I always thought my sourdough starter needed a fancy name until I read a study from a university bakery program

I was reading through some old course notes from the baking program at Johnson & Wales, which a friend sent me, and they had a whole section on sourdough. The part that got me was a small study they did where they tracked starter activity. They found that starters given simple, consistent care with plain names like 'Starter A' or 'B' actually performed more reliably than ones with unique names and fussy routines. The idea was that the baker's own consistency was the key, not some magical touch. I'd been calling mine 'Bubbles' and talking to it like a pet, which is fun, but I started just feeding it exactly 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water at the same time every day, no special flours. After about two weeks, the rise time got so predictable I could set a clock by it. Has anyone else tried stripping all the 'personality' out of their starter care and just gone super basic with it?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_faith9h agoMost Upvoted

Makes me think of my weirdly calm kombucha scoby.

leodavis7h ago

What exactly makes a kombucha scoby seem calm to you?

hugo_robinson255h ago

My buddy had a starter he called "The Beast" and it was always a mess until he just labeled the jar "Flour Water" and stuck to a schedule.