Description
This article is from the Sourdough
Starters FAQ, by Brian Dixon briandixon at hotmail.com.
5C. Sourdough Starter: Barely Living
Visible bubbles exist, but the starter has no
frothy layer of bubbles on the surface of the starter. Also, bubbles
beneath the surface are not plentiful. It's likely that a layer of
hooch, a benign greyish or yellowish, mostly clear, layer of water
and alcohol, formed on top of the starter even though it was not
proofed for more than 12 hours. Stirring the starter with a wooden
spoon, then drawing the spoon out of the starter and examining the
starter clinging to the back of the spoon shows only a few bubbles in
the starter. Note that one of the key symptoms of starter in this
stage is the layer of hooch which mysteriously appears "early," (
vibrant, fresh starter usually requires 24 to 48 hours of proofing
before any hooch appears. Hooch appearing after being refrigerated
is another story, so ignore refrigerator hooch for now. Other
symptoms of this stage include slow rise times ( 3-6 or more hours to
raise a bread recipe to double (if it ever does double). Second
risings are quite often unsuccessful and the dough appears 'dead'.
The dough may have a dead feel to it and tend to flatten out by
itself while rising, even though you kneaded in enough flour and the
gluten was well formed. The starter itself may also have a
gelatinous feel to it, rather than maintaining a smoother,
pancake-batter-like consistency. Starter in this stage has not
stabilized the symbiotic relationship among the microorganisms
present, i.e. the ratio of yeast and the various lactobacilli has not
stabilized and the starter is not ready to use (except for pancakes).
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