Hello!
I am on day 8 of starting my starter. I am feeding 100g unbleached all purpose flour and 100g water to 100g of starter every 24 hours. The first 3 days I had lots of little bubbles and then day 4 it went very quiet. There are barely any bubbles now and no rise at all on day 8. The starter turns very liquidy (pancake batter thickness) after feeding. It is very cold in sydney at the moment but I am keeping it wrapped in a towel to try keep it warm. It smells quite vinegary. Does anything seem wrong here? Should I just keep waiting?
Thanks!
using this recipe for starter - http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-sourdough-starter-cooking-...
will it ever look like this or will it always be a pancakey glug - http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Blogs/Real%2...
Replies
Hello lizzieIII,
Lower temperatures will slow things down but I would have thought that even low inside temperatures in Sydney should not have brought things to an entire halt.
Perhaps if you have a read of the Beginners Blogs on the site (Home Page - right hand column). I have found these to be very useful for beginners.
One possibility is to add some wholemeal flour to the mix and, if you can get it, rye flour seems to be more beneficial (I use about 20%). The idea is that the wholemeal flour will have more wild yeasts and so forth associated with the bran and rye has some sort of extra enzyme that speeds up the process.
At 100% hydration, (equal weights of flour and water) will always be a thick batter that will coat a spoon quite thickly (5mm or more) but as the batter ages (not generally within a day) and the gluten breaks down the consistency will change to something thinner and you can eventually get separation of the solids and liquid into layers. The liquid layer on top is called 'hooch' as it can contain very small amounts of alcohol as a byproduct of the fermentation that has gone on.
If your starter smells vinegary then there is a fair chance that there has been some activity as one of the byproducts of the bacterial action is acetic acid. Have you tasted the starter and does it taste sour?
If you have the mixture in too wide a container you can get the situation where the 'froth' is not able to support itself and the gas escapes almost as fast as it is produced. In this situation, there also might not be any noticeable rise in the container. But even so, I would think that if you dip into the mass you should be able to see that it has a mousse like texture in the body of the mass.
So, I think the secret is to be a bit patient. The time frames that are given in methods are only a guide. Some people manage to get a useable starter going in only a matter of days where others seem to need 10 to 14 days (or more).
So, stick with it, try some (rye) wholemeal flour and maybe in a couple of days you will be able to report success and wonder what all the worry was about.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Its been pretty cold in sydney this week, getting down to 2 degrees at night. I fed it last night and then put it in an insulated bag with a microwaved wet teatowel for some warmth and overnight it has bubbled up! no significant rise yet but plenty of small bubbles, Im very happy to see it isnt dead!
I havent had any seperation or hooch. It did taste sour yesterday but I havent tried again. It smells less sour today. It is in a wide container so i will look for the bubbles more than the rise. Patience is not one of my strong suits and im trying to fix that haha. I will try adding some wholemeal or rye if it dies down again.
Thanks for your tips!
One of the sayings that has stuck with me in regards to yeast activity is "Life starts at 44". This means that at tempratures above 44°F or 6.66°C yeast becomes active. The one warm spot that I like in the winter time for my starter is on top of the refrigerator, you might try that and see if it helps. I have made a number of starters and the ones that I make from grains that I milled into flour take off much faster and better. White flour seems to lack a plentiful supply of bacteria and yeast. The early activity that you saw in your starter was most likely from the bacteria. The smell of the starter when the bacteria is the only activity isn't very nice to my nose. When the yeast joins the bacteria the smell will be the nice yummy smell of sourdough.
It sounds like your starter is close but if you can get some whole grain and make it into flour I think this is the best way to get it going. The sour that you noticed in your starter is a good indicator that the process is going in the right direction. The fact that it is less sour on a given day is something I wouldn't worry about. A starter can be made to be less sour or more sour by changing and few factors in its life like its food, temperature, time, and water.
Hi Lizzie!!
Farinam hits the nail on the head with 'be patient' advice.
I too exist in a cold climate --- 2 degrees at night would be considered balmy!!, and when I started I threw away my first 4 attempts because I saw very little action and was getting smells which according to some 'advisors' suggested that the starter was going 'off'.
However on my 5th attempt I decided to ignore the 'sage' advice and let it continue, however because of the low temperature I fed every 2-3 days and after about 10 days I felt that I could claim to have a starter that I could bake with. I did try and bake with it but it clearly had not developed enough and, although tasty, my bread did not rise very much. After another couple of weeks of 2-3day feeds I tried again and was delighted with the results.
I too added some rye to the mix and found that this did 'gee' it up a bit and now 3 years later I have a very competent sourdough starter. The fact that yours smells a little 'vinergary' is a good sign as it suggest the process is working, after all it is called 'sour'dough!!. If I get a little 'hooch' on top, as long as it's not too much, I tend to mix back in before feeding as I feel that adds to the flavour.
Be patient, persevere and you will get a great starter no matter what the temperature.
Hi everyone, thanks for the advice!
My starter is now doubling reliably but it stinks of over ripe apples/apple cider! It went from vinegar smell to kind of sweet to absoloutley stinking of over ripe fruit! what did i do wrong?
Hello lizzieIII,
It might just be a phase. I'm not sure that I have heard of the exact smell that you describe (odour is in the nose of the beholder after all) but I do know that, on it's way to becoming stable a new starter can spend a day or two smelling not quite so nice. Most often, this has an acetone/nail polish remover sort of odour but it shouldn't last more than a day or so.
This sort of thing happens because a bacteria that produces this sort of odourous by-product finds conditions just nice but as the good guys get more into dominance the not-so-nice guys fade into the background and never rear their ugly heads again. Sometimes these changes are accompanied by significant changes in activity which is also not to be worried about as that will settle down as well.
So, I would press on and in a couple of days you will probably find that you are back to a nice non-pongy sourdough that will last you a lifetime with nothing more than an occasional feed.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam