly is right, it is a mixture of flour,yeast and water left to do its thing overnite-it is mixed with the bread dough the next day--it gives the loaf the great air holes you see in a country type loaf, and it also allows the bread to stay fresh longer--Whew--that was too long, I'm afraid--anyway-should not cause any harm I would think..unless you are allergic to the yeast.
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Thank you! If there's one thing this question has taught me, it's that I need to experiment a little more with bread-baking, probably the only cooking I never do. Heh. I had a feeling a home-made starter wouldn't be a problem, but with commercial bakeries, you never know! At any rate, they didn't email me back, but I'm going to assume it's safe and have some in the morning.  Thanks!
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... and just like everyone figured, it's a totally vegan starter. This is what they said:
"Our 'White Starter' is basically a mix of flour, water and wild yeast. When our bakery was founded 16 years ago these wild yeasts were harvested from fermented grapes. Since then this yeast has been maintained by regular feeding with flour and water. This mixture of flour, water and yeast we call 'Starter'."
Of course, I wrote them a couple days ago, so by this time I already have half the loaf gone and haven't had any problems, so I figured it was fine.
PS - The bread is HEAVENLY. If you can find the La Brea Bakery breads near you, definitely try them... expensive, but worth it!
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