A quick internet search for instructions on making sourdough starter is almost guaranteed to lead you to something along the lines of:
1) Mix equal amounts of water and flour; leave to ferment for 12-24h.
2) Discard half of the mixture and feed the remaining with equal amounts of water and flour.
3) Repeat the fermentation, discarding and feeding process for about a week till the starter is rigorously bubbly.
This may be how starters have been cultivated for decades, but it is a method that is glaringly wasteful! Moreover, many Singaporeans (or people living in climates similar to Singapore’s) who follow this method find that their starters “fail”. This could mean that their starters have split, gone mouldy, developed a strong odour, or yielded gummy/uber-dense/ill-structured loaves time and again. Preventing these issues from coming your way, however, is actually ridiculously simple.
Here’s a no-waste method of cultivating sourdough that will be pretty much immune from the aforementioned failures:
To provide some explanation:
1) The age-old rationale behind discarding half your starter before each feeding is to ensure that you won’t accumulate too much of it, since the more starter you have, the more flour and water it takes to feed it, which would be wasteful – how very ironic!
Instead of discarding a portion of your starter so that you’d be left with a manageable amount after each feeding, with this no-waste method, you start the process with an extremely small amount of starter which you then feed and build up to that same “manageable amount” over the cultivation period!
2) If a starter fails even when one uses clean equipment (unclean equipment being the typical cause of the development of mould) and follows instructions from the web to a T, it tends to boil down to over-metabolism.
A starter that is over-metabolised may develop a top layer of clear alcohol called a hooch (which could 1. give the appearance of splitting if it mixes with the main body of your starter and/or 2. give off an odour) OR go into a mild form of dormancy in order to prevent itself from starving (which leads to decreased leavening potential, which in turn leads to the yielding of horrible loaves).
The higher the hydration of your starter and the higher the temperature at which it is stored, the faster its yeast will metabolise your feedings. Given that you can neither make our climate any less brutal nor leave the starter in the chiller during the cultivation period (since that low a temperature would greatly slow the establishment of the yeast colony), the solution is to lower the starter’s hydration – hence the 10:7 ratio.
Note: Don’t go blaming other sourdough guides for recommending the usual 1:1 ratio, though. Given that sourdough is most popular in Europe and the US, most of these guides are written by bakers hailing from such places which tend to have much more temperate climates...so it’s not that they are giving wrong information, they’re just providing information that is ill-suited to our climate.
3) After the cultivation period, which should span 5 days given our warm (and cursed) climate, you should transfer the starter to your chiller as shown in the graphic. This will slow the metabolism of your starter so that you won’t have to feed it every day, which is great if you are an average home baker who wants to get your hands floury just once in a while. Of course, if you are intending to introduce sourdough into your home-baking business, or are just borderline-unhealthily obsessed with sourdough baking, keep your starter at room temperature.
Some additional pointers:
1) Ensure that your jar caps or container covers are not screwed or fixed on too tightly. Your starter will need proper covering to prevent it from drying out or being contaminated by foreign objects (or insects) but it should not be kept in an airtight environment. Remember: your starter is alive and breathing...if it expands in an airtight environment, you might just end up with an explosion (no exaggeration here at all)!
2) Many sourdough guides stress that you shouldn’t allow your starter to touch metal at any point because there would be a reaction. Starters are acidic, after all. However, there is no real need to be pedantic about that – especially if you’re using stainless steel – as such reactions won’t be instantaneous. Just ensure that the starter and metal object aren’t in contact for long periods of time: that is, you should absolutely NOT keep your starter in a metal container/receptacle of any sort, but it is alright for you to mix/feed your starter with a metal spoon. And, obviously, do not use a rusted spoon…
3) It’s likely that you’re wondering what kind/grade of flour to use for cultivating and maintaining your starter. Let’s get some things straight. Your fancy flours should be reserved for the actual bread dough. As for your starter, the yeast is going to break down whatever is in the flour anyways, so the grade really wouldn’t matter. If you’re opting for a non-white flour such as whole-wheat**, buckwheat or rye instead, note that the use of these more nutritious types would entail the need for more frequent feedings during the maintenance stage (see next section). Whatever it is, just ensure that your flour isn’t bleached, chlorinated or bromated.
**We don’t recommend that you use this as whole-wheat starters tend to smell like water that’s been used to boil hotdogs!
STARTER MAINTENANCE
If you are keeping your starter in the chiller as we’ve recommended, you’d just have to feed it weekly/fortnightly according to the 10:7 ratio. If you are using a non-white flour, choose to feed weekly, or even once every 5 days. Daily feedings are required for starters kept at room temperature...as you should have figured by now.
You needn’t be pedantic about the overall size of the feeding. 100g of starter, for example, should be given about 50g flour and 35g water – i.e., the mass of the meal doesn’t have to be equal to the initial mass of the starter, as was called for during each feeding of the cultivation period. Also, after you’ve done a few feedings, you should be familiar enough with the process to eyeball the measurements. Just ensure, though, that you don’t feed your starter with a stingy amount. Refer to this graphic for a summary:
Note that, since it is a live thing, your starter may display unpredictable behaviour, demanding additional feedings. If it smells like ripe fruit (which signals the formation of esters), nail polish (acetone), or – worst of all – cheese/old socks (butyric acid), it is too acidic to be used and would degrade the gluten in your bread dough. To fix this, simply give your starter an additional feeding once you notice the smell of ripe fruit/nail polish. If you get the nasty cheese/old socks odour, discard 90% of your starter and replace that lost mass with a generous feeding.
Also, if you have neglected your starter for months, it would have gone through these 3 stages of forming esters, acetone and butyric acid; developed a thick and dark hooch; and gone into full dormancy. Fret not, because you should be able to revive it with just 3-4 feedings, the first of which should be done by discarding 90% of the starter along with all the hooch and replacing the lost mass. It’d be best to keep the starter at room temperature during this period and do the feeding daily.
If you intend to neglect the starter, please pop it in the freezer or dry it! Drying can be done by spreading your starter into a thin layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment, leaving it for about a day, and breaking it up into small flakes or grinding it into a powder for easier storage (which should be at room temperature). Don’t ever starve your starter on purpose! Make bread, not trouble!
Freezing and drying are also great ways to help manage your starter when you’ve accumulated too much of it. A typical 500-600g sourdough loaf calls for about 50g of starter, after all, and if you bake on a monthly basis, for example, you may find yourself having too much starter on hand. Instead of discarding a portion of it, simply freeze or dry what you don’t need – this would also provide you with a backup in case the one in your chiller gets spilled, or even contaminated! Alternatively, you could use up excess starter by incorporating it into a ton of other treats (see next section).
Once you’ve decided to come out of your sourdough-baking hiatus:
Froze the starter? Thaw it in the chiller for 2 days, then give it at least 3 feedings (daily, at room temperature) before returning to the usual maintenance routine.
Dried the starter? Rehydrate it, treating the dried starter as flour (i.e., for every 10g of dried starter, mix in 7g of water), then give it at least 3 additional feedings (daily, at room temperature) before returning to the usual maintenance routine.
OTHER USES OF STARTER
Comments