Part

Sourdough starter

You might say: levain, natural leaven, mother dough, culture

A flour-and-water culture of wild yeast and bacteria, kept alive by feeding.

What it does

Leavens dough and produces acetic and lactic acids that give sourdough its characteristic flavour.

Ask

Is the starter active, and at the right point when I use it?

What to look for

1. Bubbles through the jar and a domed top at its peak
2. A yeasty, sour or fruity smell
3. Rises and falls in the jar between feedings

Parts

• Feeding ratio: The proportions of old starter, fresh flour and water at each feed, such as 1:1:1 or 1:5:5 by weight.
• Starter peak: The point where a fed starter has risen highest, just before it falls, with bubbles throughout.
• Starter feeding cycle: Feed, rise, peak, fall, feed again: the rhythm that maintains a starter.

Sources

1. Jeffrey Hamelman, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes, ch. 1, p. 12As a rule, fermentation is initiated either by the use of a natural leaven, elaborated from a sourdough culture that the baker maintains, and added to the dough at the time of mixing in order to generate the fermentation
2. King Arthur Baking, Sourdough Baking FAQ, Sourdough Baking FAQWhen wild yeast is combined with flour and water, the yeast begins to feed on flour's natural sugars, producing carbon dioxide gas in the process. … The wild yeast in sourdough produces both acetic and lactic acids as it consumes the starch and sugars in bread dough.
3. King Arthur Baking, Sourdough Baking FAQ, Sourdough Baking FAQSince acetic acid is quite sour (think vinegar), bread dough that rises in the refrigerator overnight will tend to produce a more sour loaf than dough that rises for several hours at room temperature.
4. King Arthur Baking, Sourdough Baking FAQ, Sourdough Baking FAQFlour: The cornerstone of sourdough, flour provides the food yeast feeds on, and hosts flavor-producing friendly bacteria as well.
5. King Arthur Baking, Feeding and Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter, Feeding and Maintaining Your Sourdough StarterWhile there are many ways to successfully maintain a starter, there are two basic options to choose from: keeping your starter at room temperature and feeding it daily or storing it in the refrigerator and feeding it weekly.

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