I read somewhere that starting a sourdough from dried starter, it takes
30 days or so for the starter to reach maturity. This meaning, long
after the starter has gotten all bubbly and smells like white wine, it
still takes that long for it to be mature. By be mature I would guess
maximal sourness. Is this all hogwash, or is there something to it? Also
I have been using Carl's sourdough which has been working out very well
but... the bread is not all that sour. What, aside from artificial
sourness, can be done to help?

Robert Dodd wrote:
>
> I read somewhere that starting a sourdough from dried starter, it takes
> 30 days or so for the starter to reach maturity.
> Is this all hogwash?

Sort of. If you make a starter from grapes or other "miracle"
process, it can take a period of continuous refreshment for the
proper sourdough organisms to be introduced and take over the new
culture. In the same manner, if a dry start comes up unbalanced
or missing a componet organism, it can take a period of time to
aquire the missing componet or attain balance.

Most often, though, good dry start comes up ready to go in a day
or two. It just takes a feeding or two to adjust to the
environment and schedule in your home.

>
> ... the bread is not all that sour. What, aside from artificial
> sourness, can be done to help?

Look for ways to extend the fermentation time of the dough.
Perhaps a double rise. I would be careful that your expectations
are not being set by a product that is itself artificially
soured. Good sourdough is not of necessity particularly sour if
you are speaking of white bread.

Regards,

Charles

--
Charles Perry
Reply to:

** A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand **

"Charles Perry" > wrote in message =
...

> ... Most often, though, good dry start comes up ready to go=20
> in a day or two. It just takes a feeding or two to adjust to the
> environment and schedule in your home.

That is not to say, however, that some people will not enjoy
struggling with an undated dry start which has expired before
sale. (Most dry starts are undated, though it may be assumed
that Mr. Perry uses a culture which comes in a dated package.) =20

> Good sourdough is not of necessity particularly sour if you
> are speaking of white bread.

Though possibly not a necessity, it is a definite possibility.
Samartha, for instance, says so:=20
http://samartha.net/images/SD/BYDATE...-26/index.html
Me, too.

Making dough which will survive a long enough rise is not a
trivial task, particularly if a mid-rise deflation is done to avoid
bloating. For that, the gluten needs to be properly developed,
but over-kneading and over-development of preferments (incl.
sponge) must be rigorously avoided.

MHO continues that folks who limit themselves to cold dough
fermentation (rises), sometimes carried to the absurd extreme of=20
"proofing" in the fridge, may not live long enough to enjoy sour=20
sourdough bread, on account of the little-known thermal coefficients=20
of fermenative processes. OTOH, those folks may never see the
ugly effects of gluten degeneration, on account of the time &
temperature dependencies of that/those degenerative process(es).

---
DickA

Problem resolved - the bread now tastes like sourdough. I don't have any
idea whether maturity had anything to do with it, more likely other
changes in the way I made the bread.

Problem resolved - the bread now tastes like sourdough. I don't have any
idea whether maturity had anything to do with it, more likely other
changes in the way I made the bread.

Hello all,

Im kinda new to this newsgroup but I've been baking sourdough for the
last two years at home and in resturants, using my own made from
scartch starter(100% hydration, wholewheat organic flour).
I recently got a dried batch of S.F starter(goldrush) and it acts very
diffrent from my own starter(maybe im doing something wrong).

I revived my dried starter using 4g of dried culture with 100g flour
and 100g water. after 24 hours it was fed again and looked active.
i baked with it 3 times so far, but wasn't satisfied with the end
result.
My bread was 20% wholewheat organic flour, 80% bread flour. with 20%
starter of total dough, 60% hydration and 2% salt.
I had a few problems:
the fermention was really slow(8-12 hours) and the dough felt slack, I
was affriad its not gonna keep its shape so the proofing was done in
baskets lined with cheescloth and dusted with rye flour(proofing took
3-5 hours). the final dough flattened out a bit before i put it in the
oven. the final bread came out a good sour taste with big irrugular
hole crumb, however it was poor in volume.
all of that led me to belive that the yeasts in my starter didn't
develop quite right. the lactobatilli developed fine with a tasty
sour, but the yeast is slow. you can also notice it by watching the
starter closly, it smells ripe and active but there are not many
bubbles.

what can i do to solve those problems without adding commercial yeasts
to the dough? maybe i should change the hydration or the salt content?

Regards
Amit .b.