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Starter ripeness: when it matters, when it doesn’t, and how to tell
Published 2 months ago • 3 min read
Understanding the stages of starter growth: when ripeness matters, and when it doesn't
Firstly, I should say that there’s no need to get stressed about perfect starter ripeness, and no need to go out and buy expensive temperature regulating gadgets or any special equipment. The idea of “ripe” is more of a spectrum rather than an exact point in time. There is quite a big window of “ripe enough” when you can bake great bread from your starter, and the cooler your room is, the longer this window will last.
You can take a ripe or almost-ripe starter and retard it in the fridge for up to 12 hours if you want to lengthen the window of ripeness.
To some extent, the lower in hydration your starter is, the longer the ‘ripe’ window will be too. A desem-style starter is a kneaded dough starter that is kept in a fairly cool place, and is at its peak of ripeness for two whole days.
For the most part, I prefer the simplicity of a 100% hydration starter, so this post will focus on this style of starter (I’ll talk more about desem in a future email).
The stages of starter growth
When getting to know how your starter behaves, I recommend using a wide-mouth glass jar. These are easy to clean, and you can see the bubbles on the side. To get a better idea about how much it has expanded, as soon as you’ve mixed your starter, you can make a mark on the outside of the jar with a marker, or put a rubber band around the level of where the starter is.
When first mixed, your starter will smell like raw flour and have no bubbles at all. If you were to taste it raw or cooked, you wouldn’t taste much sourdough flavour.
The rate that it then begins to grow will depend on the starter seed percentage (the proportion of old starter that you added to the fresh flour and water). I adjust the amount of seed starter depending on room temperature and how long I want it to be before it’s ready.
After a while, you’ll start to see bubbles forming in your starter, and that it has begun to expand in size. This young starter is slightly active and very mild in taste. It doesn’t contain anywhere near the concentrations of bacteria and yeasts as would be in a ripe starter.
If you’re in a hurry and need to mix bread right away, you can use this starter, just keep in mind that your bread will take longer to ferment if you are using the same amount of this as the ripe starter called for, the timings can be unpredictable, and the results can vary a lot.
You can also use this young starter in larger amounts, in order to create a mild flavour in the final loaf. If you have this kind of starter and you want to adapt a recipe to use this instead of ripe starter, simply remove 100g water and 100g flour from the final dough for every 200g extra starter you add to it.
Allow your starter a bit longer to culture, and the bubbles will get larger and more numerous, and the starter will have increased in size significantly. The amount that it will increase will depend on the type of flour you’re using. Rye starters will increase less than wheat ones. Whole grain starters will increase less than white flour ones. For 100% whole grain starters, you’re looking for at least a 1.5x increase in order to call it ripe.
Once it is at peak ripeness, you will see cracks forming on top of the starter.
Cracks on top are a sign that your sourdough starter is ready to bake with.
If your starter has reached this peak and you’re not ready to bake, quickly cover it and move it to fridge temperatures, where it will stay at optimum ripeness for around 12 hours.
Once your starter passes this peak, the starter will appear to have collapsed slightly in the jar, and the balance of bacteria to yeasts will change in favour of the bacteria. This will make for bread that is more sour, and will not rise as well as it would if the yeasts were more dominant.
Working with overfermented starter
If you have overfermented starter and you need to bake with it, use less of this starter than you would ripe starter.
In general, overfermented starter is fine to start a pre-ferment or levain with (just use slightly less of it), but in same day/straight dough loaves that use a lot of starter, the bacteria-dominant qualities will come through more strongly, and at the extremes of overfermentation you’ll end up with the vinegary brick-like loaves that many beginner bakers are familiar with.
In short
Not-quite-ripe starter: Use in larger amounts for mild-tasting loaves and pastries.
Ripe starter: Good for all purposes.
Overfermented starter: Fine for starting a pre-ferment, levain, or starter refreshment with. If you absolutely need to use it in a “straight dough” type sourdough bread, use less of it than you would ripe starter.
May your bread always be lovely, Floury regards, Kate
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Weekly sourdough recipes and tips from an experienced baker and homesteader, with a focus on 100% whole grains. Subscribe today to get a free eBook of sourdough discard recipes.
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