January 22, 2015 - 9:57am
My starter just didn't start!
I made a starter from just flour and water. Fed it 1tsp flour and 2tsp of water every day and am now on day 5 and all it has done is separate, no foaming or anything.
Should i just start again with a different recipe?
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With volume measurements, 2 parts flour to 1 part water will give you something of a batter consistency. The watery soup you have is too thin to keep the flour in suspension and too thin to trap bubbles.
Try stirring in a few spoons of flour to thicken the mixture, then keep the daily feeds in a 2:1 flour:water ratio. It should come right in another few days.
Paul
Just checked in the book and it's definitely what it states so maybe it's been printed wrong?
that you didn't come to the TFL website first to search for ways to create a starter rather than coming afterwards to troubleshoot what is inevitably one of hundreds of "recipes" out there.
The method tried and tested by many people here is that devised by Debra Wink and you can read through it here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
The first half explains what goes on during the process but feel free to skip down to where it gives you the day by day instructions.
Good luck
Well if i'd known about the forum before i started wanting to make bread then i would have but unfortunately i didn't :)
I think it is good that the starter is taking it's time. It got you worried enough to send you looking in the net. That's how most of us have found this site. :)
Welcome!
Thicken the starter up to 100% hydration by adding more flour to it. A cup of water weighs 238 g and C of flour about 125 G. So by volume, you want add twice as much flour as water by using 2 T of flour to 1 T of water. Keep the mix at 78 - 80 F helps as well. Using whole grains also is better than white flour. Then it it's just about 10 days until it finally takes off,and is strong enough to lift its first loaf of SD bread.
Happy SD baking
Paul & dabrownman are right. More flour and give it 5-7 more days.
Oh guys! Don't you recognise the recipe? This is practically my own! And the test (1:10:10) !
The book does't mention any aromas. If it smells yeasty, beerish, then test it with a one to 10 feeding. Separation is not a problem with too much water the first 5 days.
If fed to early (and that would have a lot to do with the temperature) the big feed will respond ever so slowly, then return to the one spoon of fresh flour a day fermenting under a layer of water to keep it wet. When the aromas are stronger and pleasantly yeasty, try the test again.
What is the starter doing now? If "nothing," raise the temp to 76°F Remove any growths on the surface of the water. I'm with you, keep me updated.
If the 15:150:150 test works, then yes, it will raise bread. I've done it. and it won't take another 5 to 7 days.
Is it says, take a teaspoon out to build your preferment etc....
The it says to keep your starter alive just add a teaspoon of flour back. There's nothing about any water being added.
Surely it should be top up what you taken out with some flour & water.
If you just keep adding flour then it'll dry up.
the maintenance however, a one to ten starter this early would need time to build up bacteria again to a protective level. No falling of the starter was mentioned and there is enough food still left in the starter if it is fed just a little bit and chilled. However... you do have a point about the water. The maintenance portion of instruction is too minimalist. Does it continue onto the next page?
It might have been edited out. The paragraph starts out with a jar. Where did it come from? hopped from bowl to jar. Is it the week old culture that is fed one teaspoon? The one with all the water? Hmmm
Yes, after re-reading, one keeps the original in the jar and continues to feed it. One doesn't keep any of the 15:150:150 starter. how interesting....
Yes you are correct. It is a minimalist way of creating a starter. I already had my starter so went straight onto the recipes. One needs more prior knowledge to make sense of creating the starter.
Most books say Start day 1 - Finish day 5 and Bob's your uncle.
Just a single page.
The more I read it over, the more I like it. But a lot of info lies between the lines. The point of determining the fermentation, if it has fermented enough, is the tricky spot in the process. I find that to be the hardest part. Even with a starter that is not stirred. One has to look for the signs. Gas, colour, aroma, lack of aroma, temperature.
Gas can be tested in several ways, one is just to collapse a small plastic bag over the starter and fix it with a rubber band. It will inflate if gas is being released while fermenting. Colour will darken slightly. Aroma will change from wet flour to a variety and settle down to fruity, and then the yeasty if all goes well. Lack of aroma may mean lack of warm enough temperature to encourage the bacterial events that lower the pH in the culture to encourage yeast to populate it. Temperature, usually warm at first (around 80°F) and cooler after the first day (76°F) so bacteria don't over populate the culture.
If the culture is thin... water separating and on top of the flour, it is too thin to trap gas or rise. It will be thin enough to see small tiny bubbles rising out of the wet flour and bursting on the surface. They won't be big because they rise and burst before they can join to other bubbles. That's where the bigger bubbles come from, tiny bubbles bursting into each other. They are held in the culture by the flour if it is thick enough to prevent their escape. Thickening the flour/water culture traps more gas.
What I haven't seen discussed is a flour paste made thick, like a dough, and then covered with cooled boiled water to prevent it from drying out. Maybe I go run some experiments.
Take a tsp of starter to create your preferment.
Then to add a tsp of flour back.
Repeat process.
After that it says if it isn't used in a while and it develops hooch then maintain by going back to a more regular feeding like when creating it in the first place. i.e. a bit of flour and water.
It seems to imply that unless that happens just take a tsp off and replace with a tsp of flour (only!) and continue the process.
Let me elaborate ...
Take a tsp of starter to create your preferment.
(it says a Tbsp, one Tablespoon from the original jar used to grow the
starterpreferment, it should be very wet, has a layer of water covering it as the OP has observed.)Then to add a tsp of flour back.
( right, one teaspoon flour back to the original jar of culture, not the bowl of elaborated starter that used. Also a smaller amount than one Tablespoon of starter removed but there is plenty of water in that jar of starter. I suppose eventually one has to add a little more water.)
Repeat process. (maybe the whole process and make a new starter, also not a bad idea) (Or it could mean that one adds one teaspoon flour with two teaspoons water like in the first week. Perhaps the water addition is implied?)
Still a bit topsy turvy.
Take a tablespoon out and refresh with a teaspoon. Eventually you'll have to do a really big feed.
It's not very well explained in the book.
He's tried to over simplify it and made it more complicated.
Just create it by feeding the same amounts of flour and water, by weight, everyday till it bubbles.
Take some off to create pre-ferments.
When original runs low then top up by feeding flour and water.
There's nothing else to it. No creating a really wet starter then feeding only flour for a while. Then taking off tablespoons and teaspoons. Returning one teaspoon. Half of this one of that. etc.
By weight and keep it the same. Voila, done!
And I think it will work. The book assumes you know what fermentation is or has already talked about it somewhere. I have saved original "starts" as back up until I started using part of an elaborated starter as my maintenance starter. It all depends on how you want to use your starter and how often. How much you want to play with it, etc. When you see your bread not rising properly for the amount of starter used, or the yeast power dwindling, time to feed it 30:30 and let if complete a cycle of growth.
Sometimes a freshly made starter from scratch can regularly refresh your baking. They sure can be vigorous if you catch the yeast build up at the right time and especially if you've been abusive to a starter culture.
think about it.
Take one tablepoons out and only return one teaspoon of flour each time to keep it going. That's all it says.
There's a little section for hooch and that's it.
Well firstly you'll eventually have a dried up mound of flour and secondly ratio of flour/water will be all over the place even if you do try to top back up with flour+water eventually. As it will dwindle. Taking a tablespoon of flour/water mixture out and returning a teaspoon of flour only "to keep going" can make no sense whatsoever.
It's not a very well explained part of the book.
How do you edit comments already posted?
Perhaps it comes when the spelling checker is activated. The checker makes so many mistakes that one has to go back and edit. ??? (I have an old account, it might still have the edit function.)
if you want to try another recipe, by all means do so but don't give up on this one just yet. Patience is the key.