I've been watching the bread code for a couple weeks, and decided to try baking my first loaf of sourdough ever. I made a traditional starter, which took a week, and just baked my first loaf this morning. It was the best tasting bread I've ever eaten!
This is a terrific technique that I've been using for a long while... as a frugal German! Your use of the PH measurement is a superior empirical tool that I must now add to my array - it saves time! I notice that you have a sourdough "surplus" jar. I keep one in the refrigerator too. I enjoy using it for pancakes/waffles/muffins/cookies etc. -- anything that I bake. My pancake recipe? 100g of (surplus) starter; 50g of "complete" pancake mix; 50g of water; 1 egg; any of the following: raw cacao nibs (3g), dried fruits (10g) etc.; cinnamon. Makes one super-large pancake for me! Cheers.
One thing about having it liquid: I think an important thing you should mention is that it gets much more active, also in the sense of feeding intervals. I would not make my sourdough this way since I may not bake bread often enough. The other way round the trick to put your starter in hibernation: have a much bigger flour part than water part causes the starter to go slower and you can have it in the fridge for a much longer time without worrying about starvation to death.
I made this starter and it works wonderfully, I always struggle with the traditional method. I'm not sure why, but the starters would always develop a rotten smell before maturing. I got so frustrated with the results so, I made one by including a very small pinch of bakers yeast and a few drops of lemon juice. that worked but I don't feel it is right, so I'm very glad for this recipe/method. The time to experiment isn't always there with my work hours. Thanks a lot.
I agree with Mr Bread Code....there is a lot of sourdough information on TH-cam. I like the way this guy backs this up with some Science and testing. Vielen Dank aus Australian.
I'd love you to talk about your "sourdough surplus". Also, I've watched a ton of videos in starting to learn sourdough in the last couple months, but yours were the ones that really brought it all together for me. I totally understand the process now and feel like I can relax and enjoy it. Thank you so much!
This is awesome. This is the first time I used your liquid starter and I took your instructions and put the culture in a 82 F proofer. 19 hours later and I have a fully active starter that easily doubled in volume, right out of the box. Earlier I tried several sourdough recipes with sad results. The scent is slightly sour. Thanks again,
Hi 'The Bread Code'. Something I discovered: The first two sourdough starters I tried to cultivate failed miserably. I used organic whole wheat flour (REWE Bio), but after a couple of days there was still no signs of activity, but mold started to spread, so I disposed of the starter. I assume there were just too many mold spores in the organic flour, which kinda makes sense. I switched to non-organic flours and that starter worked beautifully and still lives to the day. Thank you very much for the videos. You're awesome!
Super interesting. Yep, that makes sense. If the sourdough cultures don't win, you will have mold. Now you should be able to safely switch back to the organic cultures.
It took me nearly 3 weeks before I got my starter to start working for baking when I first began sourdoughing. It would have been much quicker with your method!!!! Thanks, nice video.
Beware those with a sensitive gut. With kefir your bread is now dairy. A lot of people are lactose/milk intolerant, and even a bit of milk will make their system very uncomfortable. And the original idea of eating Sourdough bread, as opposed to yeasted bread is the easier it is for the body to digest it with the natural fermentation of our beloved Sourdough bread. It might work for some though. Just not for everybody.
My sourdough starter lives next to my kefir jar on my counter, and they both live very happy lives. While I never used kefir directly in the starter, I can definitely smell that they share a flavor profile.
There's something beautiful about using a starter at its peak and seeing it float in water. I would not want to trade that experience for this different approach.
The thing I love about bread making is the feeling we're mad scientists conducting our own experiments. Brewers yeast being in the air makes so much sense! There's a huge Labatt's brewery in my city and the air fills up with the smell of it on "hops day." I wonder if there's any benefit to people keeping their starter outside for a few hours who live nearby. Unfortunately I think I live too far away now. Thank you!
Hi Hendrik, i use both methods. My Wheat-Sourdough is 50:50, while my rye sourdough is liquidy. Both work great. The liquidy has another benefit as far as i know: The acidic fluid (and the fusel alkohol) on top of the jar works like a protective shield against mold. Though if you leave him for a few weeks in that state, the liquid gets some really disgusting dark brown colour and the smell goes torwards acetone (like nail polish remover). Still healthy, nothing to worry about - but i guess it will make some people not use it anymore. But it can survive in the fridge for weeks if not months. Just refresh/feed it once before baking (maybe twice, to be sure) and you're good to go.
I am excited to have found you...as an engineer I wanted to understand more of the actual mechanisims behind this 'starter' and you just gave me at least two that make sense: 1. the more water the easier it is for the organisms to move about; and 2. the importance of measuring pH to understand the state of the organisms (important because they are too small to see with the naked eye). Hope to see more now from you.
(Beginning to wish I could live in Germany for the many quality tools available in Europe.) Lovely instructions. I’m trying to work up the courage to start the starter. But there isn’t much to lose if it fails! This is a SUPER HELPFUL video! Thanks! Also, your wonderful subscribers post many intelligent & thoughtful comments. This is a great place to learn.
My sourdough.is in the fridge. I've been watching your videos only a couple of months, sand this is the first time I have made room for the proofing in the fridge. I put my dough sample in there too. I'm going to sleep now, dreaming of oven spring! 🤣
This is how my sourdough starter has always been. I am no bread expert, it just has seemed to work. I also like trying to master only high hydration sourdough, since it is said that high hydration doughs are best left to expert bakers. I figured I’d try to master the harder stuff first. Really enjoying your videos, by the way! Learning a ton! Thanks so much.
I feel like 50-70 hydration dough is more about the recipe, flour, and knitting; while high hydration dough really really depends on personal baking experience/experiment, thats why i love high hydration as well:)))
👏👏👏 Best Video! This answers so many questions I myself have had about sour dough starter. You should never be ashamed about getting excited about your bread. People get excited over the silliest things. Bread is a good thing to get excited about. You have mastered this bread. It took a lot of time and energy. This is honest work. I am excited for you! Kind Regards.
This was really interesting! I've actually recently started to increase my starter's hydration because of the easier stirring process and faster fermentation. I really liked it that you included a bit about the smell and I would really appreciate it if you could do a "smell"-video (starter, bulk fermentation smell changes, what are common smells at which stage...). BTW, one small correction, lactic acid bacteria are anaerobe (= don't use/require oxygen), so whatever the stirring works positively on, it's not the exposure of the lactic acid bacteria to oxygen.. :)
Thanks for the great comment! Interesting - how comes though that for instance when making wine, that you want to have more oxygen at the start? Is that the yeast that needs the oxygen?
@@the_bread_code Yes, the yeast requires the oxygen, it "eats" the sugars and transforms that in energy it then uses to reproduce. As far as I know in sourdough both the yeast and the bacteria live happily in balance together up to the point where the lactic acid condentration becomes too high and the yeast doesn't like that (although science isn't too sure about this one yet I believe) or the yeast runs out of sugars (which are the result of amylase that breaks down the carbohydrates in the flour).
I checked this a bit more in depth, as far as I can find (university was a looong time ago, but I still have the books!) the following two things happen simultaneously in sourdough: 1) amylase breaks down the starch part (carbohydrates) of the flour into sugars that the yeast eats (and during which process the yeast produces carbon dioxide which is used to inflate the dough >> yeast reproduces >> more carbon dioxide, but less sugar >> yeast no longer has food and stops producing gas. 2) protease breaks down the proteins (those are more present in the outer parts of the grains that were used for the flour, stronger flour, higher protein percentage) to aminoacids or aminoacid groups (aminoacids are the lego pieces that build up a protein). Lactic acid bacteria use these aminoacids to reproduce, during which process they also produce carbon dioxide as well as lactic acid. This lactic acid helps strengthen the gluten network (couldn't find the actual chemical process through which it does that), which improves gas retention of the dough, the extra carbon dioxide is a nice plus in helping the yeast to inflate the dough. Whats also interesting is that low protein flour has more sugar than high protein flour (my 10% protein flour has 74 %, my 15% flour has 70%), which is to be expected. However if only the yeast activity was important, then low protein flour would mean you can get a better inflated dough. In reality a strong flour (with less sugars) rises a lot better, which shows how important the gluten network is. I hope youtube won't block links, for some further reading: hxxps://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2017/7825203/
Okay, this is a cool hack. Thanks for the great tip. I had some ongoing starter issues several months back. The bacteria seemed to get an edge on my yeast and I kept getting watery starter that smelled way too vingary. This also resulted in unspectacular breads and eventually failed bread. I am not sure what the problem was, but I would say it is much easier to simply create a brand new starter than to muck around for over a week with the old starter trying to revive it. This high hydration method appears to shave days off the schedule.
Wonderful explanation! I accidentally did this too and truth to be told, I LOVE THE RESULT compare to regular starter! Months ago, I pressed the flash freeze button (I need cooler temp for freezer) and little did I know, it also boost the chill and air flow inside regular fridge drawer. I have few jars of starter as backup. As usual, I put them at the back of fridge. All of them started to have ice crystal on surface and became very very dry. Some even turned into popsicle LOL Refresh with 1:1:1 ratio did not help and ended up with thick paste of starter so I started to introduce more water. Honestly, I just eye ball the water, stirring it longer than usual (stir and stir and stir annndd stir...) and adding more water until I get somewhat slurry consistency. Used it for baking bread and turn out great. Repeat again for couple of weeks, and always get similar result. Never again I go back to old way of 1:1:1. I always wonder what happened and today I know why, thanks to your video. Awesome!
This video is completely over the top for me! I will try it immediately. And I thought feeding my starter every day was a good way. Off to get a PH meter though, need a way to check what I'm doing. You're epic Hendrik, thanks for showing us your out of the box experiments.
@@the_bread_code I just imagined Super Saiyan Level 2 Sourdough 🤓. But back on the pH meter, is there a way to measure if the bread if proofed-ready-for-bake based on pH value?
Fascinating thank-you. I'm about to make my first sough dough bread. To think I have ordered a starter from Amazon when I could have just watched your video....... The one I did watch, said it would take 7 days !!!
@@the_bread_code I'm guessing that you mean we should make sure to re-calculate the water content of our dough recipe when changing to a starter that's 2 parts water, 1 part flour?
Great video Hendrik. I have read a lot of nerdy bread books, eg Modernist Bread, but I am a visual/auditory learner and I really get a lot out of your explanations. Well done for trying something new! My new favorite channel.
Very informative video. I am one of those non-Teutonic individuals who has been making sourdough starters for decades. I don't especially like sourdough bread but have friends who love the stuff, so I bake for them. Why am I "non-Teutonic"? It's because I lack a passion for precision, at least in this aspect of life. I've made good starters from all sorts of flours, including all-purpose white and nothing but chlorinated/fluoridated tap water. I measure nothing, stir less vigorously than you (lactobacillus species are facultative anaerobes) and seek a consistency like pancake batter; but, sometimes thicker or thinner. It ALL works. But some techniques, temps, etc. seem faster than others. In a cold refrigerator, starter can remain salvageable without feeding for many months. Your initial point is validated for me in practice by my observation that the least sour-tasting loaves are usually the ones that produced the most dramatic rises before baking and the best oven springs during baking. I do have a food scale and now I might start using it...might.
Amazing! Earlier you explode the sourdough starter 1:1 feeding myth. Here you explode the multiple feeding myth. Pioneers like you, Joy Ride Coffee (banetton not needed, etc.), Ben Starr (Perfect sourdough from 5-month-starved starter, etc.) and others, are demystifying sourdough baking, making it way more accessible while raising the standards of home baked sourdough.
You should read a few chapters of the "Handbuch Sauerteig". That book is praised as key literature. Authors are from big baking companies. You know where I'm going with this: Spontaneous sourdoughs are evil, unpredictable and should never be used (commercially) because they're not fully analysed and stuff like that. What a huge pile of BS that is. So I can fully support your statements. TH-cam bakers and all those wonderful blogs are heavensent for us home bakers!!!
I just found your channel and I am so happy I did.. I have tried many recipes to make sour dough starter but not one gave me a loaf of bread.... I am going to try your way as it makes more sense... Thank you for sharing a great video to us newbie... i I watched this video... I have had no
Always thoroughly enjoy your experiments and detailed explanations. Takes all the guesswork out of it, and answers all my questions. Here's another question though: I've been cutting a chunk off my dough before shaping and using that as the starter. Ultimate stiff starter. Works well for bread. Should I feed it inbetween making breads?
He is using a solid food pH meter. They pretty spendy, though I'd love to have one as well. I have a liquid pH meter from the same brand as his, and it is very reliable.
Good ones are expensive. If you want to get a less precise (but cheap) idea of your starter ph, you could always try the strips of close measurement paper, often used for kombucha and other fermented products. They are normally accurate incrementally to around 0.5 ph, which is still somewhat useful.
Hi from the USA! I love your experimental videos and setups! Please, please make a video or share a segment on how you set up your oven digital themometer probe. I watch all your videos beginning to end :)
Fantastic. I started making a starter three days ago following the instructions of the Wild Sourdough Project (North Carolina State University Public Science Lab). But their's takes up two weeks! So I started one today using your technique. I wonder which one will win? :) Looking forward to making your no knead sourdough bread in less than a week from now!
Well done! Such a simple and quick method! Love your enthusiasm when you see it's working 😄 Make a short how-to version of this before someone else does it = profit
My starter lives in my fridge until 2 days before I want to make my dough. Sometimes it stays in the fridge for a month if I'm out of town and it gets no feedings. I've left a starter unfed for up to 5-6 months. When I get ready to make the dough I will create a levain 3 times in 2 days. Usually, I will feed 3 to 1. I've never had an issue with the starter doubling in 5-6 hours and get an excellent rise in my bread. I don't check my ph at all and as long as I autolyze for 2-3 hours everything just works out. Our ancestors did pretty much the same thing for thousands of years.
I am a newbie to sourdough...my first attempt at starter failed. I was using organic unbleached all-purpose flour. I went and bought organic rye and organic whole wheat flours and I will try your method as my second attempt. Wish me luck! BTW I love e the total geek out moments! I'm a bit of a science nerd myself 🤓
Was thinking about adding more water to my starter, and dough (bakers percentage from 75% to 81%). Not sure I'll go as far as you have gone, and I'm going to add more water. I want more oven spring. Will see what I end up with. Thank you for sharing your experiments. It helps me experiment also.
This video matches some things I've discovered when baking bread, certain parts are mission critical, the need to be exact to get perfect results. Other parts are different like in this video, the only important thing is "Is my starter healthy/active?". It's a bunch of organisms in a jar, does it really care if you accidentally use 2ml extra or less of water? Probably not, it just needs good conditions to feed and multiply.
My 'starter' is just a constant culture I feed once a day (or few days not). From that I make my breads. The structure (of the culture) changes also from time to time which is fun÷)
I normally used small percent of instant yeast and have it fully blow up then the next day feed it and I normally get my starter that way. 2days max but this is pretty great. It’s similar to adding fruit with flour and just letting it ferment
I would've liked to have seen how long your bulk fermentation took on the bread with the new starter to compare with an established starter that has been recently fed. Is there a significant difference?
@@the_bread_code yes, true, I will need to recalculate that. I made my last one at 70%, but it was too tough so I added another 5% to make it 75%. It came out perfect.
Hi Henrik, loved the science behind your experiment! Interesting note on the brewery location and its relationship to the bakery and their starter. 😅 Here’s my story: When I was given my first starter, it was pretty tired and inactive. I fed it constantly without much to show for. I was about to toss it. One day I got tired and I gave it Oktoberfest beer 🍺 instead of water and guess what? It loved it! That’s now my favorite starter! (I have 4 in the rotation). It smells wonderful and works beautifully! I’ve had it for almost a year now. 😊. Are you going to try to make this into another experiment ? 🤩
Very interesting, thank you! However, a couple of points: pH is not a reliable measurement for acidity with such huge difference in hydration. Flour has strong buffering properties, so higher hydration -> lower buffer capacity -> lower pH, even if the concentration of acid is the same. Also, to be honest I suspect there was cross-contamination from your established starter, hard to believe it would work so quickly. E.g. did you sterilize the pH meter between the main starter and the new ones? And the other tools?
Great points, thank you! I didn't fully sterilize it, just used water for a few seconds. So yep, you might be right that that has contributed to the speed :-)
You are always pushing the envelope and I love it. I'm certainly going to try this entire recipe from starter to baking. I take that you have adjusted the hydration of the final mix so it's not to sticky?
Thank you. I'm going to try this soon. P.S. The easiest way to pronounce "months" is to drop the /th/ sound. This is how we lazy English do it most of the time (though if you ask us, we will deny it).
Thank you for sharing the experiment. I've been feeding my rye starter 1-5-6 lately because the house is cooler and I noticed that when I give a bit more water it's ready to make bread in the morning. If i feed it 1-5-5 I have to wait longer to start mixing the bread
I have had my starter going for about a year. I would put it in the fridge and refresh each week. Now I plan on just leaving it in the fridge without refreshing weekly, pull a bit as I need to make bread, feed it once and then leave the rest. When the volume of the starter is too low, i will refresh then. The loaves I have baked this way are great.
There's a lady on TH-cam (somehow old, I forgot her name) that puts so much flour just to make the starter completely dry and keep in refrigerator. 12h+ before baking she just adds water
@@SeeNyuOGthis lady is named Anja (pronounced “Anya”- she is German), and her channel is “Our Gabled Home”. Since this video and your comment, she has more videos and techniques on her channel.
Personally I wouldn't confuse a lower pH with better fermentation. It ferments faster but will peak sooner as well. A lower hydration starter will ferment slower but the structure will last longer in my opinion.
Are you able to share of us one of your recipe using the stand mixer I have Kenwood mixer and I've tried few recipe from you or others but it was big success,🙏🏼🙏🏼
Word du jour: Quintuple /KWINN tupl/ 5x I make sourdough pancakes in summer by doing the standard refresh and taking the discard to make the pancakes. Excellent way to start the morning.
Very cool video. Allein für das ph Meter solltest du nen Orden bekommen "King of Breadnerds" oder so ;) Für mich funktioniert der sehr flüssige Starter nur bedingt. My baking comes down to around 4 loaves in a week. So a very liquid starter (from the flour I used) is just mowing through the nutrients in the flour, waiting 3 days makes is almost unusable, for my taste at least. In the end, your recipe is indeed "superior". You said everything necessary for me to get a better understanding for this different approach. I will 100% try it.
I've been told and have experienced that a higher hydration starter will keep longer without contamination. The acidic "hooch" acts like a barrier. I revived a starter that was in the back of my fridge and over a year old with no contamination.
@@the_bread_code If you use it regularly it definitely won't. I've seen mold grow on the edges of a neglected, room temperature, starter jar. It takes a few weeks. If I need to leave my starter for extended periods I mix a higher hydration, transfer to clean jar and keep in fridge. I've even dried out starter on parchment for shipping to friends or for longer storage backup. Love your content!
@@SeeNyuOG You are right. However, the more hooch the better for long term storage (to a point). There is loss to evaporation as well as peaks formed in the flour due to gas that can break the surface of the liquid. That's where islands of mold can form. Again this is for long term storage and/or trying to create an extreme sour bomb to add to experiments (usually from 'discard'). I've been baking sourdough with the same starter for 30 years and have seen a lot. Contamination is rare but can definitely occur.
@@anthonye7216 My starter in the fridge of 1 year got mold, I may have neglected it for maybe...2 days tops without feeding. That's all it took for the mold to get in there lol. Annoyed. I had to bin it and start over.
OMG 😍 this is a real masterpiece!!! You're great Hendrik 💪💪 And... I've seen at 14:40... I've heard somewhere that if inside the loaf there's a huge bubble making a big tunnel near the score, it's caused by underproofing. I'll try to search the video that explains that and I'll link it as subcomment 🤔 P.s. I want your sourbucha recipe 😈
Thanks Francesco. Truly appreciated! I have to agree with David here. I think it happened while shaping, or too little steam during the bake. Still experimenting 😎. Sourbucha is coming out soon. It's fermenting next to me as I write this message hehe.
Wow thanks for this! Like you, I don't weigh my feeds anymore - I do like a 5 g seed: 25 g flour and around 25 g water for a 24 hour room temp feed each day. I do find - and would love your thoughts - that in the hot and humid summer months, I actually have to lower the hydration a little to keep a healthy starter. I wonder what the science is behind that?? :) Thanks for what you do and share - so much fun!
I know this is from a year ago. My question is if you have another more recent video about if you prefer this high hydration starter or the stiff starter? I’m having issues figuring out my stiff starter. I think I must be making it too stiff because the top dries out forming a crust that keeps the moist starter underneath from rising. I’m just beginning to learn and very much enjoy your videos.
this looks awesome, thanks again Hendrik! I will try for sure :) I can imagine you need to get a good feeling for when the sourdough is ready for baking though, as the smell will be less intense? So far I keep relying on the "wait until it doubles" rule - although you say its not 100% accurate. I assume there is no other "measurable" way of determining the readiness other than a pH-meter?
Hey Hendrik, when making beer we often add yeast nutrients- a mixture of minerals and such - to encourage yeast growth and development, have you ever used them in a bread dough or starter? It would be interesting to see if it made any difference to the speed of activation or flavour. Also if it help I think Amylase is pronounced amilāze Short I long a and Protease is pronounced prōtāze long o long a
This is very interesting! Another pure curiosity, I was wondering how the types of flours used in the Starter make differences in Gluten development, fermentation time, etc. I’ve got wheat/Spelt/Rye starter (maybe I just needed one but I wanted to do some experiments...😉) and I feel like my dough ferments better when I use different levain together.. for example, for rye+ wheat flour bread, I fed both wheat + roggen starter respectively. I felt like it worked better but I don’t know whether it really is.. do you have any ideas? :)
Although i love your PH meter to measure how far along the fermentation is, i would love to see someone measure it by how much gas is produced. Im sure you’ve seen videos/pictures of people putting a plastic/latex glove on their starter jar that then blows up as the starter ferments. It would be a very fun and camera friendly/views garnering method to have 3-5 jars with the exact same amount of starter, same amount of flour, but different levels of hydration blow up their bag/glove in a time lapse. A lid with a jar with a valve that measures gas output would be the ultimate geek tool, which would rival the lid with the camera that measures starter expansion in accuracy.
thank you thank you thank you for such great videos...if I take my starter out of the fridge and read 3.87 on the pH scale do I still need to feed it before using or can I go straight ahead to using cold from fridge?
Tolles Video. Du bist die 2 Person, die ich bei YT gesehen habe, die sich für flüssigen Sauerteig "einsetzt". Herr Andreas Sommers spricht darüber in seinen Filmem. Ich versuche seit ca einen Monat Brot zu backen (vor allem Roggen Vollkorn, eigener Sauerteig klassich - viel Futter, viel wegschmeisse, draußen gelassen, eher dickflüssig bist wie ne Paste) und nach sehr guten Anfängen erlebe ich gerade sehr schwierige Phase. Meine Brote sehen zwar gut bis sehr gut aus, sind nicht zu fest, nicht zu rocken aber den fehlt auf jeden Fall diese typische Säuregeschmack, die schmecken sehr flach, fast mehlig und nich salzig genug obwohl ich immer ordentlich Salz dazu gebe.
Might sound a little crazy, but I wonder what difference it would make if the starter were actively aerated with an aquarium air pump and air stone. Much more activity from obligate aerobes would be my guess. When we alter oxygen concentration, we should be growing different kinds of organisms. What kind of bread would it make? Might be time for another experiment!
It doesn’t sound crazy. When I make beer at home I either shake the fermenter or put a rotary drill-powered stirrer in the mixture to aerate the liquid before adding the yeast in. This puts more oxygen into the mixture, which helps the yeast do its job. Shaking the liquid sourdough starter is definitely worth a try worth a try by the same logic.
I've been watching the bread code for a couple weeks, and decided to try baking my first loaf of sourdough ever. I made a traditional starter, which took a week, and just baked my first loaf this morning. It was the best tasting bread I've ever eaten!
This is a terrific technique that I've been using for a long while... as a frugal German! Your use of the PH measurement is a superior empirical tool that I must now add to my array - it saves time! I notice that you have a sourdough "surplus" jar. I keep one in the refrigerator too. I enjoy using it for pancakes/waffles/muffins/cookies etc. -- anything that I bake. My pancake recipe? 100g of (surplus) starter; 50g of "complete" pancake mix; 50g of water; 1 egg; any of the following: raw cacao nibs (3g), dried fruits (10g) etc.; cinnamon. Makes one super-large pancake for me! Cheers.
That sounds delicious!
One thing about having it liquid: I think an important thing you should mention is that it gets much more active, also in the sense of feeding intervals. I would not make my sourdough this way since I may not bake bread often enough.
The other way round the trick to put your starter in hibernation: have a much bigger flour part than water part causes the starter to go slower and you can have it in the fridge for a much longer time without worrying about starvation to death.
100% great comment!
I agree with you! I keep my starter with more flour to top off and keep in the fridge until I am ready to bake.
You have become my favourite bread channel. I use your tips all the time and my bread game has been on point lately!
Yay! Thank you!
I made this starter and it works wonderfully, I always struggle with the traditional method. I'm not sure why, but the starters would always develop a rotten smell before maturing. I got so frustrated with the results so, I made one by including a very small pinch of bakers yeast and a few drops of lemon juice. that worked but I don't feel it is right, so I'm very glad for this recipe/method. The time to experiment isn't always there with my work hours.
Thanks a lot.
I agree with Mr Bread Code....there is a lot of sourdough information on TH-cam. I like the way this guy backs this up with some Science and testing. Vielen Dank aus Australian.
I'd love you to talk about your "sourdough surplus". Also, I've watched a ton of videos in starting to learn sourdough in the last couple months, but yours were the ones that really brought it all together for me. I totally understand the process now and feel like I can relax and enjoy it. Thank you so much!
My pleasure! I do like to make an excellent bread out of it from time to time. It's really delicious. Definitely high in my favorites :-)
This is awesome. This is the first time I used your liquid starter and I took your instructions and put the culture in a 82 F proofer. 19 hours later and I have a fully active starter that easily doubled in volume, right out of the box. Earlier I tried several sourdough recipes with sad results. The scent is slightly sour. Thanks again,
Hi 'The Bread Code'. Something I discovered: The first two sourdough starters I tried to cultivate failed miserably. I used organic whole wheat flour (REWE Bio), but after a couple of days there was still no signs of activity, but mold started to spread, so I disposed of the starter. I assume there were just too many mold spores in the organic flour, which kinda makes sense. I switched to non-organic flours and that starter worked beautifully and still lives to the day. Thank you very much for the videos. You're awesome!
Super interesting. Yep, that makes sense. If the sourdough cultures don't win, you will have mold. Now you should be able to safely switch back to the organic cultures.
It took me nearly 3 weeks before I got my starter to start working for baking when I first began sourdoughing. It would have been much quicker with your method!!!! Thanks, nice video.
For anyone who makes kefir, it has a huge amount of wild yeasts as well. I created an excellent starter by using kefir, water, and flour....
Beware those with a sensitive gut.
With kefir your bread is now dairy. A lot of people are lactose/milk intolerant, and even a bit of milk will make their system very uncomfortable. And the original idea of eating Sourdough bread, as opposed to yeasted bread is the easier it is for the body to digest it with the natural fermentation of our beloved Sourdough bread.
It might work for some though. Just not for everybody.
@@amorosa101 pretty sure kefir is used just to get it going. After a few feedings there would be no dairy.
@@om1701d exactly, plus there's water kefir as well...
I created my first starter with a little yogurt in with the water and flour and his name is Yogi
My sourdough starter lives next to my kefir jar on my counter, and they both live very happy lives. While I never used kefir directly in the starter, I can definitely smell that they share a flavor profile.
There's something beautiful about using a starter at its peak and seeing it float in water. I would not want to trade that experience for this different approach.
You have a point 🤓
The thing I love about bread making is the feeling we're mad scientists conducting our own experiments. Brewers yeast being in the air makes so much sense! There's a huge Labatt's brewery in my city and the air fills up with the smell of it on "hops day." I wonder if there's any benefit to people keeping their starter outside for a few hours who live nearby. Unfortunately I think I live too far away now. Thank you!
I remember that from the center of city of Hamburg, loved it!
Hi Hendrik,
i use both methods. My Wheat-Sourdough is 50:50, while my rye sourdough is liquidy. Both work great.
The liquidy has another benefit as far as i know: The acidic fluid (and the fusel alkohol) on top of the jar works like a protective shield against mold. Though if you leave him for a few weeks in that state, the liquid gets some really disgusting dark brown colour and the smell goes torwards acetone (like nail polish remover). Still healthy, nothing to worry about - but i guess it will make some people not use it anymore. But it can survive in the fridge for weeks if not months. Just refresh/feed it once before baking (maybe twice, to be sure) and you're good to go.
The note about the bakery and the brewery blew my mind! I'm starting a small business with this two things!! THANK YOU!
I am excited to have found you...as an engineer I wanted to understand more of the actual mechanisims behind this 'starter' and you just gave me at least two that make sense: 1. the more water the easier it is for the organisms to move about; and 2. the importance of measuring pH to understand the state of the organisms (important because they are too small to see with the naked eye). Hope to see more now from you.
Amazing bro as usual. Thanks for what you are doing spreading knowledge. My baking skills have improved a lot thanks to you!
Thank you!
(Beginning to wish I could live in Germany for the many quality tools available in Europe.) Lovely instructions. I’m trying to work up the courage to start the starter. But there isn’t much to lose if it fails! This is a SUPER HELPFUL video! Thanks! Also, your wonderful subscribers post many intelligent & thoughtful comments. This is a great place to learn.
Thank you very much!
you've become a real Master Baker!
After this experiment I feel like I know nothing 🤣
The way you score your bread make it a piece of art!
My sourdough.is in the fridge. I've been watching your videos only a couple of months, sand this is the first time I have made room for the proofing in the fridge. I put my dough sample in there too. I'm going to sleep now, dreaming of oven spring! 🤣
This is how my sourdough starter has always been. I am no bread expert, it just has seemed to work. I also like trying to master only high hydration sourdough, since it is said that high hydration doughs are best left to expert bakers. I figured I’d try to master the harder stuff first. Really enjoying your videos, by the way! Learning a ton! Thanks so much.
I feel like 50-70 hydration dough is more about the recipe, flour, and knitting; while high hydration dough really really depends on personal baking experience/experiment, thats why i love high hydration as well:)))
👏👏👏 Best Video! This answers so many questions I myself have had about sour dough starter. You should never be ashamed about getting excited about your bread. People get excited over the silliest things. Bread is a good thing to get excited about. You have mastered this bread. It took a lot of time and energy. This is honest work. I am excited for you! Kind Regards.
This was really interesting! I've actually recently started to increase my starter's hydration because of the easier stirring process and faster fermentation. I really liked it that you included a bit about the smell and I would really appreciate it if you could do a "smell"-video (starter, bulk fermentation smell changes, what are common smells at which stage...).
BTW, one small correction, lactic acid bacteria are anaerobe (= don't use/require oxygen), so whatever the stirring works positively on, it's not the exposure of the lactic acid bacteria to oxygen.. :)
I second the smell video! A great idea
Thanks for the great comment! Interesting - how comes though that for instance when making wine, that you want to have more oxygen at the start? Is that the yeast that needs the oxygen?
@@the_bread_code Yes exactly, the yeasts need oxygen to transform sugars into ethanol. It's called the crabtree effect if I'm not mistaken.
@@the_bread_code Yes, the yeast requires the oxygen, it "eats" the sugars and transforms that in energy it then uses to reproduce. As far as I know in sourdough both the yeast and the bacteria live happily in balance together up to the point where the lactic acid condentration becomes too high and the yeast doesn't like that (although science isn't too sure about this one yet I believe) or the yeast runs out of sugars (which are the result of amylase that breaks down the carbohydrates in the flour).
I checked this a bit more in depth, as far as I can find (university was a looong time ago, but I still have the books!) the following two things happen simultaneously in sourdough:
1) amylase breaks down the starch part (carbohydrates) of the flour into sugars that the yeast eats (and during which process the yeast produces carbon dioxide which is used to inflate the dough >> yeast reproduces >> more carbon dioxide, but less sugar >> yeast no longer has food and stops producing gas.
2) protease breaks down the proteins (those are more present in the outer parts of the grains that were used for the flour, stronger flour, higher protein percentage) to aminoacids or aminoacid groups (aminoacids are the lego pieces that build up a protein). Lactic acid bacteria use these aminoacids to reproduce, during which process they also produce carbon dioxide as well as lactic acid. This lactic acid helps strengthen the gluten network (couldn't find the actual chemical process through which it does that), which improves gas retention of the dough, the extra carbon dioxide is a nice plus in helping the yeast to inflate the dough.
Whats also interesting is that low protein flour has more sugar than high protein flour (my 10% protein flour has 74 %, my 15% flour has 70%), which is to be expected. However if only the yeast activity was important, then low protein flour would mean you can get a better inflated dough. In reality a strong flour (with less sugars) rises a lot better, which shows how important the gluten network is.
I hope youtube won't block links, for some further reading:
hxxps://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfq/2017/7825203/
Okay, this is a cool hack. Thanks for the great tip.
I had some ongoing starter issues several months back. The bacteria seemed to get an edge on my yeast and I kept getting watery starter that smelled way too vingary. This also resulted in unspectacular breads and eventually failed bread. I am not sure what the problem was, but I would say it is much easier to simply create a brand new starter than to muck around for over a week with the old starter trying to revive it. This high hydration method appears to shave days off the schedule.
Wonderful explanation! I accidentally did this too and truth to be told, I LOVE THE RESULT compare to regular starter! Months ago, I pressed the flash freeze button (I need cooler temp for freezer) and little did I know, it also boost the chill and air flow inside regular fridge drawer. I have few jars of starter as backup. As usual, I put them at the back of fridge. All of them started to have ice crystal on surface and became very very dry. Some even turned into popsicle LOL Refresh with 1:1:1 ratio did not help and ended up with thick paste of starter so I started to introduce more water. Honestly, I just eye ball the water, stirring it longer than usual (stir and stir and stir annndd stir...) and adding more water until I get somewhat slurry consistency. Used it for baking bread and turn out great. Repeat again for couple of weeks, and always get similar result. Never again I go back to old way of 1:1:1. I always wonder what happened and today I know why, thanks to your video. Awesome!
This video is completely over the top for me! I will try it immediately. And I thought feeding my starter every day was a good way. Off to get a PH meter though, need a way to check what I'm doing. You're epic Hendrik, thanks for showing us your out of the box experiments.
Thank you! Also great username. DB fan here myself 🤓. The problem with the pH meter is that it is very pricey.
@@the_bread_code I just imagined Super Saiyan Level 2 Sourdough 🤓. But back on the pH meter, is there a way to measure if the bread if proofed-ready-for-bake based on pH value?
Fascinating thank-you. I'm about to make my first sough dough bread. To think I have ordered a starter from Amazon when I could have just watched your video....... The one I did watch, said it would take 7 days !!!
This video came at the perfect time! I was just about to feed my starter!
My pleasure! Just be careful with the hydration of your main dough. It shouldn't be too wet!
@@the_bread_code Yes, I usually get it to be about 80% hydration. My flour has 13% protein.
@@the_bread_code I'm guessing that you mean we should make sure to re-calculate the water content of our dough recipe when changing to a starter that's 2 parts water, 1 part flour?
Great video Hendrik. I have read a lot of nerdy bread books, eg Modernist Bread, but I am a visual/auditory learner and I really get a lot out of your explanations. Well done for trying something new! My new favorite channel.
My pleasure! Still need to read modernist bread. I wonder how good it is. Can you recommend it?
Very informative video. I am one of those non-Teutonic individuals who has been making sourdough starters for decades. I don't especially like sourdough bread but have friends who love the stuff, so I bake for them. Why am I "non-Teutonic"? It's because I lack a passion for precision, at least in this aspect of life. I've made good starters from all sorts of flours, including all-purpose white and nothing but chlorinated/fluoridated tap water. I measure nothing, stir less vigorously than you (lactobacillus species are facultative anaerobes) and seek a consistency like pancake batter; but, sometimes thicker or thinner. It ALL works. But some techniques, temps, etc. seem faster than others. In a cold refrigerator, starter can remain salvageable without feeding for many months. Your initial point is validated for me in practice by my observation that the least sour-tasting loaves are usually the ones that produced the most dramatic rises before baking and the best oven springs during baking. I do have a food scale and now I might start using it...might.
Amazing! Earlier you explode the sourdough starter 1:1 feeding myth. Here you explode the multiple feeding myth. Pioneers like you, Joy Ride Coffee (banetton not needed, etc.), Ben Starr (Perfect sourdough from 5-month-starved starter, etc.) and others, are demystifying sourdough baking, making it way more accessible while raising the standards of home baked sourdough.
My pleasure! I always love challenging things that are taken for granted :-). The other channels are amazing as well, I am a loyal subscriber.
You should read a few chapters of the "Handbuch Sauerteig". That book is praised as key literature. Authors are from big baking companies. You know where I'm going with this:
Spontaneous sourdoughs are evil, unpredictable and should never be used (commercially) because they're not fully analysed and stuff like that.
What a huge pile of BS that is. So I can fully support your statements. TH-cam bakers and all those wonderful blogs are heavensent for us home bakers!!!
To chime in here: perfect sourdough from a 5-month starter is just literally him recreating a starter....lol
@@MichaelREFLECTS that’s what I was thinking. He wouldn’t even have to use the old starter with that fermentation
Going to give this a try for sure.
Good luck!
I just found your channel and I am so happy I did.. I have tried many recipes to make sour dough starter but not one gave me a loaf of bread.... I am going to try your way as it makes more sense... Thank you for sharing a great video to us newbie...
i I watched this video... I have had no
Heute back‘ ich, morgen brau‘ ich. Can’t wait for the beer code!
Always thoroughly enjoy your experiments and detailed explanations. Takes all the guesswork out of it, and answers all my questions.
Here's another question though:
I've been cutting a chunk off my dough before shaping and using that as the starter. Ultimate stiff starter. Works well for bread. Should I feed it inbetween making breads?
Got to get myself a ph meter, id love to get down to that level and start striving for some consistency. Great video as always
He is using a solid food pH meter. They pretty spendy, though I'd love to have one as well. I have a liquid pH meter from the same brand as his, and it is very reliable.
@@Nathaniel_Peterson ill check out their range of meters then, thanks very much
Good ones are expensive. If you want to get a less precise (but cheap) idea of your starter ph, you could always try the strips of close measurement paper, often used for kombucha and other fermented products. They are normally accurate incrementally to around 0.5 ph, which is still somewhat useful.
@@markparker5585 ill definitely check those out too before i take the plunge for a meter. Thanks very much
Yep. The only downside of this approach that it is so pricey 😥
Hi from the USA! I love your experimental videos and setups! Please, please make a video or share a segment on how you set up your oven digital themometer probe. I watch all your videos beginning to end :)
Thank you 🙏🏻 th-cam.com/video/NrKHO2xZTEU/w-d-xo.html towards the end 👍
100 points for the pronunciation and 150 points for a great video full of humor. Gryffindor wins!
Nice experiment! This shows how amazing Microbiology is :) keep on experimenting!
Fantastic. I started making a starter three days ago following the instructions of the Wild Sourdough Project (North Carolina State University Public Science Lab). But their's takes up two weeks! So I started one today using your technique. I wonder which one will win? :) Looking forward to making your no knead sourdough bread in less than a week from now!
I would probably mix both methods. At day 3 or so I would give my starter another feeding. But I recommend to keep the hydration high :-)
Love your work & your charm. ☺Thank you...I will be making my own starter.
Well done! Such a simple and quick method! Love your enthusiasm when you see it's working 😄 Make a short how-to version of this before someone else does it = profit
On it 🤓. Not sure though if you can use this method though to bake bread like you do, where every parameter has to be on point.
My starter lives in my fridge until 2 days before I want to make my dough. Sometimes it stays in the fridge for a month if I'm out of town and it gets no feedings. I've left a starter unfed for up to 5-6 months. When I get ready to make the dough I will create a levain 3 times in 2 days. Usually, I will feed 3 to 1. I've never had an issue with the starter doubling in 5-6 hours and get an excellent rise in my bread. I don't check my ph at all and as long as I autolyze for 2-3 hours everything just works out. Our ancestors did pretty much the same thing for thousands of years.
Yep, fully agreed! It's a great way to approach it too.
Ok. I will give it a try tomorrow. Thx.
My pleasure!
I am a newbie to sourdough...my first attempt at starter failed. I was using organic unbleached all-purpose flour. I went and bought organic rye and organic whole wheat flours and I will try your method as my second attempt. Wish me luck! BTW I love e the total geek out moments! I'm a bit of a science nerd myself 🤓
Was thinking about adding more water to my starter, and dough (bakers percentage from 75% to 81%). Not sure I'll go as far as you have gone, and I'm going to add more water. I want more oven spring. Will see what I end up with. Thank you for sharing your experiments. It helps me experiment also.
My pleasure!
Excellent video! Busted the myth!! A must try!!
Thanks
@@the_bread_code I didn’t waste time, already started it! Thank you!
for sure i will try it!!!!!! thanks for sharing
Please do!
This video matches some things I've discovered when baking bread, certain parts are mission critical, the need to be exact to get perfect results. Other parts are different like in this video, the only important thing is "Is my starter healthy/active?". It's a bunch of organisms in a jar, does it really care if you accidentally use 2ml extra or less of water? Probably not, it just needs good conditions to feed and multiply.
U are genius! Keep up yr gd work n share with us. Thank you
My 'starter' is just a constant culture I feed once a day (or few days not). From that I make my breads. The structure (of the culture) changes also from time to time which is fun÷)
Agreed, it's a great pet!
Great video and approach. Thank you and nice job on your production style. subbed
Thanks for sharing 🎉🎉🎉
I just start to make sourdough
Love your vedio❤❤❤❤
I normally used small percent of instant yeast and have it fully blow up then the next day feed it and I normally get my starter that way. 2days max but this is pretty great. It’s similar to adding fruit with flour and just letting it ferment
I would've liked to have seen how long your bulk fermentation took on the bread with the new starter to compare with an established starter that has been recently fed. Is there a significant difference?
I would like to know as well
Yes. It definitely was waaaay slower. I'd say 15 hours overall. I used the pH meter to check when it was done. It's such a great tool 🤣
@@the_bread_code Now I'm curious. How do you use a pH-meter to determine when bulk fermentation is done?
Dear Hendrik, thank you for experimenting! I will definitely add more water into my starter as I always find it too dry with the 1:1 ratio. Chüß :)
Wonderful! You just need to be careful with the main recipe, to not add too much water.
@@the_bread_code yes, true, I will need to recalculate that. I made my last one at 70%, but it was too tough so I added another 5% to make it 75%. It came out perfect.
Excellent video !
I never discard starter, it's good to see people doing this. There is no need to feed everyday even every week
Hi Henrik, loved the science behind your experiment! Interesting note on the brewery location and its relationship to the bakery and their starter. 😅
Here’s my story: When I was given my first starter, it was pretty tired and inactive. I fed it constantly without much to show for. I was about to toss it. One day I got tired and I gave it Oktoberfest beer 🍺 instead of water and guess what? It loved it! That’s now my favorite starter! (I have 4 in the rotation). It smells wonderful and works beautifully! I’ve had it for almost a year now. 😊.
Are you going to try to make this into another experiment ? 🤩
Wow! So it had to be really real beer?
@@helenjohnson7583 i don’t know, but it sure worked! 😊
Never tried sourdough as I live in the tropics and am afraid of mould contamination. Might try this though, looks so simple! Thanks!
The moment you have your starter you should no longer have any mould :-)
I live in the tropics too.
And I've successfully made 3 starters back in 2019.
Very interesting, thank you!
However, a couple of points: pH is not a reliable measurement for acidity with such huge difference in hydration. Flour has strong buffering properties, so higher hydration -> lower buffer capacity -> lower pH, even if the concentration of acid is the same.
Also, to be honest I suspect there was cross-contamination from your established starter, hard to believe it would work so quickly. E.g. did you sterilize the pH meter between the main starter and the new ones? And the other tools?
Great points, thank you! I didn't fully sterilize it, just used water for a few seconds. So yep, you might be right that that has contributed to the speed :-)
You are always pushing the envelope and I love it. I'm certainly going to try this entire recipe from starter to baking. I take that you have adjusted the hydration of the final mix so it's not to sticky?
Great comment. Yep, that is correct. So I do use less hydration for the main dough. That way the extra hydration is not causing a headache.
@@the_bread_code well I tried it and I had great success
Awesome Information here!!! Love this and will try it !!!
Thank you. I'm going to try this soon.
P.S. The easiest way to pronounce "months" is to drop the /th/ sound. This is how we lazy English do it most of the time (though if you ask us, we will deny it).
I do pronounce the ‘th’ in months but you are right that omitting the th sound can work too (six munts)
Thank you for sharing the experiment.
I've been feeding my rye starter 1-5-6 lately because the house is cooler and I noticed that when I give a bit more water it's ready to make bread in the morning. If i feed it 1-5-5 I have to wait longer to start mixing the bread
please explain 1-5-6 vs 1-5-5. Thank you
I have had my starter going for about a year. I would put it in the fridge and refresh each week. Now I plan on just leaving it in the fridge without refreshing weekly, pull a bit as I need to make bread, feed it once and then leave the rest. When the volume of the starter is too low, i will refresh then. The loaves I have baked this way are great.
There's a lady on TH-cam (somehow old, I forgot her name) that puts so much flour just to make the starter completely dry and keep in refrigerator. 12h+ before baking she just adds water
@@SeeNyuOGthis lady is named Anja (pronounced “Anya”- she is German), and her channel is “Our Gabled Home”. Since this video and your comment, she has more videos and techniques on her channel.
Valuable information. Thank you!! 🎉
Personally I wouldn't confuse a lower pH with better fermentation. It ferments faster but will peak sooner as well. A lower hydration starter will ferment slower but the structure will last longer in my opinion.
I've always just "faked" my starter. So glad that you made my "technique" look more scientific
HAHAHA LOL.
What does fake mean in this case?
@@the_bread_code seriously what is fake Sourdough starter?
@@agave20091 Oh I think that this technique is so simple. It just doesn't seem professional, so a little bit of "fake" 🤣
Can’t wait to try this. I’ll let you know what happens.
Please keep me posted!
Are you able to share of us one of your recipe using the stand mixer I have Kenwood mixer and I've tried few recipe from you or others but it was big success,🙏🏼🙏🏼
Will do! I'll soon release a recipe :-)
@@the_bread_code thank you very much
What was your kitchen temperature during these experiments? I understand the temperature is a major factor in how quickly your starter matures.
Around 22°C
Word du jour: Quintuple /KWINN tupl/ 5x
I make sourdough pancakes in summer by doing the standard refresh and taking the discard to make the pancakes. Excellent way to start the morning.
*surplus
Thanks. Quintuple. What about sixtuple? And agreed with void, surplus is the best name 🤣
Hi, i love your tutorials! Could you make a tutorial about how to use and maintaine a ph meter?
Yes! Coming out very soon!
Very cool video. Allein für das ph Meter solltest du nen Orden bekommen "King of Breadnerds" oder so ;)
Für mich funktioniert der sehr flüssige Starter nur bedingt.
My baking comes down to around 4 loaves in a week. So a very liquid starter (from the flour I used) is just mowing through the nutrients in the flour, waiting 3 days makes is almost unusable, for my taste at least.
In the end, your recipe is indeed "superior". You said everything necessary for me to get a better understanding for this different approach. I will 100% try it.
Haha, thank you. King of breadnerds is good 🤣
I will try it !!!
Very good my dear friend 👍❤️🔝👏
Thank you!
4:30 Thanks for adding this interesting historical information :) I really appreciate that
I've been told and have experienced that a higher hydration starter will keep longer without contamination. The acidic "hooch" acts like a barrier. I revived a starter that was in the back of my fridge and over a year old with no contamination.
Interesting point. I personally never had a starter go bad on me.
@@the_bread_code If you use it regularly it definitely won't. I've seen mold grow on the edges of a neglected, room temperature, starter jar. It takes a few weeks. If I need to leave my starter for extended periods I mix a higher hydration, transfer to clean jar and keep in fridge. I've even dried out starter on parchment for shipping to friends or for longer storage backup. Love your content!
It doesn't have to be more liquid to have hooch
@@SeeNyuOG You are right. However, the more hooch the better for long term storage (to a point). There is loss to evaporation as well as peaks formed in the flour due to gas that can break the surface of the liquid. That's where islands of mold can form. Again this is for long term storage and/or trying to create an extreme sour bomb to add to experiments (usually from 'discard'). I've been baking sourdough with the same starter for 30 years and have seen a lot. Contamination is rare but can definitely occur.
@@anthonye7216 My starter in the fridge of 1 year got mold, I may have neglected it for maybe...2 days tops without feeding. That's all it took for the mold to get in there lol. Annoyed. I had to bin it and start over.
This is so much easier! I will try it😅
OMG 😍 this is a real masterpiece!!! You're great Hendrik 💪💪
And... I've seen at 14:40... I've heard somewhere that if inside the loaf there's a huge bubble making a big tunnel near the score, it's caused by underproofing. I'll try to search the video that explains that and I'll link it as subcomment 🤔
P.s. I want your sourbucha recipe 😈
His big bubble looks like it was made when shaping. The rest of the crumb looks nice and irregular
Thanks Francesco. Truly appreciated! I have to agree with David here. I think it happened while shaping, or too little steam during the bake. Still experimenting 😎. Sourbucha is coming out soon. It's fermenting next to me as I write this message hehe.
Wow thanks for this! Like you, I don't weigh my feeds anymore - I do like a 5 g seed: 25 g flour and around 25 g water for a 24 hour room temp feed each day. I do find - and would love your thoughts - that in the hot and humid summer months, I actually have to lower the hydration a little to keep a healthy starter. I wonder what the science is behind that?? :) Thanks for what you do and share - so much fun!
Hi great video and informative. Can you convert an existing sourdough starter to the 2:1 ratio?
Yes!
I know this is from a year ago. My question is if you have another more recent video about if you prefer this high hydration starter or the stiff starter? I’m having issues figuring out my stiff starter. I think I must be making it too stiff because the top dries out forming a crust that keeps the moist starter underneath from rising. I’m just beginning to learn and very much enjoy your videos.
I'm trying this technique! 👍
You are a genius 🤩👍👍👍
Very interesting.
this looks awesome, thanks again Hendrik! I will try for sure :) I can imagine you need to get a good feeling for when the sourdough is ready for baking though, as the smell will be less intense? So far I keep relying on the "wait until it doubles" rule - although you say its not 100% accurate. I assume there is no other "measurable" way of determining the readiness other than a pH-meter?
Yep. Unfortunately that is the case :-(. The pH meter is so expensive...
@@the_bread_code now I only need to convince my wife that I can buy one 🤣
Hey Hendrik, when making beer we often add yeast nutrients- a mixture of minerals and such - to encourage yeast growth and development, have you ever used them in a bread dough or starter? It would be interesting to see if it made any difference to the speed of activation or flavour. Also if it help I think Amylase is pronounced amilāze Short I long a and Protease is pronounced prōtāze long o long a
Great comment. Definitely an interesting experiment to conduct. I took a note!
This is very interesting! Another pure curiosity, I was wondering how the types of flours used in the Starter make differences in Gluten development, fermentation time, etc. I’ve got wheat/Spelt/Rye starter (maybe I just needed one but I wanted to do some experiments...😉) and I feel like my dough ferments better when I use different levain together.. for example, for rye+ wheat flour bread, I fed both wheat + roggen starter respectively. I felt like it worked better but I don’t know whether it really is.. do you have any ideas? :)
It should be the same. At least I don't see why it could be faster with a blend :-)
Although i love your PH meter to measure how far along the fermentation is, i would love to see someone measure it by how much gas is produced.
Im sure you’ve seen videos/pictures of people putting a plastic/latex glove on their starter jar that then blows up as the starter ferments.
It would be a very fun and camera friendly/views garnering method to have 3-5 jars with the exact same amount of starter, same amount of flour, but different levels of hydration blow up their bag/glove in a time lapse.
A lid with a jar with a valve that measures gas output would be the ultimate geek tool, which would rival the lid with the camera that measures starter expansion in accuracy.
😂 great idea. I agree 🙏🏻
thank you thank you thank you for such great videos...if I take my starter out of the fridge and read 3.87 on the pH scale do I still need to feed it before using or can I go straight ahead to using cold from fridge?
I cannot ❤ this enough.
Tolles Video. Du bist die 2 Person, die ich bei YT gesehen habe, die sich für flüssigen Sauerteig "einsetzt". Herr Andreas Sommers spricht darüber in seinen Filmem. Ich versuche seit ca einen Monat Brot zu backen (vor allem Roggen Vollkorn, eigener Sauerteig klassich - viel Futter, viel wegschmeisse, draußen gelassen, eher dickflüssig bist wie ne Paste) und nach sehr guten Anfängen erlebe ich gerade sehr schwierige Phase. Meine Brote sehen zwar gut bis sehr gut aus, sind nicht zu fest, nicht zu rocken aber den fehlt auf jeden Fall diese typische Säuregeschmack, die schmecken sehr flach, fast mehlig und nich salzig genug obwohl ich immer ordentlich Salz dazu gebe.
this is CRAZY interesting! but wait a minute. how is the baking schedule using this liquid starter!?
This is so smart!!!
If you want to create an environment for the yeast and bacteria to multiply, turn the lights down low and put on some romantic music. 😉
👍😊
Great idea for an experiment 🤣
Barry White.
Oh yeah baby....
Myth busters did this with plants.
Might sound a little crazy, but I wonder what difference it would make if the starter were actively aerated with an aquarium air pump and air stone. Much more activity from obligate aerobes would be my guess. When we alter oxygen concentration, we should be growing different kinds of organisms. What kind of bread would it make? Might be time for another experiment!
It doesn’t sound crazy. When I make beer at home I either shake the fermenter or put a rotary drill-powered stirrer in the mixture to aerate the liquid before adding the yeast in. This puts more oxygen into the mixture, which helps the yeast do its job. Shaking the liquid sourdough starter is definitely worth a try worth a try by the same logic.
Great idea for an experiment!
Thanks for the video, it was very informative. Where do you get those jars from?