The Fresh Loaf

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Does the sourdough starter have to be sour in order to be active?

Thaichef's picture
Thaichef

Does the sourdough starter have to be sour in order to be active?

Good Evening my fellow baker:

I dried my active sourdough starter and save it in a food save bottle before my trip. Now after about one month and two weeks away , I am trying to reactivated it.

I am now on the 2nd day of feeding(with mixture of rye and whole wheat flour, and at 100% hydration) my starter seemed to bubble nicely but when I tasted it, it is not sour! My first liquid I used in feeding it was fresh pineapple juice but now after the 3rd feeding in two days, I used water. 

Is my starter ready to be use or do I need to wait until it  is sour?

When do I know that my starter is ready if it is not sour but bubbles very nicely? Please help.

Thank you.

Thai chef.

 

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Comments

Edo Bread's picture
Edo Bread

One of the reasons I don't like the term sourdough is just this. You can have a very active starter that does a great job that is not sour at all (I do). The factors that produce the sourness and not directly related to the leavening power of your starter.

chefcdp's picture
chefcdp

To the first question, if the starter bubbles up  soon after being refreshed, it is probably ready to use.  The only way to know for sure is to try it in a small batch of dough.

Outside of the rye world and specialty items such as pancakes it is best to begin your recipe with fresh, active, non sour starter.  You can achieve sour taste with subsequent procedures.  Personally, I even begin my rye sour with a spoon of fresh wheat start because I only keep one starter going..

Even if you wish to for some unknown reason to have a sour levain, it is best to start with a fresh,non sour starter, otherwise it is extremely difficult to achieve any consistency.

Charles

 

 

Thaichef's picture
Thaichef

Good Morning:

   I took a deep breath after reading both of your comments above!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will  be using my starter to start my bread baking again. Just in time for the Fall and the Holidays.

  My baker friends never fail to amazed me with their kindness!!!

Thai Chef

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Hi Thai chef

i have found that sourness in a starter can be induced by often mistreating the starter , that is lettting it go longer periods without being fed  ie instead of being fed on demand like you would a healthy baby that is allowed to go beyond its peak maturity and drop a time or two, this can sometimes happen by accident when you have forgotten to feed the starter sitting on the bench a couple of times. i have ended up with a bread with quite a tang to it, I dont mind it and some of my tasters quite like it but others definately do not and usually children dont.This probably comes from the starter becoming more acidic. 

i remember when we first arrived in Malta and i was a child wedidn't like the local bread asit had quite a tang to it, As a much older adult i was seeking this type of bread out on a recent visit.

Good luck with your reconstituted starter, I'm a bit with Edo and think that sourdough  is a bit of a misnomer

Kind regards Derek