New Sourdough Starter Test - salt and sugar

northwestsourdough's picture
northwestsourdough

I am testing what effect different additions have to the starter. I am using my NW starter and I made a big batch of starter using 1:1:1 = flour:water:starter (at 166%). I put 8 oz of this mixture into each quart jar. The first jar on the left has .5 teaspoon of non-iodized salt mixed in, the next one .5 teaspoon of iodized salt mixed in, the next has .5 teaspoon of sea salt mixed in, the next has .5 teaspoon of sugar mixed in, the last one on the right side is left plain with no additions.Here is a pic at zero hour:
[img]http://www.northwestsourdough.com/test0.jpg[/img]

My guess is that the plain and sugar added starters will raise faster. Then the non-iodized, then the iodized,and last the sea salt. I am only saying that about the sea salt because I have had some non riser breads and used the sea salt at the time. That is one reason I included it. I may be totally wrong about the rising times. I just started the test 1/2 half an hour ago and so I welcome everyone elses guess as to what might happen.

I decided to take pics every two hours. I did not have the starter at 100% hydration so the rise isn't as much as it could be. Here are the starters marked at 1 hour and 3 hours.

[img]http://www.northwestsourdough.com/test3.jpg[/img]

I wrote what they were down at the bottom of the jars so you can see more easily.

Here we are at the five hour mark:

[img]http://www.northwestsourdough.com/test5.jpg[/img]

The salt added starters are pretty close. The sugar and plain are close. The starters are rising faster now. The room temperature is 68F.

At the eight hour mark:
[img]http://www.northwestsourdough.com/test8.jpg[/img]

I got called away at the seventh hour so I missed getting a pic then,
So I got a pic at the eighth hour. The starters had peaked sometime during the seventh hour and had started to fall. I marked the high point. Anyway you can see what the effect was by adding the salt or sugar.
The starters with the salt added are falling faster. I will take one more pic at the tenth hour to see what they are doing then.

The last picture at 10.5 hours after beginning the test:

[img]http://www.northwestsourdough.com/test10.jpg[/img]
The starter with added sugar is at the highest level. The plain is next, they are having a revival and starting to rise again. The salt added starters are all at about the same level below the five hour mark.
This is the end of this starter test. I would say that the salt definately inhibits the rise of the starter.

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Replies

Bill44's picture
Bill44 2006 May 27

This should be interesting, I've often wondered about the effect of salt. I'm as
much interested in the amount of rise as the speed of it.

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