How Much Neglect Can a Sourdough Starter Take? Is My Starter Dead?
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- If you have kept a sourdough starter for a long time, then you know all too well how often it must be fed and what temperature, flour, and water it likes and performs best with. You would have had the need to store it somehow when you went on vacation. Most of us just feed it and pop it in the fridge. The cold temperatures slow down the activity and the fresh flour added is enough food for the slow starter to keep it going for a long time.
Some bakers like to keep their starter in the freezer. Some brush a thin layer of it on baking paper, let it dry out and then turn it into a powder that then can be mixed with fresh flour and water and brought back to life.
I have never worried too much about it. There have been times that my starter was kept in the fridge for several months, and it still came back every time. I even left a piece of it in the fridge for a whole year just to see what would happen and it still came back with a couple of feedings.
Starters are indestructible.
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My mom left her starter in the fridge for ten years or so and I took it out and gave it a feeding on a whim. It was super active and alive the next day so I made my levain and baked a loaf with it and it worked just as well as if the starter had been properly cared for and regularly fed. Absolutely wild to think how resilient these things are
10 years!!! Wow! Now that really proves it :) Awesome.
They clearly go into some sort of immortal dormant state if the conditions are right (fridge, probably dry)
Mine went 1 year in the fridge and doing well.
Holy smokes! I’ve thrown out way too many viable starters! Thanks for letting me know the real meaning of the word “hooch” . I’ve heard the word for my entire life, knew it referred to alcohol, but I never linked it to the weird “beer” that forms on a neglected starter. Another enlightening video. Thanks man. 🕊👍🕊
Hooch is just cheap alcohol. I think the bread makers stole the word from brewers ;D
@@ChainBaker
I’m really not sure now. I’ll bet that sour dough bread production skyrocketed a week after prohibition started. It could be that a desperate baker that missed his “cups” tried the liquid on the top of the starter and said “Hey… that’s hooch!”… So I guess your probably right.
Although, I’ll bet the bread came first and brewers developed out of it. ( now I’m not sure again) Call in the linguists that know ancient Egyptian. Sumerian also. This requires more research.
This much I do know. From now on, it’s “hooch” to me.
You can also spread your starter out on a cookie sheet and let it air dry. I pulverize the chips into powder. As the yeast and bacteria dry, they'll produce spores which can then be reconstituted into the yeast and bacteria with a feeding or two. I have a pickle jar full of powdered sourdough starter that I collected 5 or 6 years ago. I keep it in the freezer. It's still good. I periodically give people some to give them a quick starter. I used to use it to create my sourdough starter for each loaf, but I've since gone back to maintaining a starter. But I still keep it around.... It's also convenient for transport or shipping.
Watched this video one week too late. Threw out six year old "Glenn" last week. Thought he was dead for sure. Fortunatley I have some dried bits saved in the pantry. Thanks for a great and educational video once again.
I put my starter in the oven one time to keep it warm with the light on. My wife did not see it there and preheated the oven. I walked into the kitchen to see the oven temp was 270 degrees... and I immediately started grieving the death of Harmen. I took Harmen out with oven mits and placed him in the sink, preparing my mind for another starter. Later that day I came back to clean out my starter jar and Harmen had tripled in volume. I've been using him every since. I did have to offer some serious heart felt apologies however...
I'm glad it survived :) Just goes to show indestructible they can be :)
I park mine in the refrigerator with a thick layer of flour on top. When I revive it, I just add water. I've stored it this way for at least three months. I have dried starter in the freezer as backup. I think you could mix it with flour and freeze it for years, and then just thaw it and add water.
Man, this video is timely... I have a starter that was given to me by a friend who got it from an old lady in Italy... It wasn't rising and I was about to toss it. I'll give it a couple of days and see what happens. Thank you!
Sounds like a true treasure. Hope it worked out well!
@@BigboiiTone it did!!
My current sourdough starter had a period where it sat in the fridge unfed for two years. It was rock hard before I brought it back to life, but I got it going in like two feedings. Ive been making delicious bread with it for months now.
I just pulled out my starter that hasn't been fed in months so I was scared to throw it out... I'll try refeeding it first. I'm scared bc the hooch was a very dark grey
This is the EXACT video I needed to watch! I was questioning if I ruined my starter but now I know I didn’t. And I also learned so much more! Thanks!
man this channel is gold
🤩
This video made me smile. I travel a lot and am sometimes not home for weeks, maybe a month. This has stopped me from making sourdough starter and growing vegetables. I think I'll start a starter today! I have baby tomato plants in the rain also. We'll see.
BTW, my Poolish pizza crust was amazing! The only problem is that though I got the proportions right, I messed up and accidentally made about four times the dough I wanted. 😆 Being a trooper, I made a 16" pizza rather than a 10", and was not used to the dough rising like this did. It ended up being super thick, but no complaints. It tastes great! I had to freeze the leftovers, so that's dinner after this week's trip. Keep 'em coming, these videos are super appreciated! Thanks!
I love a thicccc pizza! Nice one ;D
I totally thought that was mold. I’ve thrown away so many starters looking like that. Thank you for this!
Left mine for a similar amount of time once before. Didn't look as white and funky as yours, and no mould had grown. But it did have a smell to it that was intense. Usually, it's quite fruity and sweet, and a little alcoholic. But it definitely soured a lot in that time. Unpleasant. But the feeding and rejuvinating took that away instantly. The next day, it was back to its sweet self, and made a loaf on par with all my best ones.
Thanks Charlie, this video came exactly at a time when I'm considering making my first sourdough, so it's encouraging to know that I can't really screw it up too much.
I am brand new. It’s sourdough only three or four weeks. But I have been very successful with it. You are right. It is very hard to kill. It’s amazing watching at work! I love it. Great video!❤❤
Thank you for this video, Chain Baker! I worry myself crazy after leaving my starter in the fridge for more than seven days. I don’t have time for sourdough in the summer so I freeze it. Starts right back up in the fall after a few days.
I've never tried sourdough bread but now I'm interested. Looks like i'll be viewing all your videos on starters and sourdough.
Great video Charlie, my starter frequently gets put into refrigerated storage for 3 weeks due to work, bounces back fine with 2 feedings. Once I made bread directly from it with 3 staged feedings over 1 day to make the levain, that makes quite a strongly flavoured bread but works a treat.
The white surface looked like a pellicle to me, wild yeast, brettanomyces specifically, creates this in sour beer fermentation. When my starter gets super ripe, especially stored discard, it smells like a Brett fermented beer to me rather than overly sour.
Great video. I'm still learning about my starter, but now I have more confidence in its resilience. Thanks.
I have found that adding a small amount of malted barley (diastatic) really helped rejuvenate my starter after a long 'holiday'.
This answered a lot of my questions on the bacteria types that can grow in your starter. So, my starter generations experiment continues :)
Thank you so much for this video, oh how I have thrown out a few of those starters with hooch on the top thinking it had just gone yuk! invaluable information which is not available anywhere else. Think you will have save a lot of people including myself a lot of time and waste! Many thanks as always. Ramon.
Wish I was there sooner to stop you ;D
@@ChainBaker Me too😩
I’ve left mine in the fridge in a sealed jar for six months twice now. Brought it back to life this week to bake. And my oh my, that smell it gives the finished bread 🙌
Nutella jar and science this time! The longest I have "ignored" my starter is about 2 days and I always feel really bad when that happens - I always apologize to my starter (which I still have yet to "name"). However, I have experienced hooch formation when saving sourdough discard for an extended period of time in the refrigerator (for your Rye Cracker sourdough discard recipe).
This is quite an informative video - now we know that it takes real effort to actually "kill" sourdough starter. Thanks for "almost" sacrificing "Flint" to make this video.
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Go "Team ChainBaker"!!! Have you fed your starter today???
Gotta be Jeepy! 😁👨🍳
@@philip6502 😄
Based on these encouraging comments, today I made delicious blueberry pancakes with sourdough discard. So delicious!
@@terbhang 👍👍
It can definitely take some abuse and not even get mad at you ;D
Thank you, Lan! 😍
I've been feeding him every day now and he's more active than ever! Excited to make more sourdough bread videos now.
I wish I watched this before I dumped my starter. Mine looked like the one you showed after your vacation. Thank you for the video.
2 accidents happens with my starter, one time I broke the glas when feeding. I luckily still had a small amout in the fridge from a few days/weeks earlier and could use it. The other time I did not feed it for 3 weeks, I usually bake once a week but had no time and everytime something other came up. The starter was 'moldy', and did stink bad. I didn't want to risk it but had a 'back up' amount in a very small container in the fridge, even older, probably 5 weeks. Totally dried out but still smelled like yeast does. I fed it two three times and it was 'strong' and good to use. It's now 2 years old, the only good thing with the pandemic, I finally did the sourdough ;)
It's always good to keep a backup piece as insurance that is for sure :)
@@ChainBaker absolutely :)
Should I seperate mine off and make a little backup ?
@@abby4684 I did, when I broke the glas I luckily still had an old starter in the fridge, since then I have a very small container with the previous starter, maybe 1-2g in it 😅
Once again I have learned so much from one of your superb videos. Your dedication and enthusiasm (as well as all the editing you must have to do!) are truly appreciated.
Now I know what that watery film is on my neglected starter: Hooch. I didn't go quiet as extreme as you but left it in the fridge for a moth just to see what happened.
Keep the great videos coming. I cannot understand why you have not got more subscribers.....perhaps soon?
Cheers, Phil! :)
right on. starters are very robust. i've left mine in the fridge for weeks, take it out and feed it and it pops back to life. i dont even re-feed after that, just use the back-to-life starter as my leavening and it works perfectly. thanks for your illuminating explanations and detail
I did think my starter of 2 years died of neglect in the fridge but seeing you video showed me it wasn’t dead at all I wish I had seen this sooner! RIP
I have been putting off attempting to make sour dough bread because I didn't think I would be able to maintain the starter. I can't thank you enough for making this video. The starter is so much more resilient than I could have ever expected. Really excited to finally give sour dough a try.
P.S. Looking great with the tan Charlie!
You can do it!
Cheers, Michael! :)
Great video, thank you. I've just started my fist sourdough and I found so much hints in this clip.
I was JUST about to throw out my starter after finding that layer of white!
Btw, can your voice live in my head to narrate my life? That voice is so soothing 🥺
😁
Thank you so much, I'm making my own starter and in the morning it looked like yours - dry on the surface. I was so worried but now i know it's ok. Thanks 😍
Just found mine like that … was pleased to see it. Better watch this now
I remember my first "hooch" experience after we came back after 2 week or so trip. I saw the black liquid and couldn't believe my mom would keep using that "moldy starter!"
Epic baker memories 😊
Yes, I gave some starter to an aspiring baker, (who said they might try to bake sourdough/but not until 'after Xmas/so nearly 2 months)...and told her "You can't kill it, and when you look at it and thinks it's gone bad, it hasn't, so don't throw it out!"
Of course they did. haha
I took the jar that had been placed into My fridge, on that same day, and showed them just how fast it comes back. This time, I made her promise not to chuck it out, and she didn't...and now is baking sourdough/and really enjoying the process and the bread.
Thanks for another great video Charlie.
I killed a starter - poor Stanley got moldy with the green stuff. Thankfully, I had saved a touch for revival, and he came back stronger than before! Saving this to save my starters in the future!
fantastic video and thank you very much for the wonderful information.. I too have taken my starter that looked like that and brought it back to life, granted, all by accident. haha You video has reassured me I made the right choice. Thank you so very much..
My Sourdough Starter was left on a shelf at room temp for almost 3 months because mental health was getting in the way of routine.
As things got better, I got around to feeding it back on a schedule again. I cleared the hooch off and discarded most of it and after a couple feedings it bounced right back like it never missed a feeding.
I'm in the process of birthing my first rye starter. And... I'm a really bad recipe follower. This vid helps give the principles of the process without overcomplicating things.
Super helpful! I've definitely had the kalm yeast in starter before. I'm not gonna lie... it still makes me nervous to eat or feed others. This was the first video that gave me hope for it though! Haha I won't give up! Haha
Thank you!!! I needed this today. I was so worried I had killed mine.
Good video Charlie! 👍🏻 I’ve only thrown one starter away in the past 20 years.
Thanks so much! Good things to know and use as we continue to make awesome sourdough bread loaves!! Thanks for explaining about the “hooch” being a protective layer. I always just stir it back into my starter since it's part of the liquid ratio of it.
Nice tan from vacation 😆💕✨
FLINT!! Hahaha! Luff your starter's name!! My current one's name is 🎼DOUGH RYE MI... a tribute to one of my favorite classic musicals, Sound of Music's "Do Re Mi"!! Cheers!!
Yeah, I've seen firsthand how insanely robust sourdough starter is. Time was, after feeding, I'd keep the starter in the oven for a little bit while the oven was off, to keep it out of the eyes of curious cats. I did that and went to use the bathroom. At the same time, my wife started preheating the oven for some lunch...only to be met with my sheer panic when I got out of the bathroom. It hadn't gotten to the full 400 some-odd degrees F, but it was REALLY toasty. The jar was hot to the touch. Took it out, let it cool down, and promptly re-fed it, with some cooler than normal water to help it along.
That starter is still alive to this day, many months later. I even have some of it that I air-dried out and preserved in a baggie in the freezer. Lactobacillus is a really, REALLY tough bugger to take down.
(Oh, and if memory serves, the hooch is basically a layer of acetone. I dunno if that's the same for everyone's starter, but when it was hungry, mine would straight-up smell like fingernail polish remover.)
I'm a beginner. So far I have tried one with buttermilk and it molded. I have one going now with just unbleached flour and clean water. It's not rising but I'm being patient. Thank you for great information. Question: Does it have to be sealed or is a cheese cloth or sprouting lid allright to use? The one I have now is in a mason jar with sprouting lid...so a fine screen, meaning it is getting air.
You can use a cheese cloth if you want. I prefer using a loose fitting lid though :)
You look well rested and happy! Thanks for the information in this video. I used to make sourdough bread for some time. Not knowing that i could keep it. I made a new starter every three weeks. LOL. I know better now.
Thank you! 🥰
Thank you for the guidance, your video has help me a lot in my journey of bread making :)
Hope you had a lovely vacation!
I did! Thank you so much 😍
I have my sourdough starter in the fridge & gave it a feeding which became really enthusiastic about growing like crazy by adding a bit extra sugar.
Tried the white sugar & it didn't really try to burst it confines out of the jar the 1st, the 2nd time that I made the starter I used brown sugar & that really started bursting out the confines of the jar.
If it works, it works, but I can say for certain that sugar is not needed in a starter. There is enough food for it in the flour. If it is a bit slow, then a better option would be adding some rye flour in the mix :)
Very impressive! I’ve definitely fallen victim to my own neglect and thought I killed my starter. In hindsight thanks to this video, I probably could’ve revived it. Hilarious line about turning into a brioche btw XD
😁
damn. This video took over a month from start to finished. Most youtubers arn't this dedicated. Thanx. Great info. Trying to make my first sourdough and just trashed my first starter 'caus I thougt it was dead. On day 3 on my second batch. Will follow your guide. This seems really hard tho.
Wow. I've "killed" my starter before. I tried reviving it for about 3 days but nothing. But I made dried starter flakes when I moved one year and that easily came back within two feedings. So even if its not technically dead, its nice to just have a backup just in case.
Just 'found your channel mate. EXCELLANT!! I love bread and potatoes, hey I'm from Northern Ireland lol but due to a few health problems I am going to start baking sourdough bread. I'm told its very nice, so I have a starter going at the minute and will see what happens. Looking forward to trying your receipies!
Awesome! :) Welcome to the channel! And I wish you all the best in your sourdough journey. The 'Sourdough Bread' playlist will have some useful info and the 'Principles of Baking' playlist is full of general bread making tips.
First of all, I just wanna say thank you! You was the first baker channel that helped me to bake a good bread! my sourdough starter is on day 10 I was waiting to deflate to feed it again, even though was smelling alcohol last day also, for my surprise, now it’s looking moldy, but white. Hopefully it’s just yeast. The smell is somewhat cheesy. should I discard and start from zero?
Scrape the top layer off and feed it again. It'll be ok 😉
@@ChainBakerIt worked, now its growing and I think it can be used for the first recipe. Thank you!
For interesting story of a sourdough starter kept going since 1847, wiki "Carl Griffith's sourdough starter". Apparently this has a higher lactic:acetic ratio and is less sour than some others. How to control this ratio and/or how to minimize or maximize sourness is an interesting topic. Does a longstanding starter select out certain genetics over time? Or does every new feeding have a huge influence on what's growing in the starter?
Starters kept at room temperature will have more lactic acid making them sweeter and milder. Cold temperatures promote acetic acid production. It does get used to the environment and conditions. With a few feedings and adjustments it would change according to them, so if that same starter was kept in the fridge it would certainly start becoming more sour after a while. Or at least that is what I think 😄
With all pride I can say I have NEVER killed a starter. I should also add that I have never started a starter. Clean record.
Still, an interesting video. 👍💯
😂😂😂
This morning I thought I killed my starter. It has been in the refrigerator for a couple months. It was very sour to begin with, as the last loaf I made was a 100% sour dough rye, which gave me quite a sour loaf. I loved it! But this morning when I opened the jar it really stunk! There was no mold, & no moldy color, but it was as you said at the beginning of this video, a bit gray & watery on top. I'm so glad I didn't throw it away! I actually just added 25grams of white flour & 25grams of water to it, & then used that 50grams of "discard" to make an Irish Soda bread. I just used the discard for flavor & added the baking soda to the bread. It came out delicious. I put a tiny bit of the starter in a new clean jar & added 50g each of water & white flour & it is sitting on my counter now. The horrible pungent smell had calmed down to smell quite nice now. I will see how it ferments & hopefully will make a loaf of regular sourdough tomorrow. I'm curious...is it because the starter was mostly rye flour that it became so pungent smelling? Also my sourdough rye bread is always so very sour & my regular sourdough is not as sour, so I am thinking that rye makes a more sour flavor. Am I correct? Thanks for all your fun videos!!
I have not baked much naturally leavened rye so I have not noticed. But it may as well make it more sour. But what really makes it sour is the cold storage/fermentation which produces a ton of acetic acid.
All this is SO interesting!!! It's like being in a science laboratory!! Thanks!@@ChainBaker
If you feed it for 2-3 days and discard half each day it will get rid of the sour taste. I had a starter in the fridge for 6 months and did 1 feeding for 3 days bread came out yummy
Which reminds me, I haven't fed my starter in a while. Hahaha!
I left mine in the fridge for about 2 to 3 year started to revive it this winter it’s still alive hope it’s safe to use
Wow, what a cool experiment! Hard core! TY, lovely brioche loaf! :) Backed by absolutely no evidence, I think that sourdogh can also become cranky if too much fuss and stress are coming from its baker, while just a bit of patience and attention come a long way. :D
That might just be a fact ;D
I love the way you talk !
Thank you for info. I thought I had killed my starter, so I will feed today. 😬
Hey guys I've never made sourdough before, are there any drawbacks to making it in a typical shape bread loaf pan? I've never seen people do that before so I don't know
Any bread can be made with a sourdough starter :)
I've left a sourdough starter for 6 months in a cold refrigerator. Alcohol and black layer on top of normal color dough. Removed black layer and alcohol and fed lower sourdough 1:1:1. Refeed in 12 hours, then at 24 hours, and it was back to normal.
Thank you for this! I am about to go for a month and it's nice to know o can leave it in the fridge 😋 also, you came to India??? Nice, been living here for 12 years, and started making bread for the last year or so, which good bread is hard to get by here!
It was my first time there. Amazing place. I travelled all over Goa exploring the North as well as the South. I bet it's hard to get bread flour there.
The Indian breads are great though. Parathas, chaparis, rotis, pav... I was eating so much ;D
@@ChainBaker sounds awesome!! Yeah, bread flour is quite expensive, these days you can get it through Amazon, although the options are quite limited... but thank God for vital wheat powder ;)
Indian breads are amazing! But sometimes I miss the classic bread and cheese, since I was raised with it 😋
oh my glob, thank you, my Oven has been down, so it hasnt been getting used as much and it go all super pungent, turns out its just anerobic, thank you !
thanks to your educational videos, I can consistently produce beautiful and delicious European bread. thanks you
I look forward to trying more recipes, mr brioche loaf
😄
Going on vacay next month, was very anxious about leaving my starters (have 4) use different flours for each. But now I'm sure thinks will be alright when I get back. India, did you well. Thank you
Wow, that's a whole family to look after :) Awesome!
India was great! I love the Asian countries 🌏
Completely changed my view 🙂👍
Longest I've done up to now is 7 weeks 3 years ago. I am just away now and by the time I return it will be 8 weeks, I am 99% confident the starter in the fridge will be fine but I do have some dried and one in the freezer too just in case.
Survived no problem. I fed once in a new pot then used a generous spoon of the fed starter plus all that was left of the stored starter for my first loaves back.
Hope you enjoyed your vacation. Which all cities did you visit
Thank you! It was great :) We travelled all over Goa. A week in the North and two weeks in the South. I put 1200km on the poor scooter, so we explored quite a lot ;D
I left a starter in the fridge for a year. When it came back to life (3-4 feedings) it was actually better (stronger) than a year before.
My normal procedure is to keep about 250g to 300g starter in the refrigerator in my little "sourdough pot." I may go 2mo to 3mo without using or feeding it. When I am ready to bake I stir and use the starter as is. If the supply of starter is running low I feed it, leave it out for 8hrs to 12hrs and then put it in the refrigerator again.
How can this atrocious treatment of my starter even work? I long ago stopped using TIME as a variable. Instead I use the proofing of the dough as my indicator. I've seen recipes calling for letting the dough double or triple. Bologna. I let mine rise 50% to 75% and continue with my process. Obviously my ignored starter is still working. It just got a feast.
An additional benefit is that I don't need 20 discard recipes. When I want pancakes or waffles I just stir and use the starter from the sourdough pot and then feed it if it is running low.
The old daily, weekly type feedings are a thing of the past.
Should sourdough starter be stored in a sealed container? I have a glass jar with a hinged lid and a removable silicone gasket. Should I remove the gasket or leave it on?
I would remove the gasket so that gas can escape.
@@ChainBaker thank you! Love your videos!
Thanks, Teacher!
Thank you! You saved my starter!
This is a great video! Finally one considering a starter 😅 I am a huge fan of sourdough breads after years of making yeast breads. I had quite success of making at least basic white bread with a (rye) sourdough starter for few years, especially after finding a high protein white flour. I also left my sourdough starter unfed for 4 weeks (in a fridge) and survived. However here's my challenge for you to explain: my last three sourdough breads were a disaster! My sourdough smells more acidic and alcoholic than before and my doughs become too loose, not able to keep the shape and turned into a flatbread (still tasted good, but kids and wife didn't want to eat it anymore) . Last dough I even threw away just at the final pre-shaping as it became just a loose and sticky mess (like a thick pudding). The flour is the same and to prove nothing is wrong with it I made a yeast bread from the rest of the opened flour pack which turned out great (except for the taste - it's not sourdough). Can you help explaining what's happening, what's wrong? I am following the same process, same starter, same water, same salt, same baker's percentage, same flour, very similar timings all the time. I want to get back to my sourdough breads as we do not like the taste of the yeast breads anymore. Thank you a lot for your help!
Perhaps the weather has changed and the starter is too active and over fermenting before you use it?! That can make it break down and become loose. It would also add a more intense acidic taste. Try changing the feeding ratio to use more flour and water in relation to starter, so that it moves a bit more slowly. Or change the hydration of it. A lower hydration starter will ferment more predictably and slowly.
@@ChainBaker Oh, right, overfermenting! That I haven't considered! Of course it's warmer now and the last time I even used a preferment - I made a sourdough biga 😅 So that was it - I need to adapt my schedule, omg. Thanks a lot!
White Stuff is Kham yeast, very common in vinegar making.
You resurrected your starter, I shall call you Dr. Frankenstarter! :)
🧟♂️
Great teacher!!
Well, Charlie...smelly feet, mold, fungus, old socks... You've really raised the bar on baking. 😂
Hope you had a great visit to India. 🍞
All kinds of smelly stuff haha! ;D
Oh yes the trip was amazing. We saw a lot of interesting places and things :) Well rested now and ready to make more videos! Cheers.
What can you do with the discard from the dusty old starter? Mine turns like yours did after 24 from feeding. I feel like I’m throwing away more starter constantly trying to do a 1-5-5 ration!
If your starter is too active you can keep it in the fridge and just feed it once per week when you bake.
Thank you, love ❤ so you don't sterelise the jars for starter or leven...right?
Nope ✌️
I'm from Malaysia. I just tried making a starter yesterday and it has already risen slightly. Is it normal to show reaction after just 24hrs? Because based on your other video it takes around 3-4 days to see some reaction
That is a good sign that the environment where you are creating the starter is good for it. Just don't think it is ready at 2nd or 3rd day, really repeat the process for at least a week to have a live stable organism
Aha. So it's active but not matured yet. Got it!
That is great! I agree with the others - keep feeding it and building its strength before the first bake. And be sure that it was not contaminated by commercial yeast. Sometimes that can make it start rising in just one day ;)
I have had a starter go moldy.
It happened after I moved from a house in the country to the city, and I naively switched straight from rain water to chlorinated and fluoridated city water. Only took a week or two for my starter to die completely, and sprout blue pink mold patches on top.
Luckily I'd dried some of that starter a year previous and was able to revive it (now using aquifer water only).
Very educational video. Heaps of thanks ⛓️🍞
Brilliant. Like always.
Charlie I need your help--I started making my sourdough starter last Thursday (6 days ago) and I believe I followed your instructions to the letter. I haven't really seen a lot of activity yet though. There was a cloudy liquid that formed on ~day 3 and I figured this was alcohol so I fed the starter a little more frequently and at a 1:2:2 ratio for a couple of days. So far though, not a lot of activity :/. Oh and one more thing - it smells WEIRD. I'm a complete novice to this so I'm not sure what it should smell like but I'm worried I messed something up along the way. Any help would be appreciated!
The liquid separation is ok. Perhaps you stopped seeing activity because you started feeding it more frequently as it does not have time to multiply. Try feeding it again and leaving it for 24 or even 48 hours and then adjust from there.
OK, it may not mean much, but just wanted to say that being already dozen years on RUclips, I’ve never been getting so excited when seeing particular videos coming out. I’ve also never been putting comments under the videos and I do that quite often here. On your channel, I often think “shit, that guy is in my head”. Everywhere there are only recipes and recipes. Some of them don’t really work in real life. I’m just missing some explanations on why and how. And you are actually delivering that. Like with this sourdough starter, everyone everywhere will tell “OK now that you have successful starter you need to feed it twice a day“. But what if I don’t? I don’t want to adjust my life to sourdough starter. That’s really discouraging. I do really like baking but I’m not gonna play attention every day to sourdough starter. When I had this liquid on it for the first time, I thought it was completely unuseful and I threw it out. Had I seen your video, I wouldn’t really bother. Now when it happened for the second time I tried getting it back to life and it’s actually working. I bake sourdough bread once or twice a month and before I use it I feed it few times over two days, when it starts to collapse after rising, and it gives me a really good bread. Anyway, you’re one of a kind, keep doing what you doing, keep posting interesting experiments and never stop being curious about how do things work, thanks for the videos!
Thank you so much! It really means a lot! 🤩
3:29 Hi, hopefully you can bring some light to my issue, my starter looks like this the dry top, I have only had it for 7 days u have feed it using 70grms starter, 50 rye, 50 AP, and 100 grams filetered water, can you tell me why it’s drying out on top?should I have it in the fridge now? Thank you for your help
The Sourdough Bread playlist has all the videos that will answer your questions. Start by changing the ratio. Use less starter in relation to flour and water and keep feeding it a few days to see how it reacts.
Oh seems like you got a nice tan! Did you go to on vacation? Edit: haha just saw the rest of the video! Hope your vacation in India was nice!
It was awesome! Cheers ;D
I totally ignored my sourdough starter in the fridge for 6 months. I poured off the hooch, fed the starter a few times and everything seems even better than before. I do the same ratios.
Last Summer, I tried making my own original sour dough starter using only rye flour and distilled water. After two weeks, I had something that resembled a sour dough starter. It definitely had yeast and would get sour, but didn't seem to give the other pleasant tastes to sourdough. The bread only tasted sour and had none of the sourdough aroma you expect. I then tried feeding a portion of the starter only white flour and it did not go well. I didn't feel comfortable using it to bake anything that I was going to eat. Do you have any ideas or comments about what may have went wrong? If I had kept feeding and working with the all rye flour starter do you think that eventually it would have developed a good sourdough flavor in the bread. I may start over again and see if I can create a starter worth keeping. Would you recommend that I start one with rye flour and a second with white or whole wheat flour and keep them separate for use only with each type of flour? Thank you Charlie and sorry for so many questions.
It may have been weak still. I would suggest using a mix of rye and white. Perhaps 90% white and 10% rye. Or you can go 50/50. I only make mine with white flour and it works well. But a little rye can make it extra nice and active :)
Thank you Charlie! I'll try using a 90/10 white flour/rye flour blend. I'll report back in a few weeks of the results.
Fantastic video! Thank you
Charlie, wondering about the air tight starter/levain and the final proof, have you noticed in advantage of this?
I always keep it covered like that. Never noticed a difference. I know people like to use cheese cloth to make it 'breathe' but I don't think it's essential.
Hi! My starter is about a week-old, and has the white powdery layer as shown in your video. Is it because I have been leaving it at room temperature? I am in India, and the temperatures are quite high right now. I am just starting my starter, so not sure if I can leave it in the fridge. Do you have any suggestions?
Change the ratio. Use more flour and water in relation to starter to make it slow down a bit. Use cold water and place it in a cooler area if possible. I would not put it in the fridge quite yet.
this was really amazing and gave me so much confident to make my own sourdough starter.fuckin love your recipes , always with all the details i need and so much more.for me bread making is like meditation and i know so much about it that I can actually change up the recipes and make my own stuff . I'm from Iran and i really liked your take on barbari bread
Cheers! 😎
Great video. I have a random question.
My husband cooked his porridge in the microwave my starter and levain were sitting in the back of the microwave and he cooked his porridge for 4 minutes.
It’s now very dry and dough like. I’ve since fed them. Should I start again and make a new starter? Or see if it comes back to life? My starter is almost 2 and a half years old.
Thanks in advance for any reply’s 🫣🤞
Keep feeding it and see what happens. It might just come back to life😉
@@ChainBaker thanks for the reply. 🤞