February 1, 2007 - 1:01pm
Starter Temperature. Need help Please.
I have been working with the SDL starter and am now in day 8. There are a few bubbles and the smell is good but is not as active as the picture of SDL's starter at day 7. I tested the temperature of the starter and it was at 65.6 F. is that too cold? I did the feeding and moved it to the livingroom near the TV. I was planning to make a sourdough this weekend but am unsure if it will be ready. I have increased the feed to +1/3 +1/3 +1/3 at this point hoping to get up to the 1 1/4 cup starter required for the recipe. Any thoughts. I will return in about 2 hours to review any suggestions. Thanks.
Rick
Share
hi Rick
Eighty degrees is ideal for most starters, when preparing to make bread.
Mine hardly ever gets much warmer than sixty, any more. It's slow and not so sour, doesn't foam up real big, but add a few extra hours, we get a loaf.
Go ahead and try a loaf, or warm up the starter a bit. You do feed it don't you? I know that sounds like a silly question, but a freind of mine had one sitting in the cabnet all week, just being ignored, and wondered why it looked dead. It was revived though, now it gets ignored in the fridge. He never makes bread any way.
jeffrey
Rick, you could try putting it in your oven (turned off!) with the oven light on. The warmth of the light bulb will keep it cozy. Just don't forget and turn the oven on. When I have done this I tape a note over the oven control knob so if someone other than me happens to decide to use the oven they are aware that they need to remove it. Stir it several times a day. You are almost there, and I'm sure the cool weather is what's slowing things down.
It Might be worth feeding your starter more. Feed one part starter and two to four parts flour and two parts water depending on if you feed by volume or weight. After eight days I would expect more happening than this. There would have to have been nothing in the flour at the start for it to take this long. Feed twice a day as soon as you see more activity. The graph shows the time it takes for a given organism to double in number. If you compare 65 F with the optimum there isn't a huge difference at this scale but it is 1.2 hours at 86 F compared to 3.8 at 65 F. So, if it is easy to increase the temp it might be worth considering. Jim
This is what it looks like this morning after 8 days. The temerature it was sitting at was 70.5 F.
To do it right, do it yourself.
Hi Rick2u,
you're link is broken unfortunately.
Jim
Well I will try again. Hoping it will work. This is after 8 days.
To do it right, do it yourself.
They are really simple to use and give you the link. All you have to do is to disable rich-text below and insert the link somewhere, I usually put it in the middle of text or betweeng "</div> these like this <div>" I think it stands for divide where you have hit return. There's nothing to download and nothing to pay, no hassling you to sign up for this or that. They're really good.
Jim