Sourdough starter - when do you give up?
I'm on Day 14 for my sourdough starter and can't get it to work. I had a half inch rise on Day 3 and nothing since then. I am using 1:1:1 with the flour component being made up of half whole wheat and half all purpose.
I leave my water out overnight in case of chlorine, and I noted that at room temperature, the batter is at about 68 degrees. In the oven with the light on, it gets up to about 82 degrees.
I had been feeding it twice a day, but was advised to back off to once a day until I see some activity. At best though, all I see are a few bubbles as shown here: photos.app.goo.gl/pEe3Su9dwizMnPyM9
I can't find rye flour at the moment (covid scarcity).
Any suggestions from you more experienced chefs? Or should I give up on this batch and start over? I'm wondering when to give up on this two week old potential starter.
Many thanks!
Wendy
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I'm hardly an expert, being only two loaves in to my sourdough journey, but a friend suggested that I toss a few raisins in to my starter and lo and behold, it went NUTS.
Instead of tossing in the raisins, I would recommend letting 10-15 raisins (more? I don't think it matters) into some water and letting that sit for a day or so, and then adding just the water - the actual raisins in my starter got funky and it was a nuisance to fish them out of the goop. Now, whenever I feed my starter, I use raisin water.
The two loaves which I've baked are STELLAR. Nice rise, beautiful sourdoughy flavor, lovely crust. I couldn't be happier.
Also, try feeding one part starter to two parts of water and two parts of flour. (1:2:2) It really gets things moving - the yeast now has so much more to eat. I learned this from the food geek on the internet and on youtube.
foodgeek.dk/en/
and "foodgeek" on youtube.
He's very informative. He also has interesting baking calculators. Check him out!
For the most part, I follow Bake With Jack (bakewithjack.co.uk, and also on youtube) I began with him, and have chosen to follow his advice until I get more understanding.
Typically you can begin to give up at around day 5-7. (Especially if you've taken an aggressive feeding schedule.)
With an aggressive feeding schedule (2-3 times daily), you should begin to see bubbling and sour notes by day three (and is a good indicator for collecting the Lactobacillus bacteria).
Ref: Full Proof Baking
By Day 5, I typically give up if there's no rise or sour notes.
There's two common factors that make sourdough fermentation difficult.
the Type of flour
If you use plain/white, there's not enough nutrients - so adding rye, ground cereal, or anything with whole grains will help.
The water quality
Chlorine or other chemicals might be present in your source, so getting a tap filter and boiling/resting the water will assist.
Summary:
- try increasing the feeding cycles until you get the sour notes, keep note of the water/flour until you get some smell/reaction.
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