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Yeast Diary - Day 7
Apr. 19th, 2020 01:31 pmSorry I missed a couple of days. But I assure you, there's a very good reason for it!
I forgot.
Okay, okay, I'm sorry. There really is no excuse, other than getting sidetracked with other stuff. But I'm back to report progress. And lack of same.
Jar 1
Abandoned and dumped. Even after following the instructions for several days, it really didn't amount to anything. So much for following a method I found on Twitter, even if dozens, if not hundreds, of people were raving about how great it worked for them. In any case, it's down the drain and good riddance.
Jar 2
This is where the fun stuff is happening. With regard to the jar itself, it kind of exploded. In the literal sense. I'd been using a 1 litre mason jar with a plastic screw top put on loosely, to allow gases to escape, and it grew fast enough after the first feeding to overflow a bit into a bowl I placed under it. The next day, it overflowed twice in only about 7 hours, one of those overflows being much more enthusiastic. Pushed the lid right off, etc while I was out of the room.
I think what was happening was that it was a relatively tall, narrow jar, so there was little surface area at the top for gases building up from fermentation to escape. So I ended up with a thick, and fast growing, layer of foam above a layer of alcoholic liquid, the "hooch" as sourdough people call it. The trick was to figure out how to pour it off without losing all the rest of the good stuff, before mixing things up for use and feeding. Took a couple of days to figure it out, but I've got the trick of it now.
The other change I made was transferring from a 1 litre jar to a 1.5 litre bowl with a lid, again placed loosely to allow gases to escape. So far it seems to be working, and I haven't come anywhere close to an overflow.
Experimental Loaves
Here's where things get annoying, and I'm just going to say it outright: I FSCKING HATE MAKING SOURDOUGH. The results have always been questionable at best for me, and honestly it pisses me off being essentially forced to go back to it. But here we are, and I'm prepared for a long string of failures.
Which is exactly what I got. I tried using my standard bread recipe, a very simple procedure from The Tassajara Bread Book. It's never once failed me with dry yeast, and it takes variation quite well. So I tried it using the original fermented raisin water, before the first feeding. I'm told this is questionable, since the strain isn't all that strong until you've fed it a couple of times.
Well, I got bread -- kind of. it was cooked just fine on the outside, but the inside was goopy and raw. Even the cooked bits were more like a quick bread than I'd expect a yeast bread to be like. Disappointing, but I more or less understand *why* it was disappointing.
So I was going to try yesterday, but apparently due to a combination of pouring off a fairly significant amount of "hooch" and the overflows, I only had a cup's worth of starter. No way to take away a cup for use and have anything remaining to feed. So I just fed what was there without throwing anything away.
Today, I've started a new loaf. I'm not actually hopeful that it will turn out any different in any way from the previous. The "sponge" step wasn't promising, and after 10 minutes of kneading the dough was springy but still ended up sticking to the counter, something my regular bread never does. Hopefully I'll be able to bake it today or even this evening, and we'll see what I end up with.
Let's say the early signs are not promising though.
I forgot.
Okay, okay, I'm sorry. There really is no excuse, other than getting sidetracked with other stuff. But I'm back to report progress. And lack of same.
Jar 1
Abandoned and dumped. Even after following the instructions for several days, it really didn't amount to anything. So much for following a method I found on Twitter, even if dozens, if not hundreds, of people were raving about how great it worked for them. In any case, it's down the drain and good riddance.
Jar 2
This is where the fun stuff is happening. With regard to the jar itself, it kind of exploded. In the literal sense. I'd been using a 1 litre mason jar with a plastic screw top put on loosely, to allow gases to escape, and it grew fast enough after the first feeding to overflow a bit into a bowl I placed under it. The next day, it overflowed twice in only about 7 hours, one of those overflows being much more enthusiastic. Pushed the lid right off, etc while I was out of the room.
I think what was happening was that it was a relatively tall, narrow jar, so there was little surface area at the top for gases building up from fermentation to escape. So I ended up with a thick, and fast growing, layer of foam above a layer of alcoholic liquid, the "hooch" as sourdough people call it. The trick was to figure out how to pour it off without losing all the rest of the good stuff, before mixing things up for use and feeding. Took a couple of days to figure it out, but I've got the trick of it now.
The other change I made was transferring from a 1 litre jar to a 1.5 litre bowl with a lid, again placed loosely to allow gases to escape. So far it seems to be working, and I haven't come anywhere close to an overflow.
Experimental Loaves
Here's where things get annoying, and I'm just going to say it outright: I FSCKING HATE MAKING SOURDOUGH. The results have always been questionable at best for me, and honestly it pisses me off being essentially forced to go back to it. But here we are, and I'm prepared for a long string of failures.
Which is exactly what I got. I tried using my standard bread recipe, a very simple procedure from The Tassajara Bread Book. It's never once failed me with dry yeast, and it takes variation quite well. So I tried it using the original fermented raisin water, before the first feeding. I'm told this is questionable, since the strain isn't all that strong until you've fed it a couple of times.
Well, I got bread -- kind of. it was cooked just fine on the outside, but the inside was goopy and raw. Even the cooked bits were more like a quick bread than I'd expect a yeast bread to be like. Disappointing, but I more or less understand *why* it was disappointing.
So I was going to try yesterday, but apparently due to a combination of pouring off a fairly significant amount of "hooch" and the overflows, I only had a cup's worth of starter. No way to take away a cup for use and have anything remaining to feed. So I just fed what was there without throwing anything away.
Today, I've started a new loaf. I'm not actually hopeful that it will turn out any different in any way from the previous. The "sponge" step wasn't promising, and after 10 minutes of kneading the dough was springy but still ended up sticking to the counter, something my regular bread never does. Hopefully I'll be able to bake it today or even this evening, and we'll see what I end up with.
Let's say the early signs are not promising though.
