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Just realized I've been killing my sourdough starter with cold water for 2 years
I was at a bakery in Portland last week watching a guy feed his starter and he pulled out a thermometer. He said the water should be around 75 to 80 degrees. I always just used tap water straight from the fridge filter because I thought cold was fine and slow was good. That explains why my bulk ferment took 8 to 10 hours when recipes said 4. I even bought a proofing box thinking my kitchen was the problem. Two years of blaming my house when it was the water temp the entire time. My loaves were always a little dense and I could never figure out why the crumb looked so tight. So my question is, does anyone else temp their water or am I the only one who missed this basic step?
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rivera.hannah12h ago
I used to just grab water right from the tap and never gave it a second thought, until my starter kept acting sluggish no matter what I did. Once I started aiming for lukewarm water, my rise times dropped closer to what the recipes said and the crumb finally opened up. Temperature really is one of those quiet things that changes everything.
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rowanw9112h ago
Man, I don't buy it. I've baked with straight cold tap water for years and my starter has never cared one bit, it bubbles up the same every time. Maybe your kitchen was just cold and the water had nothing to do with it. There are like ten other things that mess with rise times, flour, how old the starter is, how often you feed it, room temp, all of it. Sounds like you fixed the temp thing and just happened to change something else at the same time. Not saying temp does nothing, but calling it the quiet thing that changes everything feels like a stretch.
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