We need to figure out if our starter is ready to use.
So there's a few things we should be looking for when we are trying to determine if our starter is ready.
So I have a starter here that I fed yesterday with about 30 grams of flour and water.
And then I let it sit for about 12 hours and go take a look at that.
You can see how it's a little bit fluffy, a little bit jiggly.
Let's see a little bit of those little air pockets that are in there and it has grown substantially.
So this looks like visually that it is ready to go.
Let me just give it a little bit of a smell, has a nice little vinegar smell to it, as well as a little
bit of a sour smell to it.
So I know just from the smell and from the look of it that it's ready, but you might be struggling
with how do I know that it's ready?
And so what you could always do is you could always do something called the water test.
So what you could do is take some water, take a spoonful of your starter just like so, and drop it
into that water.
If the starter floats, which it is, you know, that it's ready to use, if the starter sinks, that
means you still need to give it a little bit more time.
Now, another indication that you can tell the starter is ready is just by how much it's grown.
So when you first feed your starter, you want to look at the side of the container.
OK, I've got to do this quick and then see how much it's grown to show that it's gone up about twice
the size.
OK, so there's a few indicators, right?
Twice the size.
Does it float in water?
Does it have a little bit of a sour or a slight vinegar smell?
And do you see those air bubbles?
Of course, the longer you leave your your starter, the more sour it's going to get.
And choosing your starter at the right time is really critical if you want to get a consistent flavor
out of your sour dough, as well as making sure that you don't get something that is too sour because,
you know, depending on the flavor profile that you're looking for will depend on how much time you
want that starter to sit by for.
OK, but we know that this starter is ready to be used.
So let's go ahead and let's use that starter.