Jul 2, 2009

Burping Yeast...

Remember how I mentioned that the Cat Daddy decided to make a sourdough starter last night? At 10:45 pm?

So, this morning he left to go on alert until tomorrow afternoon (24 hours, my eye). Apparently it exploded in the night, but before he left he cleaned it up and said something. I don't remember his exact words, as I was still lying bleary-eyed in bed while one kid nursed and the other decided that 6 am is a perfectly acceptable waking-up time (which it used to be, in my previous life when I went to bed by 10pm). But it was on the order of "Hell, let's keep it going and see what happens." Awesome. 2 kids, 2 dogs, and now a colony or two of yeasties.

So I am in charge of the care & feeding of the starter while he's gone. I'm hoping that avoiding eye contact and being as amiable as possible will appease the starter to the extent that it will keep to itself. I don't care if it burps at me, I just hope it stays in the bowl...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't cover it tightly! Just set the lid on top without closing it completely, or even cover it with a cloth and a rubber band as long as you're feeding it often.

Mine now lives in the fridge in a mason jar with a screw-on plastic cap kept loose. When I feed it, it lives overnight in the oven with no cap, and if I prepare more of it to bake with, that lives overnight in a large bowl in the oven with a cloth and rubber band.

Skerrib said...

See, these are things I know not of. He used Press & Seal. Loosely placed Press & Seal, but I'm guessing it still wasn't breathable enough.

When yours lives in the oven, do you turn on the oven or keep it room temp?

Thanks for the tips Marcy. I actually would like to do a starter...just not at 10:45 pm. =)

Anonymous said...

Is a press and seal a bag or a plastic container?

Starter will do better in glass or ceramic -- definitely not metal, and preferably not plastic.

I preheat the oven to maybe 100 degrees and turn it off before putting the freshly fed starter in there. If you can comfortably touch the inside of the oven door, it's okay. If you have an oven with a light, don't bother heating the oven, just turn the light on (and leave it on).

RichardB said...

Ladies ladies ladies... give me credit where credit is due. I have some baking street cred you know. OK, I put it in a glass bowl, with press and seal wrap on top...with one little area not sealed so the air could escape. I also put in a probe thermometer to monitor the temp... kept it within 10 degrees of 85. However, sometime in the middle of the night, the enitre thing apparently went nuclear and I had a bunch of doughy goo on the counter top. My guess is the little yeast colonies turned into a dammed country, declared independence and started a war with the bowl. Anywho, all turned out well, it was a milk starter... and it all smells very much like wine now (which it is suppose to, according to Alton Brown). We'll try our first batch of bread soon... and keep this one going, but I want to try a wild yeast starter...b asically you let whatever wild yeast is running around in your neighborhood infiltrate you starter and bada boom bada bing you have a sourdough starter.

Anonymous said...

Rereading your first two sentences I was so very puzzled -- who is this guy? And how did we not give him any credit? And then I kept reading and realized ah -- he must be the husband. So -- hi! and well-met.

Skerrib said...

Ah, yes...that would be Richard, aka the Cat Daddy.

Bee said...

Richard The Yeast Colony King has me laughing now.

Sourdough...yummm.

Okay, so how did it turn out?

RichardB said...

Not as sour as I would have hoped... being that I did use a milk based starter... I'm thinking wild is the way to go, but if the wild yeast doesn't taste to good around here, then I might try for some Austrian wild yeast, I found a deal and the rumor has it its pretty potent stuff.. hella sour and all.