Using Your Senses To Know When Your Sourdough Starter is Ready to Use
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Using our sense of sight and visual aids to judge when a sourdough starter is ready to use will only get you so far.
I'll show you how I use my sense of smell and taste to know the best moment to use my sourdough starter and deliver the optimum flavour profile in my sourdough bread.
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#sourdoughstarter
This was such a well thought out and thorough video. I finally got my sourdough starter to rise so it has been my number one obsession. I loved learning what you found about the different smells and taste of your starter. Thank you for this great video!
I'm pleased you enjoyed the video. Tasting and smelling the ingredients we use in our food is really important and I like to treat my starter the same way :)
I find that when my starter is at its prime it has a green banana/sushi rice/Granny Smith apple smell and taste to it.
Well done! I’ll surely use this info in the future.
This was a wonderful
This video is great. I'm always taste and sniff my sourdogh starter but you just gave me so much more ideas about how to get more information from this. Thanks!
Awesome, let me know how you get on!
My starters usually smell like toe jam and vomit to me so I just make white bread.
means its not mature yet lol
Hi, I'm making my starter in tropical conditions. Find out that huge differences are in processing bread. Basically, half of time and 65% humidity makes my best results. Smell of starter is fruit mixed with bit of veniger. Thank you for best advices as far.
Cheers Dusko
You looks like my grandfather 💖☺️, he is not in the world. But I watch you again and again.
My house stays at about 68-72 degrees.
I leave mine on counter in kitchen, no added heat.
It smells like feet and vinegar but looks HEALTHY.
And makes delicious pancakes ☺️
Today I have baked my second bread. My first one was not so good, because my starter was..well I had done something wrong with it before making dough. Then I notice my starter was "dead". There were no bubble..and smell wasnt sour at all! It was smell of flour and I don't know why.so I tried to get it back to life. I fed it for 2-3 days with flower and today I smelled it - smell was sour and I realised that this is time. So I baked bread. It was very tasty, soft. So now I am going to experiment with all these tastes
Awesome!
Phil, the subject of this video has got to be pretty well unique. What an interesting twist.
I'm going to give a go too.
That Rye bread you baked looked amazing mate. I hadn't seen a lot on this topic, but you can track the starter really well. Keep me posted and I'll let you know how I get on with the malted Barley
@@CulinaryExploration 👍
A truly brilliant video, thank you!
I love your video! Great idea and best video by far! Thanks
Cheers bud
Day 4 here mine smells like yeast, buttermilk or soured milk and yogurt..... i think it smells good 😂boyfriend gags though 😂😂😂
PSA for Everyone: never consume raw starter. There is a lot of bacterial action going on and you’re likely going to get sick when you do it yourself.
My starter smells more tangy with the hot and humid weather in Hong Kong and the bread also turned out quite sour. I just made some sourdough ciabatta with 82% hydration, surprisingly it turned out very mild favour. I used 7 days old starter from the fridge without feeding, bulk fermented for 2 hours in room temperature and in fridge for 12 hours. With the hot weather, I am now leaving the new fed starter in the fridge after a couple hours at room temperature. I have been smelling it everyday, from raw flour to a tint of sweetness, that’s what I prefer.
Hey Becky, are you still in HK, or back home? I noticed the flavour shift during our little heat wave last week. My kitchen hit 34c at its hottest.
@@CulinaryExploration still in Hong Kong. Last year back home there was a heat wave 40C, it even affected the favour of my hydrated starter. Luckily I had some frozen for back up.
Very helpful. Thanks for putting this together
Great vid.........lots good information. This has nothing to do with this video but, Have you ever made a SD marbled rye? I have tried with mixed results but would like to see some tips from a master like yourself. I couldnt find any videos in your library, thks
Starting at 1:50
Wow this video came right on time
Let me know if you give it a go, it’s good fun and works really well
@@CulinaryExploration i've been trying it and it helps me know when my starter is hungry, it smells like a very sweet grape juice and when my dough is fermented, it has a very strong yeasty smell, and when overfermented it smells like chesse, otherwise it smells like wet flour the whole time and taste like apple cider vinegar :/
Getting really good results with you recipe!!! Thanks. Now I left for a couple days and there is a little bit of water on my starter in the fridge. Smells fine. Can I still use it by feeding it again?
Nothing wrong with the water on top (it's normally a dark murky colour). You can simply stir it in when you feed it again.
@@CulinaryExploration nothing wrong with it... !! Going in the oven in 10min. Thanks! My girls love the bread!
I'm looking for information on the smell of a mature starter. I'm afraid I missed a day feeding and now I've hit the acetone stage.
I remember a great lofty doubling or tripling around day 3-4 but I didn't get a chance to smell it. I am curious of the spectrum from start to finish. If not another video could you perhaps reply with the smells at the 3-4 stages of the starter?
So far I have experienced only fresh wet whole wheat (day 0), gym socks (2-6) and unfortunately acetone. Gunna double my ratio for feeding as I was doing 1:1:1 before.
What's the final ripe form smell like? Perhaps fresh baked bread...Sweet and yeasty? or is it closer to pleasant stinky gym socks(if that's even a thing 😂)
Great video. Thanks for help!
Another great video with so much to take in, Thank you!
Heres something I would be interested in getting replies for: I have been making my starter at the ratio 1:1.5 or 33%water to 66%flour. I always use whole wheat. My starter is around two years old. Heres the thing I find a little frustrating, my starter has never risen above twice the original height before collapsing.
I even tried feeding 10g three times a day and after three days not once did it more than double. Any suggestions anyone? By the way I get really good bread rise all the time so I am not complaining.
My starter with lid never used cap before smalls like yogurt after using lid
Very insightfull, thanks! Seing here that you feed 5g of starter, I realise that I feed my starter with... too much starter! Let's say I need 150g for a recipe, I always feed 60g of starter with 60g of water and 60g of flour, put it in my oven over night with the light on (it keeps the temperature around 27 Celsius/81 Fahrenheit). Each time it's a little bit overproofed by a couple of hours (it started recessing in the jar). I will experiment with less starter to find the proper amount to reach it's peek in an 8 hours period. Only then may I be able to get a better oven spring! Maybe something else is wrong...
There is nothing wrong with your feeding routine 60g / 60g / 60 (1:1:1). If it's ready to use when you are ready to bake, it's perfect, if it's ready a bit too soon, you could reduce the amount of starter you are using to feed it. It's warm in my kitchen so using just 5 grams of starter means it's ready for me to bake the next day.
@@CulinaryExploration but it’s an interesting question. Most maintenance feeding ratios are 1:1:1 and up (1:2:2, 1:3:3, etc.). How do we determine the amount of ripe or mature starter to use and the feeding ratio to then bake later that same day or the next day? Is there anything an inexperienced baker (me) can use as a basis to make this decision?
Also, do we feed it and anticipate the timing to use it at its peak of rise? Mine reaches peak at about 4 hours in a 70° F kitchen and holds peak for an hour or two. Is that when I use it, or does it matter?
@@mickeymallette2663 Disclaimer: I'm new to sourdough and still struggling, so if your loaves are turning out great, then keep doing what you're doing. As an experienced homebrewer however, I can tell you a thing or two about yeast that might influence your starter usage decisions. First thing to note is that *yeast consumes oxygen to reproduce.* When oxygen is present, yeast is at its happiest and healthiest, and *that's when it's most active,* vigorously munching away, making babies and producing lots of gas, but no alcohol (aerobic fermentation). This is what brewers call primary fermentation, and it's this type of fermentation that inflates your dough. When your starter (or dough) reaches peak, and begins to sink, it's because the oxygen in its environment has become depleted, although many bakers will tell you it's because it's running out of food, and I'll assure you, they're mistaken (try reintroducing oxygen into your falling starter by stirring aggressively, whipping in some fresh air, and you'll watch it rise again).
*In the absence of oxygen (anaerobic fermentation), yeast cannot reproduce.* It becomes unhappy and sluggish and starts making alcohol. It still produces gas, but it's greatly diminished- your dough/starter starts deflating because it releases gas faster than the yeast replenishes it. Of course a lot of this has to do with the extensibility/ gluten/ hydration in your starter. A cake flour starter will have weaker bubbles and therefore de-gas faster. A liquid starter won't rise at all, making it even trickier to determine the peak. To sum it up, *after your starter peaks, the yeast population is no longer increasing.* While it's on the rise, it's growing more and more yeast which is why we typically want to use our starters at their peak. I would say it's preferable to use a starter a short while _after_ it has peaked, when you know the population has reached maximum, rather than before when there's still potential to grow more yeast. For that matter, it's probably preferable to use a hungry, inactive starter than it is to use one before it has peaked. It would just take a little extra time for the yeast to wake up in your dough, delaying things a bit, and I would expect your bread would turn out funkier and more sour, considering that your starter would be funkier and more sour when you threw it in.
Interesting 🤨 video 😊❤👍🏼
Im doing this the first time. Its 15-19 degrees celsius right now in germany. Mine wont rise but its bubbly is sour and tastes sour. So is there any difference when your starter has risen or not. I am on day 5 right now and cant wait for day 7. Would love to hear your opinion :)
I love your videos !!! Have you made any bread with lupin flour ???
I haven't, I'll give it a look!
Very intrusting
OK, so mine smells like vinegar. How do I keep it from going "too far", as you state?
You need to judge the right point to use it. As the levain/starter goes through the fermentation process it’s characteristics will change. The sweet spot will be around the time that levain peaks.
@@CulinaryExploration Thank you!
Thank you I thought mine was never going to get fluffy it smells like bananas so i will just keep feeding it and wait what would be the next smell after this I have been feeding it every day with plain unbleached flour but started with rye then mixed wheat organic then mixed plain fully am i doing to many changes the pancake discard tastes so good but the starter isnt fluffy like yours its been two weeks now.and its only 16 c in my house is this to cold..
your flour probably has added enzyme amylase. it wont make good sourdough because the enzyme breaks the starch into sugar before the acidophilus get a chance to work (destroying the gluten and never developing the full flavor). Arrowhead mills makes one of the only fine high protein bread flours without amylase. a lot a whole wheat are free of added enzyme but that also destroys the gluten.
@@docbrown7513 1 yr later my starter had its 1st birthday well I have 2 one rye and 1 rye wholewheat mix there both very happy thank you for your reply.
Mine smelled like vomit for about 5 days before it started wearing off. And then I could smell green apple and vinegar. I played with the 2x a day feeding ratios from 1:1:1 to 1:6:6 progressively. On the 12th day, it stopped rising. Room temperature is between 28°C - 31°C all year round. I was trying to find the best ratio so the starter would peak at 11-13 hr mark. So I changed starter carryover from 25g to 10g added 60g flour and 60g cold water, as starter was maturing at 7-8hrs at 1:4:4. And I also changed the mixed flour ratio where there was more unbleached AP flour to whole wheat flour to retard the starter activity. Now the starter seems to have “died”. It hasn’t risen after 5 hrs. Not sure what I did wrong. I guess I’ll have to go back to 1:1:1 to fix the issue and start experimenting again, if I don’t see it rise tomorrow morning.
whole wheat wont make good bread. the bran will tear the gluten. Arrowhead mills has fine high protein flour without the added enzyme.
Thanks!
Hey Philip! Since you live in Athens as I do, can you recommend a brand of strong flour that is easy to find in our local super markets? I know Robin Hood but it's quite expensive for me..
I'm playing around with different flour at the moment and don't have a lot to report right now. You could try a flour that's labelled specifically for Tsoureki, that will be nice and strong :)
@@CulinaryExploration I was doing some research online and found some brands for less than 2€/kilo. I'm sharing with you in case you're interested: αλεύρι για τσουρέκι μύλοι Αχαΐας 14,4% protein, γρεβενιώτικο αλεύρι για τσουρέκι 14% protein , αλεύρι για τσουρέκι μύλοι Κρήτης 14% protein. Haven't tried any of them yet but I'm about to soon. There are also some mills(not in Athens of course) who can provide you with bags of 10 or more kilos but you need to do some research and most importantly ask in local delis etc. You can't find these in supermarkets. Hope I've helped!
My starter has a 'skin' that I remove before adding new flour & water...why is that?
I'm not 100% sure, it sounds like the top may have dried out a touch. It's a bit tricky to tell without seeing the starter.
And it also had MOLD! So I tossed it - Starting over using dark rye flour. Will that be OK? And is water still same ratio as flour? Thank you!
Thanks
Cheers buddy! Pleased you enjoyed it :)
@@CulinaryExploration made me think and it’s logical. Nice video Philip, nice.
It's good to get to know the starter better!
Mixed up a batch of almond flour with a fresh starter for my gluten intolerant friends. Will see how that compares with the high gluten freshly ground wheat flour. Commercial loaves are too expensive for them to afford.
How are you finding the almond flour to bake sourdough with?
What happens when starter has gone a few hours after being completely active
goes flat. curve is parabolic on the upside and like 1/x after the peak. the enzyme released by the acidophilus destroys the gluten and it gets very runny. good for pancakes and gravies (no lumps super easy).
Mine bubbles but never increases in size
your flour probably has added enzyme amylase, causing the gluten to be broken down before the acidophilus get to work (good for yeast, bad for sour). Arrowhead mills has one of the only fine high protein bread flours without added enzyme.
2:23
My sourdough starter smells like corn or farts, I have no idea why 💀
🤣.. i would suggest to smell it before you let one rip. 😂....
Mine smells like chocolate brownie flour for some strange raisin
Mine smells like acetone lol
That’s the alcohol in it. That means you need to feed it.
Mine smells like alcohol
3:47 scent profiles detected over time
You must have a name? My starter peaks then falls,is it ok to use when it is at the lowest?
My name's Philip lol, my starter doesn't have a name... it's undercover :). I've used my starter when it's dropped and still got great results. If I have the choice between using a starter that is past its peak or delaying the bake, I'll use the starter.
Thank you Phillip.
I caught Covid and my bread making is suffering.
Did it affect your sense of smell?
My starter smells sour, kinda sweet Sauer, kinds vomit 🤢 no idea lol 😂
My starter stinks should start over it’s risen a lot and looks good but stinks. Day3
No, keep going, the smell should change by about day 4-5. Re-assess at that point. Drop me an email if you have more questions.
The nose knows
It does indeed!