/sdg/ - Sourdough General

Who else here keeps a sourdough starter? What do you feed it, how often? What region are you in?

I'm in the northeast US, And I just baked another loaf with a relatively new starter. The crumb isn't great, because I left it bulk fermenting a little too long, but the taste and texture is really nice, mild and slightly chewy.

Any tricks you use for getting a stronger flavour?

Other urls found in this thread:

theperfectloaf.com/baking-sourdough-bread-stiff-starter/
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My sister gave me a sourdough kit for christmas, which included a wicker loaf mold, a lame for scoring, and a jar to keep my starter in along with instructions.

I feed my starter a few days each week and I tend not to measure exactly how much. I'll dump roughly a cup of flour in, white or whole wheat, and an even portion of water to get the consistency of pancake batter. When I feed it again, I'll dump out almost all of the starter.

I used to bake sourdough weekly.

I've always had this big storage pot in which i made my starter.

I always started off with a wet starter, almost equal parts of water and flour to get a nice wet mix, after that i stirred it with some honey to get it going.

I really need to start baking again.

>muh crumb

Sage

my starter sits in a plastic tub in the fridge. I bake bread once a week. The night before bread day, I take the starter out, and add my whole wheat flour portion of the bread recipe, along with warm water 1:1 by weight, and let it ferment overnight.

That's pretty much what I do, I measured it the first few times until I got a good idea of about how much to add, now I just eyeball it.

Is a single day enough time to get the yeasts active again? I've thought they take a few days to really get active, so I just keep the starter on my counter and feed daily even though I only bake once a week.

Also northeast here.

I have two white flour starters at the moment, and I've been keeping the culture for almost 2 years now. High and low hydrations. I feed them King Arthur bread flour.
I feed them once a day when I feel like baking, and if not I keep them in the fridge and feed them weekly.
Low hydration gets fed 23g flour, 11.66g water, and 15.34g starter.
High hydration gets fed 20g flour, 20g water, and 20g starter.

That's interesting, what functional difference do you notice between the hydration levels? Is the low hydration starter more sour and less yeasty?

I do. I feed it bread flour and water once every 5 days.

I usually make 2 loaves every month, but I skipped last month because the process takes 3 days and I wasn't in the mood. I'm actually going to start it today so I can send a loaf to my grandmother for her 80th birthday at the end of the month.
I hope it holds up in the mail...

You kind of learn to "read" your starter after a while, largely based on smell and appearance. If you neglect your starter, it takes a couple feedings before it's back to potency (noticeable acidity, stringy/webby/bubbly structure, sour taste). If it's a strong and active starter, it can convert a flour and water mixture to sourdough in 8-16 hours. If I am making sourdough bread, I'll prepare a dough mixture the night before, let it acidify overnight, then add flour and water to it the morning of.

Cooler temps will be slower, higher temps faster. My house is a constant 74 degrees F so it's ideal for almost all of my ferments.

I'm in the south and I have one I keep in a quart mason jar. I usually bake a loaf every 5-7 days so that's when I feed it. I usually add equal parts water and flour and let it sit out overnight then put it back in the fridge. It's about 6 months old.

Nobody likes people who try to force their dumb memes all day long.

>Is a single day enough time to get the yeasts active again?

It takes around 4-5 hours for the dough to rise, But then it has explosive oven spring. The taste is ok. Do you think letting it ferment for another 24 hours on the counter will improve the flavor?

Is this a troll post or are you literally triggered by bread?

Take a day or two off and drive over to her.

She doesn't give a shit about your bread.

She wants to see you.

The low hydration is nice for when I'm making simpler breads without a lot of ingredients. The high hydration I use for high hydration breads that aren't kneaded. I typically make no knead breads that are retarded in the fridge with it.

Both starters will have the same smell and taste if I manage them in similar ways. The variation of taste and sourness comes from what temperature I store them at and also the regularity of their feedings.

This is a good write up about their differences.
theperfectloaf.com/baking-sourdough-bread-stiff-starter/

>Take a day or two off and drive over to her.
nah

>She doesn't give a shit about your bread.
Thank god, that saves me a LOT of work. I'll just send a card instead.

>She wants to see you.
She want's me to move back home into a nice trailer and start going to her retarded Pentecostal church and marry a nice Jesus-obsessed girl who rolls around on the floor shaking like she's having a seizure and screaming gibberish 3 times a week as well, but fuck that, and fuck you too, dumbass. You don't know my life so mind your own fucking business.

>tfw you will never have a nice Jesus-obsessed girl who rolls around on the floor shaking like she's having a seizure and screaming gibberish 3 times a week

Not the other user, but and staying out of any family advice, but I think you should still mail her a loaf, it would be a nice gesture. Sourdough actually holds up pretty well in the mail, it lasts longer than commercial/white bread with going stale, and because it's denser, it can hold up to more abuse.

Ah, I see! Thanks for the link, that's interesting. I love how versatile sourdough is, so it's always cool learning something new like that.

I've been getting better about reading it. Do you let it get soupy before you feed it again? I know it's better to let it get a little "hungry" because the extra acidity from the LAB keeps foreign bacteria at bay, but if it gets too acidic, it inhibits or even kills the yeast.

Longer fermenting does improve the flavour, but if you leave it on the counter for too long, it'll overproof and you risk the yeast eating too much of the gluten and it won't rise much in the oven. Letting it ferment in the fridge is better, because it slows yeast activity down more than the LAB activity, which is what impacts the flavour the most.

Am I the only one that thinks sourdough tastes like shit? I've tried it many times and it has like a wood pulp flavor, I don't get the fascination.

The culture can putrify if it is neglected for too long, as the acidity will kill off the yeast and good bacteria and putrifying bacteria will out-compete. However, that would take a fairly long time and if you give your starter adequate attention (1-2 feedings a week, purging the bulk of the starter with each feeding), that should not concern you.

Again, your senses will tell you how your starter is doing. If you like fermentation as much as I do, you learn to love that sour vinegary stench. That stench means your starter is right where it needs to be. If neglected and the putrifying bacteria is allowed to thrive, you will undoubtedly know.

...

I'm not sure if you've had bad sourdough or what, senpai. Are you buying actual fresh-baked sourdough or sourdough loaves from the bread aisle of the supermarket? The latter are usually complete garbage, stiff and flavorless (or even flavored by added vinegar).