On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 14:56:45 GMT, "drhowarddrfinedrhoward"
> wrote:

>I can't get a definite answer whether flour goes stale or bad. The flour I
>used is fairly old. Should this be a concern? I ran out of it and started
>using a fresh package of King Arthur's.

If you want to start a culture from the flour alone, I recommend that
you obtain freshly milled organic whole grain wheat flour. I got mine
from Whole Foods Market out of a bin. An employee said that they turn
that flour over every week, so it was the closest I could come to
freshly milled.

I mixed equal volumes of that flour and organic whole grain rye flour
with two volumes of distilled water and covered it. I put the jar on
the top of the water heater in an enclosed insulated room where the
ambient temperature was 80F. It activated in a couple of hours and
created lots of foam.

I was meticulous about sanitary procedures, as though I were
performing a lab experiment. The starter came out smelling just fine.
I feed it once a week and have made bread with it a couple of times.
The sponge always activates in a couple of hours after mixing the
starter in and bubbles into a lot of foam.

1. Use freshly milled organic whole grain wheat flour.
2. Use distilled water.
3. Follow strict sanitation procedures.

HTH