Author Topic: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?  (Read 3504 times)

slope

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5 days into starting a fresh all new sourdough starter, it's going mental. I can see it moving, expanding, bubbling, growing and about to overflow the jar!

What does one do?

1 litre jar, lid cocked at an angle not airtight. Began with 40g of wholemeal rye/80g strong white + 120ml water. Added the same again 2 days later - so starter is 480g. Then next 3 days, discarding half and replenishing daily with 40/80 flour and 120 water to maintain the 480g total, in the morning.

Today it's going nuts by 2pm! I stirred it back down and now its 4pm and going crazy again! Kitchen not that warm.
 
Help!?


Kim

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #1 on: 17 February, 2019, 05:29:37 pm »
Take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #2 on: 17 February, 2019, 05:36:51 pm »
Rrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn!!!!!!

ETA:
You're gonna need a bigger boat bowl [/Chief Brody]

Basil

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Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #4 on: 17 February, 2019, 05:56:27 pm »
https://youtu.be/TdUsyXQ8Wrs
At 1:38 there's a tenuous link to home baking.
Just sayin'

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #5 on: 17 February, 2019, 07:08:55 pm »
Make bread with it...
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #6 on: 17 February, 2019, 07:50:16 pm »
Invite some exciting young people round for a baking party.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Pingu

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #7 on: 17 February, 2019, 08:03:59 pm »
Do not clench...

Vernon

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #8 on: 17 February, 2019, 11:14:36 pm »
Discard three quarters and replenish with 60g flour and 60g water (i.e. halve your starter). I keep 120g of starter on the go - you don't need loads.

slope

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #9 on: 18 February, 2019, 07:16:27 am »
Discard three quarters and replenish with 60g flour and 60g water (i.e. halve your starter). I keep 120g of starter on the go - you don't need loads.

That sounds like a cunning plan  :thumbsup:

Here's what I woke up to -




Vernon

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #10 on: 18 February, 2019, 07:52:15 am »
Oh yeah, and make pancakes or oatcakes with the excess.

Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #11 on: 18 February, 2019, 08:54:26 am »
Crikey! If it's that active, I'd say it's time to start baking. I do sourdough at long enough intervals that my starter lives in the fridge most of the time. Some folks recommend a couple of days of feed/refresh cycles for a starter out of the fridge, but I find that a refresh late afternoon/early evening perks mine up enough to do an overnight sponge before I go to bed. As Vernon says, sourdough pancakes are an excellent use for surplus starter.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #12 on: 18 February, 2019, 05:02:40 pm »
I have never had a starter that frisky.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #13 on: 18 February, 2019, 05:03:08 pm »
Oh yeah, and make pancakes or oatcakes with the excess.
With bacunz & maple syrup, natch. :P
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

hellymedic

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #14 on: 18 February, 2019, 10:33:59 pm »
I suspect the Rabbis of yore must have known some frisky flour.

Flour and water mixture must be baked within 18 minutes or it is deemed 'leavened'...

Kim

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #15 on: 18 February, 2019, 10:36:30 pm »
I suspect the Rabbis of yore must have known some frisky flour.

Flour and water mixture must be baked within 18 minutes or it is deemed 'leavened'...

Yeah, I like to think there's a story behind how they arrived at that particular definition...

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #16 on: 18 February, 2019, 10:50:05 pm »
18 minutes is peculiarly precise. Especially considering that if the rule is sufficiently old, they wouldn't even have been using hours (at least not as we know them).
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

slope

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #17 on: 19 February, 2019, 08:12:35 am »
Slope is back in control ;D for the moment at least. Carrying over slightly less mother starter to feed and using cold water meant the 'growth' peaked before the top of the jar and was slower getting there  :thumbsup: Plus there's a few Staffordhire oatcakes in the freezer  :P

hellymedic

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #18 on: 19 February, 2019, 03:16:23 pm »
18 minutes is peculiarly precise. Especially considering that if the rule is sufficiently old, they wouldn't even have been using hours (at least not as we know them).

AIUI an 'hour' was 1/12 or the time between dawn and dusk.

I presume the '18 minutes', was originally 1/40 of this interval.

In human terms it's approximately the time to have a coffee break but only a fraction of a lesson.

[Totally OT] We had a somewhat whacky/nerdy teacher who was in charge of organising the timetable. He split the school day into 20 minute 'modules'. One module for assembly or break, two for a standard lesson, eight for A Level practicals...]

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #19 on: 19 February, 2019, 03:35:19 pm »
That was my understanding of the Roman hour too. Whether there was a Jewish hour that pre-dated it, I have no idea. But then nor do I know how far back this ruling on leaving the leavening goes.
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hellymedic

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Re: Help! Sourdough starter about to go crazy and spread all over the kitchen?
« Reply #20 on: 19 February, 2019, 03:45:05 pm »
Nor do I but Wiki gives some other background...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chametz

I note etymological Arabic 'sour' with 'leavening'...

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