is my sourdough starter mature enough?
dear all,
May I know how to assess the degree of maturity for sourdough starter to help to decide whether to transfer it to the fridge for long-term storage?
Attached is a picture of my new 6-day old sourdough starter. Besides the small bubbles that you can see on the sides of the starter, here are some other details about it:
1) it can rise after feeding within 3 hours, and the volume is about double the amount before feeding.
2) very few visible bubbles visible on the top, but if I stir it with a spoon, I can fee the lots of holes in the starter collapsing down.
Besides whether the starter is mature enough for the cold storage, I also wonder if I can further enhance the flavor by keeping it in the room temperature for a longer time ?
thank you!
Liming
oops, I forgot to mention that I'm having this doubt because the size of the bubbles is small, not as big as what I see in most of the sourdough-making websites.
liming
I think that starter at 6 days is still a little young. I would keep on feeding it at room temperature for another couple of weeks. Smell it; does it have the vinegar odor?
Ford
hi Ford, thanks for your opinion. The starter doesn't have any odor. It actually smells very nice, like fermenting grape wine or something like that.
If I don't want to eat vinegar-tasting bread, do I have to still wait that long?
cheers!
Liming
Sourdough does NOT HAVE to taste sour. My sourdough has almost no sour flavor. I can make it taste sour by retarding the dough for a day or two in the refrigerator, but I prefer the mild flavor without the sour. If you just use the starter as the recipes call for it, you will not get a sour flavor. Incidentally, reducing the amount of starter in the dough will increase the sourness of the bread, unexpected, no.
Ford
Starters don't all look the same while being built or once they've stabilized. What flour(s) are in yours? What's the hydration? And what process have you used so far?
I would go with what Ford has said. Wait at least one more week. By odor he didn't mean "stink". That wonderful fermenting smell is the odor you are looking for. If it keeps getting a stronger scent it is probably still building it's cultures up. Once that evens out I would be confident ity could go for a week or so in a fridge. Help us help you with more specifics like Arjon has asked for.
hi thank you for your suggestion. My starter is made of 100% whole wheat flour, initially made with 1:1.3 (flour to water) ratio, then adjusted downwards day by day to 1:1 (flour to water) ratio.
I initially fed my starter once daily for the first 4 days. After realizing that it was not active enough, I increased the frequency to twice daily.
cheers!
liming
hello,
It's been I think at least 3 weeks since my last post, and my starter has matured now. It now can double its volume or even a bit more within 2.5 hours after feeding, have lots of bubbles and feels very frothy on top. I have even baked bread with it a few times and all can rise pretty well.
Now the only problem is that it is way too sour, with very pungent vinegar smell (not like the pleasant buttermilk smell for the first few days). And the longer I keep it on the counter, the more sour it gets. I've tried a few methods to get rid of the sourness in my bread such as more frequent feeding, feeding with white flour instead of whole wheat etc, but the effect is too little. Now I'm in the midst of decreasing its hydration level, I just started in my last feeding, reducing its flour to water ratio to 2:1, but looking and smelling at it today, I can tell that it's still very sour.
Do you have any more effective methods to suggest? thank you!
Cheers
Liming
I can't get my starter to get sour. Can you tell me what you did over the course of the 3 weeks (you can skip the first week) to make it sour?
I've had my starter for 4 years; I reserve about 60 grams of starter, add 60 grams of flour and mix to incorporate and then stash in my fridge for up to 4 months. I then will refresh it by removing it from the fridge, scraping off the top and sides until all the "yucky" part is gone, take between 15-30 grams, mix with equal amounts of water and flour, and refresh every 12 hours for the next 2 days.
It has lost all it's "sour" doing this refresh. Is there a way to make it sour again?
i'm just a beginner in SD, so my two cents is that your refrigeration makes it less active. my stater has been on the counter for three weeks, with normal twice daily 100% hydrated feeding.i did nothing unusual. but one thing that might be different is that my room temperature is about 30 Celsius.
cheers!
liming