Too cold to get my starter going
Hey guys, been trying to get my starter going for over a week with no success. Following the NMNF recipe, using 100% rye flour and spring water. But realized my house was way too cold after re-reading many posts here.
I live in Montreal where it's been around -20C/-4F outside for the past week, I keep the house at around 20C/68F (both winter and summer). I tried the oven method with light on, but the bulbs keeps going out, and it wasn't stable. There is nowhere in the house that has constant 78-82F temperatures. I tried the oven with a pot of hot water, didn't work.
I decided to order a Brod & Taylor proofing box, it will simplify proofing and starters a lot, but it will not get here before another 2-3 weeks!
In the mean time, what trick can I try using to get my starter going?
Thanks for your help!
Oven with a candle in it
Oven with a hot water bottle in it
Heating pad
Top of the fridge at the back
In the airing cupboard, by the hot water tank
At the back of my stove
On a shelf above the radiator
A friend's oven with pilot light
I have also packed my starter with bubble wrap and towels.
Hope you find a warm spot. If not, I send you patience!
68 F is a bit cool, but certainly not too cold for your rye sour. I’d wrap towels around and under the container. That is more than sufficient. What do you mean it isn’t “going” & how old is it?
There is no bubbling, no activity.
then you need to stop feeding it and keep it warm. At the temps you're keeping the starter it can take up to two weeks and feeding while all is quiet will further exasperate the issue.
Take a rest, stop feeding it an get it up to 77-78°F.
78 F is the perfect temperature. The NMNF post doesn't specify how to make a starter only how to make a NMNF starter out of a starter you already have and how to use it to make a levain for a loaf of bread so I'm not sure what you are doing to make a starter. If you are following the 5 day whole rye starter method of Peter Reinhart that I have posted many times then it is probably the temperature that is the problem because it works every time otherwise. Donlt give up , just get the heat up!
Since you have a proofing box on the way you might be able to use a small 15watt bulb in your oven. When doing this make sure the door is closed so the 40 watt bulb that is built into the oven doesn't come on.
I ran some tests with my oven and found out that the temperature in the oven would increase overnight by about 1 degree per watt of the light bulb. So with a 68 degree room temperature the oven would come up to around 83 degrees overnight. If this is too much just use a smaller bulb.
This worked well enough that I now use a thermostat to control the bulb and the oven is my proofing box.