Funny smell
Right, i know if you start getting a funny smell something isn't right.
My second attempt at making a starter has been going well, i'm over a week in now. I started off with part wholemeal flour and white flour and after day 4 i didn't have any bubbling but after adding a little more wholemeal flour things started to lift off and after about day 6-7 it was rising well.
I'm on day 9 and i've purposely left it out of the fridge so i could use it when it reaches it's peak and have fed it every 24hrs but not very much. About 1/3rd cup of white flour same weight in water and now it smells like a mixture of beer and acetone. Can i recover it? Or do i need to start again?
Today i have took half out and added a cup of flour and the same weight in water and it has doubled already in the last 2 hrs.
Thanks for your help
Get baking :)
Sounds good to me. Want a recipe?
So you don't think the smell is bad?
Just carry on giving it some TLC.
You're on day 9 and it's been doubling well for atleast two days now. And has done so in just a few hours. Give it a few more days then try a recipe. Emailing you now.
What i have noticed is that it seems to rise well but then deflates which would kind of suggest it is exhausting the food too quickly?
How much starter do you have left after discarding. And how much do you feed it?
For example...
I discard some - left with 30g - feed it 30g flour + 30g water.
Because there isn't much starter anyway the last couple of days i haven't taken any out. Should you always take some out?
We only take some out because if you continually feed it you'll eventually get a swimming pool.
Once you start baking with it you'll work out a system of keeping it in the fridge and taking some off each time to do builds then top up the one in the fridge every so often. But only when its strong enough.
I took about 150g out today as even though it smelt funny i thought i would try baking. I'd say i was probably left with about 100g. I've added a cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water and it's more than doubled since
You fed it 1 cup flour = 120g ish
3/4 cup of water = 187g ish
If you have been feeding it this way continuously then your starter is 155% hydration.
Very high! Higher hydration starter will ferment quicker! Bring it down to 100% hydration.
Just weigh the flour and water equally. and feed 1:1:1
so 50g starter + 50g flour + 50g water. As an example.
No i've just weighed how much a cup of flour is and it equates to 150g and the water the same so effectively 1:1
I have been previously feeding it 50g flour and water but not removing any so as to build up a decent amount
Adding this last larger amount has really started it working, more so than before