Newbie help
Ok, I’m a newbie here, so a little back ground is in order. I’ve tried to get a sourdough starter going three or four times in the past. With less then good results, I used dehydrated starters and they appeared to be going good but when I tried to make bread things fell apart. Ok that’s in the past and truly I couldn’t tell you what steps I took back then.
So I’m trying again, I started last friday using the flour (whole wheat organic) and pineapple juice method to start my own starter. On day five nothing had been happening so instead of dumping all but 1/4 cup of the starter I just added another 1/4 of water and flour thinking it might help to keep all the yeast I might have already captured. It seems to have worked because the next morning it had really started to bubble and grew at least an inch or two (I marked the level on the out side of the jar). So that morning I dumped all but 1/4 cup of starter and added flour and water again, good results, no foam on top, but lots of bubbles and film on the inside, looks like maybe it rose and fell some.
The smell is good, no off smell, no accumulation of hooch, but the foam on top I’ve read about is missing, will that foam appear over night then be gone before I check it in the morning? What is the next step, does it sound like my starter is active or should I keep feeding it every day for a little longer before I try making bread. I noticed the bubbles are coming on faster now, this morning, the seventh day, it started bubbling within a couple hours of feeding, and rose a 1/2 inch in the same time frame.
if the starter is too thick, it will not develop the foam.. it needs to be a bit liquidy..
Not sure, it’s 100% hydration, isn’t it? I have been putting the same amount of water as flour by volume. Kind of a think pancake batter consistency.
Now, I'm not sure.. it should be half and half by volume.. maybe you need to wait a bit longer. the culture is made with more then one bug.. just a shot in the dark, let it work a few more days.. maybe it will eventually get there..
Although using the pineapple starter formula by Debra Wink, you don't have to be terribly precise for the first several days, you will eventually want to get a little more accurate as you get an active starter so you know exactly what amount of flour and water you'll be adding to your bread dough. So at some point soon, you'll want to switch to a weight measure.
At this point, if you're using 1/4c of water and 1/4c of flour, you're likely well over the 100% point. Hydration is measured in weight, a quarter cup of flour is about 32g where a quarter cup of water is 58g. So if you aren't the proud owner of a kitchen scale, that should get on your shopping list pretty soon. They can be bought for as little as $25 - $30. You'll want one that measures in both ounces and grams and the gram measures should go down to 1 gram units.
But again, until the starter actually starts to become active, the precision isn't quite as important yet.
check my blog here:
Yumarama: Sourdough Starter Step by Step
It's a step-by-step photo blog of the pineapple starter and a plain water & flour starter over the course of a week +. Lots of pics for you to compare your to.
Now I'm not saying this it's "the" way a starter should progress, just that it's maybe handy for you to compare yours to. And don't fall into the "but it's day 5 it should be like this" trap. Your starter doesn't care about what day it is. It will develop at it's own pace, depending on food supply, hydration and room temperature. Not the clock or the calendar.
Hope this helps you get a sense of how well yours is doing.
I did the Whole Wheat and Pineapple juice starter and really boogered it up (a southern term) in the first week....it is EXTREMELY resilient!! It just bounces right back!! I have accidently over AND underfed it and it STILL works great!! (It took me a bit of time to get the schedule down.) But I have adapted it to my lifestyle and as I said, it is awesome! I have been baking bread for 35 years and for the FIRST time in my life...I was able to make Sourdough English Muffins WITHOUT yeast!!! Just MY starter!!! I now have 2 going...the WW and juice and a while one.
Hang in there and just keep working on it! This starter is awesome!! Good Luck and please post some of your results!!!
Jannrn
HI Free range
Thick or thin shouldn't matter to much, the fact that it is moving well within an hour of feeding is a sign that it will do the job. Now instead of discarding START to use it in a mix and be rewarded for your efforts. ENJOY
yozza
Thanks rainbowz, I’m thinking mine just will not have the foam on top. I’ve been feeding twice a day for the last couple days and it was been more then doubling, maybe three times volume at peak. This morning I split it and added King Author AP to half, up until now I’ve been using WW and will keep both going now. Now it’s on to trying to get a good loaf from one of these. Depending on how the AP reacts I will either make use it or the WW starter in the next day or so and see what happens.
Another question. I will be putting these in the fridge between use once I feel confident the starters are well established. I have switched over to weighing the ingredients using 1:1:1 ratio, should I increase the feeding to 1:2:2 before I store it.