Question about natural/sourdough starter

S

shaun-in-to

Well-known member
Liquid levain, actually. I started it in late November, when it was cool and dry, not ideal conditions, and though it's alive it's a bit slow--the first bread I made with it took a day and a night and the next morning to do all its rising and proofing.

I can't decide if I should get rid of it and start again in summer, when conditions are better, or just keep feeding it regularly and assume that it will get livelier in summer anyway. Does anyone have experience?

 
Are you using any other leavening, like a bit of dry yeast, in your dough?

If it's 100% sourdough/levain that you are using for the leavening and nothing else, then I think it does take a long time to rise. Most sourdough recipes we use up here have an addition of a bit of yeast when making the dough. Could you post your recipe?

 
I added 1/8 tsp active dry yeast ...

in a recipe using 185 g of liquid levain. I could add more, but that seems to me to defeat the point of using a natural starter.

Since I work at home, the long time doesn't really inconvenience me. Never having worked with a natural starter, though, I just wondered if it was active enough, and whether I should start over or give it more love. It bubbles, but it's not as wildly bubbly as a biga or sponge starter, and not like sourdough starters in the movies, which take over the kitchen ...

 
What "feeding schedule" do you have the starter on?

When I was baking breads using a clone of Nancy Silverton's starter, I'd be feeding the starter 2-3 times a day for 4 days or so before using it. Also, you want to time the feedings so that you are getting the starter to it's maximum strength when you want to use it. Depending on your kichen conditions, that could be anywhere from 3 to 6 hours after the last feeding.
If you haven't checked either her book or one of Peter Reinhart's on the subject, you may want to seek one out for reference.

 
To maintain it, I feed it ...

every three days, then there are three feedings on the "build-up" day, before baking day. When you start the starter initially, you feed it twice a day for three days, before the build-up day.

I'm using the recipe in a cookbook called Piano, Piano, Pieno: Authentic Food from a Tuscan Farm, by a well-trained (Cordon Bleu and San Franciso) baker.

I've read parts of Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible and Joe Ortiz's The Village Baker, and Collister and Blake's The Bread Book, but no one really visually describes an "active" starter. It seems to be strong enough; when I separate my 1 oz. for feeding, it has the consistency of melted (cheap) mozzarella, long and stringy and you can cut it with a spoon.

Maybe I'll try two build-up days. And maybe crank the heat up in the kitchen.

 
You might not be maintaining an adequate

population of yeast with your current schedule.
Nancy almost goes overboard describing what an active starter should look and smell like.
Rather than cranking up the heat in your kitchen, you could just place the container of starter into your oven with just the light on. I find that the light warms the oven to close to 80 degrees F. (If you have a gas oven with a pilot light, that may also be warm enough without the light bulb burning).

 
When you feed it, does it rise? It should bubble up in its container in a few hours, then subside

 
No, it doesn't rise. It shows a few small bubbles on top.

I'll try the extra feedings, and keeping it in the oven, and see what that does. Thanks for all the tips.

 
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