Hello everybody.
My name is Nathan and I have decided to try my hand at making some sourdough bread. I've been doing some reading on-line and thought I knew what I was doing. As I am typing this I am waiting for my first loaf of sourdough to rise, which isn't really happening.
I know I have a lot to learn and I hope to get to the point where I can have fresh bread for lunch on Sundays. But until then I have a lot to learn.
So in the interst of me learning I have a few questions. Here I will start with only questions about the starter. I don't expect to learn everything at one.
When I feed my starter if I have 100 grams of starter should I add 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water, or should it be in the ratio of 50 grams flour and 50 grams water?
Also, when I leave my starter on the bench overnight is it ok to put an air tight lid on top, or does it need plenty of fresh air? If you tell me that it is a bad idea to put an air tight lid on top then I know one mistake I have made already.
Thanks for anyone who can help me here.
Cheers,
Nathan
Replies
Hello Nathan
Generally people double the mass of the starter so 50 and 50 would be fine (that assumes that you are starting with a 100% hydration starter). However, there are probably as many variations as you can think of and what works for you will be fine.
Also, generally, a loose cover is used. It can be Gladwrap or a screwcap or any other sort of lid loosely fitted or a piece of cloth. The main idea is to keep any other nasties that might be drifting around from getting into your culture. A tight lid won't do any harm. I have used a tight seal when I have travelled with/shipped my culture and other than a slight build up of pressure it suffered no ill effects.
The main thing is to be persistent. There is no such thing as a failure - just another learning experience.
Farinam
Well it wasn't a complete failure. I made two loaves that were each as bad as the other. I now realise that I need to make the dough when the starter is the most active. When I started my dough this morning I had just taken the starter out of the fridge.
The result was that the bread hardly rose, had no flavour and took a whole day to get a loaf that was too dense to eat.
Next time I will feed my starter a few hours before I make any dough and see if that works any better.
The next try will be next weekend. Wish me luck.
When you take a starter out from the fridge, it is my experience that you always refresh it by feeding 1-3 times before starting to make your bread. If you can remember you can take it out at night, refresh it, then start in the morning to make the dough for the bread. With Sourdough you have to be patient because it is slow to rise. It usually takes me a day and half from start to finish to get a good loaf of bread.