Proposed Experiment - % of BF Rise
Albacore, aka Lance came up with an experiment (A Tale of two Bulk Times [1]) to determine the affects of the percentage of rise during bulk fermentation. His quest is a subject of interest to many bakers, IMO.
What is the very best percentage of bulk fermentation rise for a straight sourdough?
It seems plausible that various doughs of different make up could require different amounts of rise. But initially, it might be best to focus on a straight forward starter, water, flour bread in order to narrow the focus.
Lance’s experiment sparked my thoughts. I got with Lance and asked permission to start a new post on the Sourdough and Starter forum. He is all in...
In all experiments, the ultimate goal is to produce definitive results. Often one experiment leads to another, and an another... I have an idea, based upon his initial quest that should remove some variables. What if a single dough was mixed and then divided into 3 peices of equal weight. Each peice would then be placed in 1 of 3 identical containers. Something Like THESE. [2] Each container would be precisely marked (using the water weight displacement method I wrote about) with 3 individual percentage of rise marks. For example; 30, 50, and 80% and BF in the same place, either ambient or in a proofer. Once the doughs reached their target rise they could either be baked individually, or retarded in order to bake one after the other. I hate to waste the electricity (electric oven), but baking as they reach their target rise would produce more definitive results. For a number of reasons, retarding would shift the perameters and could/would skew to results.
I hope that someone else will take on this experiment or something similar. I am busy remodeling and don’t have as much free time right now.
Please reply with any suggestions for a better or less expensive set of 3 containers. Ideally, the container should be clear, a little narrow with straight sides, and hold around 500g of dough with enough room to easily double. We may have to reduce the dough size to meet the criteria.
Let’s put our heads together to develop an accurate experiment that will determine the affects of verying degrees of BF rise.
Dan
The results of my test may be seen HERE. [3]