December 13, 2013 - 3:12pm
starter develops skin while rising
my starter has developed a skin when I feed while I'm waiting for it to rise.
Normally it does a rather nice double in about 6 hours.
Though it is rising, it'a no quite double, and I suspect it' somewhat impeded by the skin.
Should I add more water to the feed?
House is at 60f most of the day.
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maybe a dumb question, but do you cover your starter?
where do you live? it's winter time in my part of the world, so things are considerably more dry (including my own skin! :) ), that could be contributing.
I've never had a covered starter develop a skin, AFAIK
nope, never have before, but maybe now ……………..
winter here too
Yeah, you need to put plastic wrap over anything that is rising. The air currents in the room will form a skin over the dough and inhibit rising.
How do you keep it while it's rising? If in the open (open lid jar or something) and your heating is on then I can imagine a skin developing as ambient humidity will be very low. I keep mine in a largish jar with a loosely fitted top so the carbon dioxide can escape, never experienced problems ( in summer it's about 40 centigrade in my New Delhi kitchen with air humidity dropping to about 15%).
tight wrap or loose?
I'll do that next time.
It's a 40oz jar 5" opening.
but don't let it trick you into thinking that fermentation is significantly different with it and without it.
don't care if it happens, but it does seem to physically limit the rise of the starter, which I like to see for confidence.
silly me.
to store and feed my starter. When I feed my starter I leave the lid balanced loosely on top. The starter has room to rise and fall and doesn't dry out. I place this in a pie or cake tin just in case it overflows. My starter doesn't form a skin, and can freely bubble as much as it needs to. When I store the starter in the fridge, the lid snaps tightly in place, but will pop open if it needs to.
Whenever I stay in a hotel that supplies disposable shower caps, I take them home - my hair can get wet, but my doughs should not get dry.
For up to 400 g of starter a large yogurt container is a good option, too.
Karin
My starter also formed skin on top of them while rising, I am in tropical area now is the raining season, i keep them near the refrigerator and a freezer which is practically warmer then any other room in my house. Oh and I always put on a lid
I wonder if the skin should be removed when feeding or just stir it up? My starter significantly low at rising when they're had skin on top