7 Sourdough Starter Tips (REGULAR vs LIQUID vs STIFF)

With this video you will learn the key differences between different starter types and bake better bread by following these 7 tips.

Also thanks everyone who helped me find large adult balloons. I only had very small ones at home 🤣. If you don't know what an adult balloon is please consult grandpa or grandma.

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Chapters:
0:00 intro
1:55 Make your bread taste like mild yogurt
4:30 Make your crumb more open
8:20 More starter leavening power
10:40 Understand starter feedings
13:20 Stiff starter to fully replace dry yeast
18:20 Improve your sourdough bread taste
20:50 Bonus tip

#sourdough #sourdoughbread

[MxThem]

The white flour starter is named Fred. The whole wheat starter is named Myrna. I can get out of social events by telling people I have to get home to feed Fred and Myrna, and they assume it's either 1) my grandparents or 2) my dogs.

[keithepstein]

My starter is named "Ruby". Last year I dehydrated Ruby and stored the dried flakes in a plastic bag against the chance that Ruby died. Then in December 2020, I came down with Covid-19 and was in the hospital for close to 3 months. When I got home, Ruby was gone. I grew a new starter, but it was never as good as Ruby and I was always disappointed with the bread from the starter. I thought I might have lost my touch, but then I remembered the dehydrated Ruby. I re-hydrated Ruby over three days and I think she's even stronger than the original from which she arose. Every loaf I have baked with Ruby-arisen-from-the-ashes has been quite satisfying. I have played with different flours and settled on 50/50 blend of Rye and Bread flour. I have never tried dropping the hydration of the starter below 100%, so I'm looking forward to that experiment. Thanks for the excellent Tips video. I always look forward to new experiments from you. Keith

[mikelbarea]

I called my starter Paula, after my best friend, because she needs to be constantly fed, hydrated and loved 😂😂

[jaxperience]

I just now realised that you start your videos with "Gluten tag" and I genuinely laughed waaay too hard.

[alfonsz.]

I made my starter from imported Italian flour. He was a bit moody with an attitude in the beginning ... so I called him Toni Sourprano 😎🍕

[pmarcum]

As a scientist myself, I absolutely love the scientific approach you have adopted for bread-baking. Knowing *why* one does such-and-such in the bread-making process is so much more powerful than just being told to do such-and-such. I suspect a lot of sourdough myths have developed over the years because people didn't know *why* they were doing what they were doing, and so instructions got misquoted or misconstrued as recipes got passed down from one generation to another. And also, how could we not be amused by the rather creative use of "adult balloons"🤣 My sourdough starter originated in Jan 2019 during the U.S. federal government shutdown (or "furlough"), which seemed like the perfect opportunity to take up a new hobby and get my mind off of not being able to go in to work. My sourdough's name is therefore "Furlo".

[kakanibalaprasad]

Never heard such a long lecture since I left college. So much of information! Must see this video multiple times to digest it completely and correctly. Thank God it's the weekend.

[tomepperson]

I had two starters in the beginning, Fred and Wilma but Fred unfortunately committed suicide by leaping from the fridge. Needless to say I did everything possible to revive Fred. Fred did not go down without a fight. We will miss Fred. Wilma on the other hand has proven to be strong, reliable and very tasty.

[alterego]

Nice video!
Here is a nice little tip that I came up with. Use whey in your starter when feeding or just making from scratch. Makes for a crazy good starter! 😮😊
If you don't know what "whey" is. It's the stuff that drips down if you strain yogurt or any other kind of dairy. It's also nice to ad some when making your dough. Happy baking everyone! 😁🙏

[bunhelsingslegacy]

"adult balloons" <falls over laughing>

My starter is called Thing 2 (from Dr. Suess). I started it in March last year at the same time as I was reviving Thing 1 which I started accidentally some years before while making dumplings and had been in my fridge unused and unfed for like a year. Thing 1 caught an infection later in that year (got a wrinkly skin similar to the texture a Brettanomyces infection in wine looks) so I discarded it and focused on Thing 2.

[Jahloveipraise]

My starter is named “McLevain” its a Superbad reference, the nerdy dude McLovin lol Thanks so much for all of your hard work! I truly love the scientific approach to sourdough. By far the best bread channel on the internet!!

[marcpicou]

My sourdough starter is called Brienne of Starch. I love your videos. Thanks

[Xanderqwerty]

My starter is named "Ida." I've been growing them since August 2021, when hurricane Ida was wreaking havoc, and my sister liked the name for it. I've later used it as an acronym for "Indefinite Dough Ascender" for its amazing power to last for weeks in my fridge with few refreshes and to raise my dough like some delicious form of necromancy.

[julieandrew]

I bought my 50 year old starter from Scotland so it’s called McSour. I’ve tried thick and thin but it always turns out heavy and hard, but I’m persevering. I’ll get it one of these days.

[nancypeterson]

The most success I’ve had in sourdough
Baking has been with stiff starters in lower percentages coupled with at
Least an hour autolyse and bulk fermentation times under 5 hrs. Have to leave some gas in the tank to rise in the oven. Thanks for your hard work.

[Phlya]

Thank you for sharing these results. Couple of points. To compare the gas production I think it would be much more fair to compare the starters based on the amount of flour in them, not total weight. So e.g. in 150g 100% hydration starter there is 75g flour, while in the 50% hydration there is 100g flour. And flour is what gives food to the yeast (and LABs/AABs).
Additionally, about pH: it could be different just because flour can buffer the solution, and with different hydration the same amount of total acid (TTA, ) will give different pH reading. However the taste is more affected by TTA than by pH, afaik (pH will affect the point when gluten starts getting degraded though!).

[sensetaste]

Thanks for the master class 'sourdough' I use a stiff starter always made with rye. The name of my starter is BUBBELS.

[lancykwan]

Greetings from Hong Kong! My sourdough starter's name is "Benji" named after my last dog who was always by my side when I baked breads. Long live "Benji"! As for your video, it's great! You provided some really good information and explained in a way which is easy to understand. Thank you very much! I look forward to learning more from your videos.

[vaazig]

My starter is named Rutger Sour, after the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. R.I.P.

My second starter is Mandough, as in The Mandoughlorian. I might rename him to Landough Calrisen. Not sure. 😅

[evelynwald]

Empress Tangy is my sour dough’s name. Someone put me on the spot to name it and that’s what I, literally, blurted out. She rules! She is made of 20% dark rye, 80% bread flour and 100% water. Your experiment with starter was very interesting to me. I had the best rise in my bread when I used a bread flour that was 14, 2% protein vs regular bread flour that is around 12%. The total amount of flour I use is 390g, of which 290g is bread flour and the remaining 100 grams could be rye, whole wheat or khorasan (kamut) flour mixed with 60g of starter and 280 - 300 grams of water. I use more water with rye and less with the Khorasan. Thanks for all of your interesting experiments and videos.