A HOOCH UNDETECTED
Hello! I'm back at it again with more updates on my sourdough starters! Recently, they have been doing pretty well. They seem to be rising everyday and whenever I mix them up, they each look like their own sort of dough. But, before I can hop more into how they're currently doing, I'm going to be discussing their first week or so of life and something I definitely failed to recognize for quite some bit of time.
THE FOUL SMELLS OF DAYS 2-3 (AUGUST 29TH AND 30TH, 2020):
To start off, I should note that I considered the day I started my experiment to be Day 1. Day 2 was the first time I "fed" my starters since starting them. These first couple of days, my peach starter and my control starter both developed a foul smell. On August 29th, 2020 at 7:31 PM, I noted that my peach starter had a bodily smell, like that of sweaty socks. I also noted that the smell made me physically gag. On August 30th, 2020 at 8:23 PM, I noted that the control starter had also developed a bodily smell, but this one reminded me of vomit, more specifically, it reminded me of baby spit-up. My lemon starter maintained a sour (lemon) smell. It honestly reminded me of how a lemon custard would smell (I recorded the smell for this starter at 7:31 PM on Day 1 and 8:23 PM on Day 2).
Now, from the very second day, my starters had starting developing a hooch that I failed to recognize until day 6. To be fair, I thought a hooch was a liquid layer that developed in-between the top and bottom layers, but even so, I should've been more observant. I even remember wondering to myself around the 3rd and 4th day, "why haven't I had to switch to a twice a day feeding schedule yet?", even though at that point I had noted in my lab notebook that I noticed a liquid layer developing.
On the second day, my control starter had even started to develop a liquid layer in between the top and bottom layer, I just thought it was too soon to start switching to a twice a day feeding schedule and I thought my other starters hadn't started developing yet. So, yeah, I would say my biggest challenge in this experiment so far was being able to recognize what exactly a hooch is.
A Hooch Undetected - This photo was taken on Day 2, August 30th, 2020 at 8:33 PM. From left to right, you can see (1) control 1, (2) lemon 1.2, and (3) peach 1.1. As you can see from the picture above, all three starters had already started to develop a hooch (control 1 had even developed one in-between its top and bottom layer). However, I was oblivious to this fact for a few days, so the starters remained slightly hungry for the six days that I wasn't completely aware what a hooch was.
REMAINING OBLIVIOUS TO THE HOOCH: DAYS 4-5 (AUGUST 31ST AND SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2020):
Now, the smells for the peach and control starter started to change on the fourth and fifth days. On August 31st, 2020 at 10:17 PM, I recognized that the peach starter had started to develop a fermented (yeasty) smell and on September 1st, 2020 at 10:45 PM, I recognized that the control starter had also starter to develop a fermented (yeasty) smell. The lemon starter still maintained its lemon custard smell on both these days.
At this time, I CONTINUED to remain oblivious about the fact that my starters had developed hooches. On August 31st, 2020 at 10:17 PM, I noted that control 1 had the thickest top liquid layer and peach 1.1 had the thinnest top liquid layer, but failed to recognize what that top liquid layer was. I did the same thing on September 1st, 2020 at 9:32 PM, stating that all my starters had started to develop an equally thick liquid layer.
Oblivious to the hooch - This photo was taken on Day 6, August 31st, 2020 at 10:22 PM. From left to right, you can see (1) control 1, (2) peach 1.1, and (3) lemon 1.2. As you can see, my starters remained hungry and I was still oblivious to what a hooch looked like.
RECOGNIZING THE HOOCH: DAYS 6-7 (SEPTEMBER 2ND AND 3RD, 2020):
On September 2nd, 2020 at 9:40 PM, I finally figured out what a hooch looked like and made the decision to switch to a twice a day feeding schedule. I fed them at 10:11 PM on September 2nd and then fed them about 15 hours later at 1:46 PM on September 3rd, 2020 (I've been feeding them around 12-2 PM and 12-2 AM everyday since). I should also note that around that second feeding (on September 3rd, 2020 at 1:25 PM), the lemon starter had also started developing a fermented (yeasty) smell.
However, while I had come to recognize what a hooch was, my starters still kept developing one for a couple days after I switched to a twice a day feeding because while I was feeding them more frequently, I still wasn't feeding them enough.
The first second feeding - This photo was taken on Day 7, September 3rd, 2020 at 1:46 PM. From left to right, you can see (1) control 1, (2) lemon 1.2, and (3) peach 1.1. This was after I had finished feeding my starters and the day I started switching to an every twelve-hours feeding schedule. Although, I should note that this had been 15 hours after their previous feeding on September 2nd, but after that, I slowly developed a more consistent feeding schedule.
A JOURNEY TO LESS LIQUID-Y STARTERS: DAYS 8-9 (SEPTEMBER 4TH AND 5TH, 2020):
On September 4th, 2020 (Day 8) at 1:02 PM, during the second feeding of that day, I made the decision to change how much flour and water I was feeding my starters. In hopes of making my starters less liquid-y, I made the decision to take out the one scoop of old starter as usual, and then proceed to feed them each one-and-a-half scoops of flour (rather than just one scoop) and a little less than one scoop of water (rather than a full scoop).
Now, this change in feeding was what I really think stopped the hooches from developing in my starters. See, I had fed my starters at 1:27 PM on September 4th, 2020, but I was a little tired that night and I made the decision to go to bed early, completely forgetting about my starters. The next time I fed them was about 24 hours later on September 5th, 2020 at 1:31 PM, but none of them had developed a liquid layer. Don't get me wrong, the starters were all still a bit liquid-y when I mixed them (over time, they've become much more dough-like though, they were probably just liquid-y at the time because I had just switched how much I was feeding them and how frequently I was feeding them), but the fact that none of them had a hooch was a sign that I was headed in the right direction.
TO BE CONTINUED...
To sum things up, the first week and a half was definitely a rollercoaster of a journey to figure out what worked best for my starters and to figure out what exactly I was not picking up on (a.k.a. not recognizing all of my starters had been developing a hooch from day 2). But, after getting past that uphill journey, its started to feel a lot smoother. I've started getting more adjusted to my starters feeding schedules and I've figured out the most efficient way (for me) to feed them every day.
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