Why isn't my sourdough SOUR?!?
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- Store-bought and restaurant sourdough is FAKE! Ben Starr, the Ultimate Food Geek, explains why virtually EVERY loaf of sour sourdough you've ever tasted is actually fake, and that you shouldn't expect your homemade sourdough to taste sour. But for those of you DESPERATE for fake tartness in your homemade sourdough...how you can achieve it, using the fake techniques the bakeries use.
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I went through this question a few years ago and did some experimentation with your recipe to see if I could make it sour. The way I accomplished it is the same way that European bakers that followed the 49ers to the Bay Area, they over fermented their preferment so that they could produce the sour bread that the locals had grown accustomed to. I just take about 1 oz of my starter and feed it so that it becomes 4 oz then I leave it till it well over ferments and starts to get a little acetic. Then I mix up my bread following Ben Starr's recipe, with the difference that it usually bulk ferments a little faster, because the yeast is now very active. Once you learn the tools, you can make your bread however you want it. You just have to learn to work with your tools. Bread is more about the method than just the mix of the ingredients.
This is great intel! Thanks for sharing.
Here in the Netherlands, sourdoughbread may only be called sourdoughbread if it is made with sourdough starter and nothing more.
So only flour, water and salt are the ingredients.
The law was adapted a couple years ago when lots of bakers/grocerystores sold sourdoughbread containing yeast and sourdough flavour.
I would LOVE to have that law passed in the US. But it would never pass, in a million years here. Laws are only passed in the consumer's favor if the consumers are dying from products. Otherwise, all the laws are passed in the favor of the manufacturer, who has the money to lobby our Congress.
@@ultimatefoodgeek sometimes it is good to live in the United States of Europe 😀
In the Netherlands we have tv shows for consumers in wich everything is checked like ingredients and how it is made (labour and hygiene etc.)
The consumers can demand the changing of these products.
Tony Chocolonely is started this way by a Dutch consumer program.
Does that mean it is not permitted to make a sourdough with inclusions in a bakery? Or to leaven a brioche or other enriched dough with sourdough?
@@joyfulgirl91 sourdough is just sourdough.
If you use yeast then it is called a hybrid.
And "permitted"...
If you make it at home, you can do whatever you want.
But in a bakery or grocery bread which is called sourdough may/must contain sourdoughstarter, water and flour.
And scalding is allowed because it contains the same basic ingredients.
Milk, honey and sugar is of course an extra which is allowed
@@APvdSteenoventhanks that’s what I was wondering, if including other ingredients while using a sourdough method was allowed to be labeled sourdough under your country’s rules. If we were to adopt new labeling standards for sourdough in the USA, it would make more sense to me for them to be about the method than the ingredients.
Because of your buttermilk video I keep it on hand and now I’m going to start using it in my sourdough! ❤
There is such a cult of sourdough! and it is so laughable! Your videos have convinced me that I've been right all the time! Our ancestors would not have enjoyed the "sourdough" crazy Big Hole Bread! I lived in a community of older French Canadian Monks for many years and I became their baker. Of course we used commercial yeast, but they so often pointed out that they didn't appreciate bread that had holes in it. And they didn't't like bread that was sour in flavour! their mothers and grandmothers made their own yeasts and they had local millers grinding their flour in Québec. It was only in the big cities like Montreal and Quebec City that they had commercial bakeries and commercial bread. they loved those commercial breads because they were "modern" and "convenient"... but like most French Canadian men they loved their "vieille gran'mère" and the wonderful breads and buns and yeasted goodies she made. I was making sourdough for the first time and it was the usual San Francisco style loaf with big hole and amazing ears and all that but it WAS sour! and funky! then I discovered Trevor Wilson's recipe for Sourdough sandwich bread and the lovely flavour of flours that kept their aromas and that it wasn't the starter that took over! Recently I have started weighing my shaping dough and have quite a lump left over. I started saving it for next time and have found that if I use that "Pâte fermentée" over and over the flavours of the bread become more refined and delicious. I usually Gove a loaf away when I bake and the recipients have remarked that my bread has improved in flour to a degree and they find it hard to resist and ask me for more bread. they love the crumb and the texture of it they love the crispy crust and above all they love a non-toasted sandwich using it! Less funk and more flavour I say! thanks Ben for your great videos!
Rodney, what an amazing story! Your time with the monks must have been incredible. Thanks so much for sharing!!!
If you made bread videos I'd follow you simply on the merit of this comment!
Ben, I am a newbie in the world of sourdough! I will be 75 this year and have been cooking since I was four! I watched many vids on you tube and read a lot of bakers advice. Yours made the most sense to me so I went with it! I made my first starter the end of December 2023. It has never been in the fridge. I feed it when I need more, maybe once in between. (I get a kick out of watching it! Lol) it has a great smell and excellent taste, though not really sour! We love it. I am waiting for another starter that began in January, with rye flour and only Guinness for water. It smells delicious but May not taste as good! We will see! Thank for the easy method….I would have really missed out otherwise. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks, and may even have some of their own up their sleeve! Thanks again, jan mar
Jan, you're a delight! Thanks for sharing. Interested to hear how your rye/Guinness starter will turn out. I think it's going to taste incredible.
Thanks for your continuing work to educate. I am loving your simple sourdough bread, in fact I now barter with it for fresh eggs and a few odds and ends of things from friends - they all love it. Oh, and had to put the push on my car mechanic yesterday to move me up the queue; fresh loaf from the oven did the trick! (Of course I am his mom too, but I generally wait my turn).
None of that was possible with the previous methods I used of discarding, feeding, stretch and fold baking.
Thanks again!!!
Oh, yes, you become VERY popular when you're "that homemade bread person."
My kids were listening to your video.along with grandma. They went ballistic when you talked about ferric acid. Thank you!!! As I explained to them this is why grandma cooks and bakes from scratch.
Boy, my Ben adoration just grew exponentially with the dictionary portion!! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 Now, on with the video which I paused for comment. LOVE your content!!🥰
Yes! The dictionary portion made my whole month!
I enjoyed your lesson you gave on 'acetic', and everything else. Your demeanor is pretty matter of fact without being pompous. Keep it up.
Enjoy your information and style of imparting same. Thanks for doing these.
Helpful Ben. I have to explain this to some of my micro-bakery customers. Thanks! And the tip to culture my own buttermilk? Priceless!
Thank you Ben for explaining your awesome! My husband loves my bread but always says it doesn't have that "sour" taste now I can tell him why. Thank you again!
Thank you Ben! Finally, an answer to the question asked by my husband for the last 5 years 😅🙌🏻🍞🥖
Yours is still my basic go-to sourdough recipe. Thank you Ben!!
I get more sour flavors with a multi day cold ferment. Good enough for me!
I have been making simple sourdough based on your recipe now for a few years, everybody love it, especially the jalapeño cheddar version. A slight twist to the jalapeño cheddar is to used 4 ounces of sharp cheddar and 4 ounces of habenero cheddar cheese, such as Cabot habenero cheddar. It adds a slight bit of extra heat on the back end of the flavor profile…
Heck yeah!
Thanks Ben, we found out about the fake sourdough many moon ago... love your teaching and tartness!!😅
Blessings ❤
thanks for your awesome videos!! I grew up on sourdough bread in Germany and had my first taste of "american sourdough bread" in California. I almost spat it out, it was disgustingly sour! I love your version, I wish my bread would get a little higher on the sides but it's delicious!! I had almost given up listening to people in those FB groups with their folding and all this other stuff, way too complicated. This is perfect!!
If your loaf isn't rising as high as you'd like I'm willing to bet your starter is overhydrated. Fix it using my Troubleshooting Simple Sourdough video at the 6 minute mark. See if that fixes your problem!
Wow! Ben! Thank you so much for teaching me how to cheat when I have to use my bread machine to make a quick loaf for my 6 children, 13+ grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren, oldest being 15. When they decide to congregate at Grammie's house for her sourdough bread and waffles, I know just how to "fake" it. 😂 Love your channel. I've been making bread from whole grains since the 1970s, but I'm really enjoying your approach and lessons. They are fun! Nothing sour about you. 😊
I have been adding yeast and buttermilk and egg to my starter for over two years and would never go back to just starter. It makes delicious bread with a great texture . Both crust and crumb.
I'm 52 , have been cooking and baking my whole life but had never made a loaf of bread. My young grandson is now on the FODMAP diet, it says that he can have sourdough with no yeast added. I couldn't find any at the grocery store. A friend gave us a boule of her bread, it was so sour I think it traumatized all of us. We are a ' white bread only ' family. LOL. So i watched a hundred videos and found you. My first attempt at starter failed (Pink Slime). I was discouraged but i tried again and got it. I was scared of what the flavor would be, but i made your simple sandwich loaf and it was perfect, not sour, such a good flavor. I might never buy white bread again. My boy is so happy to have sandwiches again. I can't thank you enough for your videos.
This makes me SO happy, Theresa! Welcome to the sourdough family.
Always excited to see a new video. Sharing...
Hello Suzy, nice to meet you. Sorry hope I’m not intruding, you have a wonderful profile I just wanted to say hello. Hope you are having a good day?
I once made a sourdough starter from organic grapes, and it resulted super sour bread without good rise of the dough. I was so confused, and discarded the starter at the end. Lol
This also explains why some store 'sourdough' breads don't have a good taste at all. False labeling at its worst. Another complaint I have is the unknown amount of time that commercial bread is left in storage. Haven't you gone into a big grocery chain and picked up a loaf of their in-store brand of sourdough and find it is still frozen. And they label it 'freshly baked'. HA
I saw half a loaf of sour dough at Walmart for $6 and it had vinegar added to the bread. It's crazy what they put in food to trick people.
Thank you, so much!!! I have shared your videos a hundred times along with my starter. THEN, I tell the folks I have shared my starter with that it will only taste like my starter for a couple of weeks until it starts to taste like the room where you keep their starter.
So good to see you! Thanks for the creme fraiche recipe, too!
Thanks Ben. I do make bread with a sourdough starter using your recipe. Keep up the good work.
You are a fabulous teacher…..thanks for
I have been using your simple sourdough recipe for a few weeks now as it’s the only one I have been consistent with. I have watched that video so many times I have it memorized! I made a loaf yesterday and used a bit less salt. It was noticeable within a few hours as the dough was expanding much quicker than the other times, just as you had said it would. I ended up baking it after about 13 hours since I was worried it might over proof. It came out great nicely puffed and just the right crumb, enough to hold butter but not giant holes or glued. We took it to a potluck dinner and one of the folks there commented that they usually don’t like sourdough since it’s sour but mine wasn’t! I told her all it is is flour, water, salt. I made the starter myself from the same bag of flour a couple months ago and I usually bake something once a week or so, so that’s how often I feed it as well. If I remember I feed it the night before but I am not consistent on that. About the only difference I have seen is the rate of rise. The dough made with freshly fed stater rises faster but it doesn’t make any difference in the taste or appearance just the time it takes to rise.
love your teaching and channel! keep up the good work!
You crack me up! Love your Channel. 😂
That was the most polite read for filth I’ve ever heard! Lol you tell em’
How can I make mine sweet? My mom’s neighbor use to make us sourdough and hers was sweet.
I use honey.
Linda said it, Lacey! Add an ounce of honey (and subtract half an ounce of water) to start. If you want it sweeter, add 2 ounces of honey (and subtract an ounce of water).
always an education! thanks for sharing your knowledge with us
Hello Michele, nice to meet you. Sorry hope I’m not intruding, you have a wonderful profile I just wanted to say hello. Hope you are having a good day?
I make a buttermilk preferment sourdough that's sooo soft and moist. Sometimes I'll throw in some raw clabbered milk in place of some of the buttermilk.
Would love your recipe
Didn't learn anything from this video, just an affirmation of my own findings. In my area there is ONE artisanal bakery that produces "real" sourdough. Four ingredients - flour, salt, water, and starter. That's it.When I get my timing wrong or forget to get a loaf started so that we are without for a couple days, my husband and I will resort to what we do, indeed, call "fake sourdough" that we keep in the freezer for such occasions. The loaves at that one bakery though are close to $6.00 which is why I got into sourdough. I can make it for a quarter of that.
Ben, you are the best! Thank you!
Wow..very interesting.... Thank you Ben
Thanks Ben!! You are the real deal!!
Okay, I understood the sour is fake. I am still beyond excited to try and get my bread sour with your tips. Thank you. Knowledge is power!
Wow. We may as well use battery acid, sounds a lot like petroleum products. I hate that they are putting harsh chemicals in all our food nowadays.
Thanks for clearing up the “sour” in sourdough. And thanks for the dictionary rant. You’re welcome at my campfire anytime.
Great Info Ben. I'm putting Buttermilk on the Grocery List. Gotta try adding it to my sourdough
Uhhhh, time for me to make a loaf with buttermilk! Thank you for that info. You are simply THE BEST! (Your #1 fan)
YES! so happy you made this video
You have totally rocked my world with your videos. I haven't bought store bread since I started this journey. I had English muffins in my hand today at Costco. "Nah, I will try Ben's method." 😮 I have also made your buttermilk and the buttermilk cheese. All were a success. Next is replacing the water with buttermilk in my loaf. Ty for sharing your talents with the world. Any suggestions for a pizza dough?
Pizza is coming!
I love your sour dough bread and I like all your sour dough videos
Hello Laura, nice to meet you. Sorry hope I’m not intruding, you have a wonderful profile I just wanted to say hello. Hope you are having a good day?
Im going to try buttermilk next time because my sourdough wasn't sour enough😢
I've been baking sourdough bread using your method for about 10 weeks now. I'm based in Delhi and ambient temperature in kitchen now is 30-40 C. In Feb I was able to get sourness with bulk ferment and 12 hour refrigeration. Now due to overactive bacteria the problem I'm facing is that the gluten structure is getting weakened before the size doubles. And as I've reduced the bulk ferment time the sourness has decreased. Overall size increase and oven spring is similar but dough feels weak. Will replace 25% of water with buttermilk and try..
I have had a similar issue and am in Central Florida in the U.S. my sourdough is extremely sour and the rise is less than desirable. I had to add 50 grams of my acidic starter to 25grams of bread flour and 25grams of water and after a few days of refreshing my starter it is less acidic and rises so much better! Good luck!
You can also add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to neutralize some of that acid. (Reduce the salt addition by a pinch if you do this, as the baking soda/acid interaction produces a salt.)
Love Ben Starr!
Thank you for the information. You are the best!
Buttermilk has been my secret ingredient for making the best tasting sourdough. Now I see it shared here for the whole world to see! 🙂
How much buttermilk do you add? I have some in my fridge that I was literally just asking myself "what am I going to do with this"?
@@saraguinta I use buttermilk for the entire liquid portion (no other milk or water) in the same number of grams.
Thank you for this! I've wondered why my sourdough loaves don't taste like the baguette I buy, on rare occasion, from my grocery store. I suspected they were using a "cheat."
I hope you don't mind that I used buttermilk when making your simple sourdough. After bulk fermenting for 12 hours, the bread had that little extra tang I was craving.
Interesting... I'm from the Bay Area, and got spoiled by those authentic sourdoughs mentioned. Since moving away many years ago, I've always been disappointed by store bought sourdough, because it never came up to the standard I was used to. That's what got me on a mission to make my own.
I've been very, very happy with the flavor of my bread using your recipe. But I'm not always happy with my rise. But I'm new to this, so I'll stick with your recipe until I nail it.
Thank you!!!
I purchased a loaf of Artisan sourdough and thought hmm I must not like sourdough as it was too tart. My newly acquired passion (thank you for your easy method) is delicious.
I passed your simple sourdough recipe onto two friends and they commented that it didn’t taste sourdough enough now I know why! I will try adding some buttermilk to the next recipe I bake and see what results I get thank you so much for your sourdough bread videos
Tell your friends to watch this video!
@@ultimatefoodgeek done ! And I am buying buttermilk today!
Great video!
Thanks for the information!! I left my dough in the fridge for about 5 days once. Now that was a super sour loaf!
You are lucky it rose!!
When I was a child, many many years ago we used to go to my aunt's and she bought salt-rising bread. It had a very unique taste but I really liked it. Do you have a recipe for it?
You have introduced a new term to me. I am RABID for food anthropology, so I will do research on this old method. VERY interesting...
Yup buttermilk is top! Use always! Never spoils in our house.
I like the sourdough a LOT. I like the sour flavor also. I will gladly make a recipe that makes my bread more tart. It's just another recipe after all. ALSO, I agree with you on how educational modern dictionaries are! While I'm here “alot” IS NOT A WORD!!
Truth!!!
@@ultimatefoodgeekI think I love you, but I'm not sure…
The Rustik Oven California style sourdough loaf. We just checked the ingredients and it doesn't have commercial yeast or added acid.
You found one! Very cool. That brand isn't sold in my region.
That's the brand I buy when I don't feel like making bread.
I add a Tsp. of vegan unflavoured, unsweetened yoghurt to my sourdough starter to give the bacteria a head start. Nice tang😇
I grew up in Southern California, eating Pioneer sourdough bread made in Venice, California. I have never ever found bread that tasted like that. Unfortunately, they’ve been closed for years so I can’t check the ingredients. It’s the flavor I’m always searching for.
The sourdough bread that I make is tart. It’s wonderful and it’s not fake. ❤
I got a grain mill about 2mos ago and my bread life has been a friggin nightmare ever since! I wish you'd do some info vids on fresh milled bread, hydration, levening, whole grains, etc!
If your goal with the grain mill was to make bread from freshly milled flour, throw out your grain mill. You CANNOT bake bread with 100% freshly milled flour. (At least...you can't bake it easily.) Freshly milled flour is NO GOOD for baking bread. ALL commercial flour is aged or chemically treated to oxidize it, in order to make it better for bread baking. If you want to bake better bread with your home milled flour...spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in the freezer for 2 months.
But even then, you can't bake a loaf of sourdough that is made of 100% whole grain flour, and have it turn out well, unless you use VERY high hydration...which requires a VERY active starter, and lots of strength building techniques.
SO...to be clear...if you want to churn out perfect loaves of bread, you MUST age your flour, and if you want those loaves to be made of 100% whole grain, you MUST use the complex techniques.
Otherwise...substitute only 8oz of your freshly milled flour, and use the rest of the 12 oz of flour as BREAD flour...and add an additional 0.5oz water to the recipe...and it will make you a decent loaf.
I appreciate you being pedantic about "acetic" however, lacto-bacillus produce lactic acid. Aceto-bacters produce acetic acid. Both would be present, of course.
You are correct, and my starter video explains the various bacterial colonies that are at work in the starter, and their byproducts. The issue is that "lacto" bacteria are most commonly associated with sourdough starters, acetic acid is what is most commonly used to flavor commercial sourdough, and many people have never heard the term "acetobacter"... so I was taking lazy shortcuts. Apologies to the true geeks out there.
@@ultimatefoodgeek I started my fermentation hobby with vegetables and quickly learned the distinction between lacto fermented pickles and vinegar pickles, so it struck me. I appreciate you taking the time to reply and I'm really intrigued by the lazy sourdough approach. It addresses the main thing that's kept me away from sourdough -- a high maintenance starter. I'm going to go watch your starter video now.
Hi Ben, I've been putting 1 tbs of apple cider vinegar in my sd to let it proof for 24h, but only to kill the phytic acid. A lot of homestead and natural lowtox accounts I follow do and recommend this. They say it is much better for digestive problems.
I've never put it in for taste, only to help kill phytic acid (hope im spelling it right) with making it easier for the body to digest. These accounts also recommend the whey (runny part) of Yoghurt, which I don't always have on hand 😊
The "danger" of phytic acid is largely overblown, and there's a TON of false pseudoscience out there about it. Phytic acid IS an antinutrient...but apple cider vinegar does not kill phytic acid any more than sourdough starter does, which is loaded with vinegar in the first place. In people with varied diets, phytic acid is actually considered a beneficial antioxidant. But if your diet consisted ONLY of bread and nothing else...then phytic acid could be problematic, as it would prevent you from absorbing the nutrients in the bread. STILL...you're not harming your sourdough by boosting it with ACV...but neither are you reaping any net benefits from it by "suppressing" phytic acid.
Our local company BREADICO Established 2012 in Sioux Falls SD list of ingredients: Flour, water, salt has excellent sourdough bread. My husband said mine is better.. I gotta agree, but I believe it's more of a tie.
EXCELLENT find! Of course, it's regional, so only available in your area.
Could you post a sourdough bagel recipe?
I appreciate how thorough your explanation is in this video. However, my question remains: how do I make my authentic sour dough taste Less sour? Thank you! 🍞😊
Add a little baking soda to the initial mix to neutralize acidity. Start with 1/2 tsp baking soda, and reduce the salt content to 0.5oz. The reaction of baking soda with acetic acid produces a salt, so you don't want to over-salt the recipe.
@@ultimatefoodgeek Thanks Ben. I will try your suggestion. 🌻
Buttermilk, ha. Ima hafta try some in my next sourdough bake.... ;). Mebbe a lil acid too.... I likes tart...
Hi Ben, thank you for sharing your knowledge of all things sourdough, I love your video’s. I have a question for you…I have sourdough discard in my fridge for about 3 or 4 weeks and would like to use it for pancakes, but it smells very strongly like acetone. What should I do? I’m not sure if it’s ok to use like that.
It's fine to use! Many starters have that smell. It will vanish while cooking.
@@ultimatefoodgeek I would love a SD pancake video. Mine seem tough.
@@ultimatefoodgeek Thanks Ben 👍
So butter milk isn’t the liquid that is left over from making butter? Boy am I confused.
Watch the buttermilk video!!! What you described is old fashioned buttermilk made at home, and it no longer exists, except on a handful of farms. Modern buttermilk is lowfat milk cultured with bacteria...just like yogurt or sour cream.
I find my sourdough bread to be quite sour sometimes little strong
You have a starter that is naturally high in acids, and this DOES occur in some areas. But it is unusual.
Two questions. Replace all the water with buttermilk? How do you store the bread to keep the crust from becoming soft and yet keep the crumb from drying out?
I slice it the next day ( easier to cut) and store in the freezer. Pop slices into the toaster oven without defrosting and the crust crisps up beautifully as the interior toasts. The refrigerator makes bread go stale, plastic bags make it soggy. The freezer is the answer. Hope Ben concurs.
Btw, I place the cooled, freshly baked boule in a linen bread bag overnight, and slice it the next day if I want to preserve it for a longer time. Don’t microwave it to reheat. Toaster oven or actual oven is best.
Chianti's advice is sound. You CANNOT preserve crisp crust and moist crumb without intervention before eating. If you wish to store at room temp, err on the side of preserve the moisture of the crumb. (A closed container or beeswax cloth is best.) The crust will soften, but the bread will require less intervention before you eat it. If stored in beexwax cloth, you can slice and eat it the next day with no intervention. Or, you can put the whole loaf in a 350F oven for 10-15 minutes to crisp the crust back up, and then slice.
But slicing and freezing is best, understanding that you MUST heat it back up to bring it back to life.
@@ultimatefoodgeek I'm happy to hear you can't preserve both. I thought maybe I was crazy. Thank you for the advice. I will save it.
@@chianti95 Thank you for the advice. I'm always telling people in my house that bread does not go in the frig. Nice to have it confirmed.
My sourdough bread is so sour! I think it's because he usually has a lot of hooch on top which I stir in.
This just means your starter contains highly active bacterial cultures that produce a ton of acid. If it bothers you, stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the initial mix, and lower the salt content to 0.4oz.
@@ultimatefoodgeek I love the sour taste! Maybe because it's a whole wheat starter.
Water kefir is a good acidic addition too
Not sure if it's national (I do live in the Bay Area) Redding French Bakery Fisherman's Wharf Style Extra Sourdough Bread. MY FAVORITE store bought sourdough,this is the most real one I have found, it does taste like real sourdough and is very sour.. Ingredients are unbleached enriched wheat flour, water, sourdough starter, salt and cultured wheat flour (no yeast). oh wait I do see folic acid in the list but I have heard that California is forcing a lot of companies to add folic acid to everyday foods since many people are low on folate. Even read an article today that they are thinking of forcing it into corn masa.
Interesting! I doubt the folic acid is responsible for ALL the tartness in that loaf. It's sort of taboo in San Francisco to "fake" your sourdough, since it's the capital of sourdough in the US. I'm just curious how they are extending the fermentation process to produce all that acid, within commercial restraints.
@@ultimatefoodgeek I am also wondering but it's delicious. I use your easy sourdough recipe a lot because it's awesome but when I want really sour sourdough I eat that one. Just keep a couple of loaves in the freezer.
I really dont care too much for sourdough thats too Sour.
Another informative video, thank you. I made a loaf for my son with a starving starter. He said it was too sour for his taste prefers store bought. Crazy or what?? I think I may have kahm yeast growing on my starter, smells fine a thin layer of pale yellow hooch with small white opaque bubbles on top. What should I do, start over completely?
Kahm isn't harmful, so there's no need to worry about it. But scrape it off, discard all but 4 ounces of your starter, and give it a big feeding, like 8-12 ounces of each flour and water. Let it sit on the countertop for 4 hours, and put it back in the fridge.
If successive loaves are still too sour for him, you can add 1/2 tsp baking soda to the mix, and reduce the salt content to 0.5oz.
@@ultimatefoodgeek thank you very much for your advice.
Can buttermilk be used to replace the water at all stages of the Starter or just in the sourdough recipe?
I do not recommend adding dairy to your starter. Ever. The risk of spoilage is too high.
Can you use milk kefir in place of water, either in your sourdough starter or your bread recipe?
Yes, in the bread recipe. I don't recommend it for starter, since it's going to sit at room temp for 2 weeks. That's a LOT of food for spoilage bacteria and mold until the starter matures and can protect itself, plus the potential for the fats to go rancid.
What's your source for the Latin pronunciation rule mentioned here? I know of at least two standards, neither of which claims to be authoritative (as far as I know)
As a dead language, Latin pronunciation must be "assumed" from the living languages that are closest to it. But there is 100% confidence in pronunciation of the vowel "e" because NO other Latin-based language has ANY "long-e" pronunciation for that vowel. It really doesn't matter which resource you use for this specific vowel, because you won't find ANY resource that mentions a "long-e" pronunciation for the vowel "e" in any context.
I accidentally left my refrigerated starter out after using and feeding it in a warm spot and woke up and it bubbled over Can I still use it? Do I just discard half and refeed and put in fridge?
Yup. You don't even have to refeed.
Hi Ben
Just a quick question. How long do I have to wait to make bread after I have feed my starter that I made using your method.?
I have started a loaf as soon as 2 hours after feeding my starter. Just keep watch on your rise. If your loaf rises faster than normal, you'll wanna reduce your second rise a bit.
Wow you know alot of stuff
Hi Ben I hope I didn’t mess up the making of my starter. I think I used All Purpose flour in the beginning of making my starter and after 8 days I used Bread four. AM I SCREWED?
Nope! You're fine.
@@ultimatefoodgeek thank you Ben your videos are great and I can’t wait to brag about my sourdough 😂😂😂
Do you know how to make yogurt? If so I’d love for you to explain it to me. I’m using my instant pot.
Yogurt is very easy to make in the Instant Pot, if your Instant Pot has a yogurt function. (Most do.) This is the method I use: www.thekitchn.com/instant-pot-yogurt-267450
Could you get it more sour by adding more starter and decreasing the flour you do in your recipe ?
Yes, you'll have to do some math, though! And it won't be LOTS more sour. To get a VERY sour dough STRICTLY through fermentation, you need a pre-ferment. This adds a lot of complexity and extra days, and I teach SIMPLE methods. You'll need to look to another channel for complexity.
@@ultimatefoodgeek ok. If you do have to feed it how long after a feeding should you wait for it to age in fridge to do your style of recipe ?
Are you saying that I can make sourdough bread and it won't be sour like the store bought ? I've always wanted to make sourdough bread, but I've stopped myself because I just assumed it would be as sour as store bought bread, and honestly, that excessive sour taste is not appetizing to me at all.
Most sourdough is NOT sour, like what storebought sourdough tastes like. Yes. That's what this video explains. Most people complain that sourdough recipes don't yield a "sour" bread. Try it!
How about kefir? Does that work instead of buttermilk? I make that daily.
Kefir and buttermilk function the exact same way in baking!
@@ultimatefoodgeekThank you! I appreciate your response. What is you opinion of the Askersrum mixers? I own an old Kitchenaid now.
What about gluten free bread? A must for me.
Not possible, I'm sorry. Have you noticed that every gluten free bread you've tasted has been gross? It's not POSSIBLE to make delicious gluten free bread...because bread is made from gluten. The facsimile created with starches and gums has a revolting texture. (The only way to make it edible is to toast it heavily.) I experimented with GF bread for 7 years. I've tasted EVERY commercially-manufactured GF bread I could find. I've tasted bread from EVERY artisan GF bakery I could find around the country. Gluten free bread is gross...that's all there is to it. Unfortunately.
could I substitute vegan coconut yogurt for the buttermilk?
Yes!
So when would I use buttermilk?
In every one of my recipes that calls for buttermilk. In EVERY recipe that calls for REGULAR milk. (Just don't heat buttermilk in recipes that call for scalding milk...skip that step.) Use it to marinate meats (1 Tablespoon of salt per cup of buttermilk is a general brine for chicken, pork, beef, or seafood.) Buttermilk removes the "fishy" smell from seafood that's been thawed for too long. Watch my video on buttermilk and you'll learn all sorts of useful ways.
How come they took down your simple sourdough video?
They didn't! I put an "obsolete" label on the oldest video, because too many people were asking me questions about it, and I posted a newer, easier method in 2023.
@@ultimatefoodgeek TY very much
Love your videos
Do u have a sour dough pizza recipe??
I second this…please do a pizza video.
I sorta like chasing tarts... J/K
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@@ultimatefoodgeek Hey, Ben, am about to do my second feeding of my sourdough starter per your method for the "lazy man" this afternoon. So far, it's working better than expected and can't wait until I can finally make bread and share the results with you! Keep up the good work, my food geek friend!
I appreciated the explanation about the sourness or lack of it in sourdough breads.
However, I'm not sure why you needed to address the pronunciation issue around acetic acid for over a minute just because perhaps a few trolls may pounce on you for your pronunciation. It takes away from the main message of your video. You could have just quickly stated that you prefer a certain pronunciation for a certain reason.
If in fact trolls do pounce on you for that, then both you and the trolls are incorrect. Dictionaries started to become more descriptive with the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) in the late 1880s and with the publication of Webster's Third New International Dictionary in 1961. That is, they stopped telling us what "proper English" was and began to favor documenting common usage and pronunciations.
It's one thing to prefer an approach to how things are defined and how things are pronounced and to make a case for a more prescriptive approach to definitions and pronunciations, but it's incorrect to say that "the dictionary is actually wrong." English, like other languages, is a living language, which is why today we don't talk or write like they did in 1884. For nearly a century and a half, English language dictionaries have sought to capture that kind of change.
True. And see, your long response is EXACTLY why I included that rant! This is part of my branding. This is who I am. If you look through the comments, you'll find people who LOVED that rant. These people are more likely to be devoted to my content. Perhaps you are, as well, even though we somewhat disagree on the concept of a dictionary and whether it should allow language to degenerate, or whether it should attempt to preserve its purest form. (To be clear, I am all for updating dictionaries to include noble new uses of language, but to accept and publish uneducated pronunciations ["sherbert" for sherbet] and degenerate language use [like "lol"] is unforgivable to me.) At least we THINK about these things...whereas the majority of the public could care less. We geeks must band together, even though we are likely to more fiercely disagree on subjects like this!
Lengthy video on the most commonly mispronounced food words coming soon! I hope you'll tune it, and offer your criticism!
@@ultimatefoodgeek Goodness gracious. Interesting, fuh-suh-ney-ting times.
I appreciate your positive reply, by the way