January 4, 2016 - 6:25am
smell of sourdough starter
hello,
My new 2-day old sourdough starter has a very strong bad vomit smell. But when I fed it just now, it seemed to me that the bad smell mainly come from the top portion. After I discarded this top portion, the smell from the lower part did not smell as bad as before.
Is it possible that most of the bad bacteria were in the discarded top portion? And is it safe to continue with this sourdough starter?
cheers
Liming
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Leconostoc activity. Very normal for this stage. This is bad bacteria. Don't over feed but give it a little fresh flour and water. Soon the starter will become acidic killing off the bad bacteria and making way for LAB and yeast.
It is also normal for the starter to appear to die down after this initial bubbling up. Don't fret. Patience and it will wake up again but this time smell better. Don't over feed it to try and get it going again either. A little fresh flour and water every 24 hours till it wakes up and then greater feedings to make it stronger. Keep in a warm area.
thanks!
can you tell me why overfeeding is bad? i'm thinking about increasing the amount of my starter by feeding more flour/water combination that i will discard, because i regretted starting with too little starter initially. would it work?
thanks
liming
You can maintain it indefinitely and build however much you need. So don't worry about how much you have now.
A starter takes a while to become viable and needs regular feedings. However feeding it daily will eventually lead to building so much that inevitably you'll need to discard some then feed etc. The fact that you've started off with little is perfectly ok. Means less discarding.
I'm sure you've seen a bubbling up by now and you describe it now smells like vomit. All natural. After this stage it normally goes quiet before it bubbles up again. You don't wish to over feed at this stage because if your starter isn't fully viable yet and the yeasts and LAB are still trying to take hold then what are you feeding. Plus, if you over feed then you'll end up discarding too much throwing away starter and then just ending up with plain flour and water. But at the same time you need to give it fresh flour and water to off balance the bad bacteria which is what you're smelling and giving fresh food for the yeasts to grow.
So now it's a bit of a waiting game and giving it some TLC. Feed it some fresh flour and water (same amount of flour and water by weight) so it gets some food but not too much. Give it a good stir and wait. Do this daily till it picks up again. Once it begins to bubble then you can give greater feedings but by this time you will need to start to discard but not an issue by this time as it's already maturing and will only get stronger. So at this stage discard 2/3rds and top up by 2/3rds of equal amounts of flour and water by weight.
Once your starter bubbles up every single time it is fed, smells good, it's predictable and strong then you've got a starter to bake with.
You will keep this starter going from which you'll build all the starter you need for all future bakes.
This is a good visual of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuU0xmqEZyI Don't worry too much about the different flours being used etc. It's just good to see what's happening and what to expect.
This guy seems to get a starter going quite quickly and gets some bubbling up almost everyday. So he follows a regimented schedule. Not every starter behaves exactly the same way and some need slightly different TLC than others. But good to watch.
What is your starter like now?
What flour are you feeding it?
How much do you have?
When was it last fed?
What does it smell like?
...and when did you last see any activity?
hi AbeNW11, you are correct, as you said, my starter smells much better on its 3d day today than yesterday. It is some very strange but pleasant, addictive smell, like a mixture of cheese, banana, kiwi or even chocolate... very hard to describe. But I can't be sure if the bad bacteria is complete gone, as I still think there is some tiny bit of smell like yesterday's.
I've taken a photo of the starter before I fed it just now, but unfortunately I was not able to upload the photo to this message (I think this forum does not allow this function for replies). But in general, I think there is much improvement, and the difference today from yesterday's is that bubbles have come to the top, and I think I even heard air popping sound some time today when I read my books beside it.
I still fed whole wheat flour this time.
One question: when I fed my another 1-day starter just now, I mistakenly fed double the right amount, what would happen to it?
Cheers!
Liming
sounds as if your 3rd day starter is maturing nicely. Don't worry if it slows down a bit after today. Just carry on with feeds, keep it warm and it'll pick up. If all goes quiet do not be tempted to feed extra to get it to work quicker. It'll be counter productive. If you have fed it and it does go quiet for a bit then just give it a stir every now and again and once it begins to bubble you'll have gotten over the hurdle and you'll see it'll just get stronger from here on.
With your one day starter (you really only need to focus on one starter though from which you can make other starters once it becomes viable) it is very early stages. I'd miss a feed or two till you see some activity - which will probably be leuconostoc (bad bacteria) - then carry on with normal maintenance.
We have gotten "creating a starter" down to recipes and exact formulas when really all you need is flour, water and patience. There are so many "exact" recipes and formulas and they all work. Which basically means there is not one particular way to create a starter or maintain it. Just gotta allow it to ferment and keep the yeasts and LAB alive by feeding it. When they were doing this thousands of years ago they weren't weighing to the gram.
Best of luck.