So, I've been trying to make a sourdough starter for a few weeks now and every time I try it gets a really strong cheesy smell and some slightly orange/yellow water in the bottom of the starter. It always happens after the second feed and, after I discard half of it and feed it again (third feed), it just doesn't seem that there is much still happening to it. I am now on day two again and I'd like to know wether discarding this water should be enough. Also, with the water, some part of the flour also goes to the bottom. I have no clue of what I am doing wrong. The recipe I am doing is the following:
Day 1
50g wholemeal flour
50g water
- Place the flour and water into a clean bowl and stir together until fully combined.
- Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 2
50g wholemeal flour
50g water
- To the sourdough starter add 50g wholemeal flour and 50g water. Stir together until fully combined.
- Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 3
100g wholemeal flour
100g water
- Throw away 100g of the starter.
- To the remaining starter, add the 100g flour to the starter and mix in the 100g water.
- Cover and leave overnight.
Day 4
100g wholemeal flour
100g water
- Throw away 150g of the starter.
- To the remaining starter, add the 100g flour to the starter and mix in the 100g water.
- Cover and leave overnight. The starter should start to smell pleasantly sour with small bubbles appearing on the surface.
Day 5
150g wholemeal flour
150g water
- Throw away 200g of the starter.
- To the remaining starter, add the 150g flour to the starter and mix in the 150g water.
- Cover and leave overnight. The starter should appear active and full of bubbles.
Day 6
200g wholemeal flour
200g water
- The starter should be quite active now and be full of little bubbles and smell slightly sour.
- Throw away 250g of sourdough starter.
- To the remaining starter, add the 200g flour to the starter and mix in the 200g water.
- Cover and leave overnight.
Day 7
- The starter should now be very active and full of bubbles and is now ready to use.
- Remember when making your sourdough bread to always retain some sourdough starter which will be fed/refreshed, ensuring you have some sourdough starter for the next dough.
Of the starter?
It acts normally. You might want to wait a day between day one and day two. Just let day one be 48 hours long. Don't discard what you have now, do not feed it, just give it a day to sit and do nothing,then continue.
Thanks for the tip!
I did as you said but now my starter is really runny and is releasing water on top of it. Also, I'm now on day 5 and it doesn't seem very active, I can see some bubbles rising through this water, but it's too little amount (I think). The sourdough itself just seems to have no inner structure to be able to grow too, so it's always in the same level. Is it all normal?
tath rising bubbles can be seen. Don't feed it yet. Give it another day and watch the clarity of the separated water. When yeast activity increases, this water will start stirring itself and slowly get cloudy. I've played with a lot of various starters and the water separation just means there is a lot of water in the starter. No biggie you can correct that later with the next feeding when you see the water clouding up. All you have to do is stir it well and discard the half, then add enough flour to make a soft paste. Then watch it rise. When the following rise peaks, you can discard and feed the starter. Once the population of yeast blooms, it can go quickly thru food. Then it is important to give it enough flour or the yeast will start making beer or hooch. Your starter is not old enough to be making hooch. It is just flour and water separation.
You actually get a good opportunity to watch the bubbles start to rise up the sides and then erupt through the wet flour surface. They will slowly increase with time collecting like little pearls around the edge of the water until, like I said, start to murk up the water. Let the water get pretty cloudy and then stir it up and continue. Chances are good the starter was over fed up to now but letting the starter sort itself out for a day or two should help.
Mini
what is the temperature of the starter? If below 75° this "starting" will take longer.
As someone having struggled for 3 weeks like you and finally having fixed it, can suggest that until your starter starts doubling in 12 hours, you feed it using 2:1:1 ratios, i.e. 60g starter, 30g water, 30g flour - that way you are keeping resulting mixture sour (higher acidity) promoting yeast growth.
My biggest problem was that I started feeding 1:2:2 from day 3, thereby cancelling out all the acidity changes that starter has developed with lots of fresh water.
Once it starts reliably doubling in 12 hours, switch to twice-a-day feeding, changing the feed ratios gradually first to 1.5:1:1 (51:34:34grams) and then to 1:1:1 (40:40:40), then to 1:2:2 (24:48:48), and after feeding at 1:2:2 for 3-4 days you are good to refrigerate feeding 1:5:5 (11:55:55)
All numbers are for 120g resulting serving )))
I'm not the original person but I'm trying what you said, I think I was having the same problem.