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hendricius / the-sourdough-framework

Open source book dedicated to helping you to make the best possible sourdough bread at home.
https://breadco.de/book
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Creating A New Starter Should Include Acidification #381

Open tbpassin opened 3 months ago

tbpassin commented 3 months ago

We've known from the mid-2000s that acidifying the starter-to-be at the start makes the whole process much faster and less prone to trouble. See Debra Winks on TFL: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1

Also see my recent post on TFL, which reports on my creating a new starter that was ready to go in two days:

New Starter In Two Days - Wow!

hendricius commented 3 months ago

@tbpassin nice article there. Do you think your starter was ready so fast because you used the pickle brine? You effectively used the spores from your pickles to create a new starter 😎.

tbpassin commented 3 months ago

Yes I certainly do. And no. I'm sure it wasn't spores from the pickle brine, it was the acidity. With a pH that low, yeast growth in the pickles was very suppressed. If you go back to that thread, you will see a follow-up comment by Debra Winks. She has gotten the same 2-day creation of a new starter using a bit of citric acid to get a similarly low initial pH.

When the low pH liquid is mixed with flour, apparently the dormant yeast spores can wake up and become active. With the acidic liquid, you bypass those early days that plague many efforts, and avoid the mixture getting stuck growing unwanted or disease organisms.

hendricius commented 3 months ago

Very interesting experiment. I personally had a starter ready after 3 days, without changing acidity. That could also come from the high contamination with starter microbes in my kitchen. It would be nice to do a bit more experimentation here. Any suggestions on how to incorporate this into the book?

tbpassin commented 3 months ago

Maybe you haven't seen all the threads on The Fresh Loaf begging for help with new starters. They didn't get a new one going in three days, even using whole grains. The only one I got going that fast, before the pickle brine, was using beaten rice flakes. And like you I suspect that the high level of yeast in my working area may have helped it along.

I will think about possible changes to that section.