April 14, 2018 - 8:06am
Sourdough Culture Question
I am starting a new sourdough culture, and I expect I will be picking brains. My grandmother had a sourdough culture that she kept alive for nearly 3 ZILLION years. "NO ONE" was allowed to touch it. When she passed, a brain dead family member tossed it. I am now back to square one. Into my second week. Lots of hooch, but the culture remains watery. Should I cut back on water & just add flour for a few days? It's just not spongy as I expected it to become. I'm using two 1/2 gallon mason jars. Every morning, a layer of alcohol; so I know it's alive & well. Any input. Thanks. Jim
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I did a small loaf with the watery culture, and it turned out just OK. I noticed the dough surface became a bit dry while it was rising. A few hours rising. Can this be prevented? A little oil spray on the dough?
on your intro post.
As to your dough, did you cover it? I always keep my dough covered by either a lid when bulk fermentating or a plastic bowl cover (similar to a shower cap) when doing the final proof.
I covered it with some flour sack fabric - Egyptian cotton. In the oven with just the oven light for heat.
The flour cloth is not enough to prevent evaporation in a warm environment.
I'm also trying to figure out how to make the culture spongy. Just seems too watery.
My grandmother baked a lot ( every Thursday ). Many loaves of bread. I don't remember how she fed the culture; but I do remember her, more or less, saying, don't kill it with kindness. She never hovered over it; just the necessary feedings. I remember the linen cloths she covered the loaves with. Just a great time to be growing up in America. Sad my grandchildren will never get to see the America I was privileged to grow up in.
Everyone ( usually ) has a grandmother who can cook - bake. My grandmother was a chef at a big resort from about 1900 to 1915 or 1916. Back when food taste like food , and the word calorie was unknown. It was a joy being in her kitchen. She was Dutch , and nuts about cleanliness around food. If you went into her kitchen when she was cooking - baking, and you didn't put on a hairnet, you got a gentle crack in the back of your head. I miss those days so much. She had a genuine working kitchen. I remember the table with the steel porcelain top. It lifted & slid down behind. Underneath was a 3 foot X 3 foot marble top for working dough. Something else that disappeared when she passed away. The best thing was the coal stove. A giant Kalamazoo coal stove. You never ever had toast unless you toasted the bread over coal.
Sorry, I'm getting on a roll. How do I make the sourdough culture spongy. That's my question. It's just too too watery.
Try feeding it 1 part starter to 4 part water and 5 parts flour by weight. So for 10 grams of your starter, add 40 grams of water and 50 g of flour. Let rise until double (mine triples but your may not). Mine was plenty spongy when I used it just a few minutes ago.
I'll give it a shot. I know ( lots of hooch ) it's percolating. Just no serious texture. I may give it a feed & let it rest in the fridge. Maybe one jar in & one jar on the counter.
Always plenty of gas bubbles on top of the hooch; but nothing to speak of when I look through the side of the mason jar.
I guess it depends what you mean by 'spongy'. If the starter is equal parts (by weight) of water and flour (in other words, 100% hydration) then it should be full of bubbles, light and, well, spongy when it is ripe. It should also double or triple in volume. Even if it is 125% hydration it should be pouffy when ripe. If it's watery then I suspect it's either not ripe yet, or it is over ripe and the gluten has degraded. How does it smell? You may not be feeding it enough (either too much time between feedings, too high a temperature or not enough flour). Try putting a spoonful of it into a clear straight-sided container (ideally with markings on the side), then add about 50 grams each of flour and water. Stir and watch to see how much it rises. Look for bubbles on the top, bottom and sides. After it has stopped rising (but has not collapsed yet) take about 20 grams of this, and add 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. Watch it again and see how long it takes to rise. If you let it sit for a few days it will indeed collapse, turn runny and accumulate liquid on the top. And it will smell like vinegar or nail polish remover. That means it's starving!
My grandma taught me how to bake bread in her old sawdust and coal burning cast iron stove. :)
Jim, your stories and memories are wonderful, and very welcome here. I suspect your grandchildren will, indeed, know good food and appreciate their heritage, because it will be YOU who becomes the storyteller and will provide them with fond memories.
All the best on your SD journey! It takes each of us on our own path, but one that regularly crosses with others.
Cathy
is you're not feeding it enough. i'm not very experienced, but my first starter smelled vinegary and developed hooch only when i didn't feed it enough. are you using filtered or mountain spring water?
btw, my most successful starter to date i keep a damp doubled over dishtowel on top of.
I don't know how much baking you intend to do but that is a LOT of culture to maintain. Why not start a lot smaller to develop and active culture (I'm talking tablespoons) and then build up an amount you need for baking? Much less effort and waste.
Your grandmother was lucky to have learnt baking before the Internet came into existence.
Nowadays there is so much rubbish and mythology on the Internet that it's hard to separate fact from fiction.
I adhere to the techniques which were documented by Kline and Sugihara of the USDA back in the '60s.
My cousins' grandmother was a master baker. They picked up a little from her but I never knew her, unfortunately.
My own Italian grandmother handed down her recipe for spaghetti sauce which I consider a family treasure.