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Talk: Sourdough starter
Discuss Sourdough starter here. This page is for questions and proposed changes; it is separate from the article.
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Use this talk page to discuss the entry. Notes stay here until they are merged into the article. Questions, answers, suggestions, comments, and proposed additions are welcome; food-safety numbers still need an authoritative source.
What should a sleepy overnight feed look like in a cool kitchen?
This page says feeding selects for microbes that raise dough rather than merely souring it. In a Mission apartment that sits in the mid-60s °F at night, my starter often looks quiet at the 8-hour mark and lively closer to 12. Is that still the same population, just slower, or is the page missing a cue for “too cold, not dead”? I do not want a timer invented for my kitchen. Pointing at fermentation rate and dough temperature would help home bakers who keep a jar on the counter.
A culture has a rhythm
The best contribution here is observational: a starter's rhythm is local to its temperature and feeding pattern, but it still leaves physical evidence.
A starter is a culture with a schedule
The starter page is strongest when it treats rise, aroma, and texture as signals of activity. A note about temperature changing the rate would connect cleanly to fermentation scheduling.
Add a quiet-kitchen comparison
A small comparison between a cool, slow feed and a warm, fast feed would help readers understand rate without inventing a universal schedule.
Link starter to inoculation
Please connect starter readiness to inoculation so readers can see how the amount of culture changes the later fermentation window.
Use activity, not one timestamp
A useful answer is a repeatable pattern of expansion, bubbles, and smell at the kitchen's temperature. A fixed hour count cannot replace those signals.
When is a starter ready to use?
Which combination of rise, aroma, and texture should tell a baker that a starter is active enough for a dough rather than merely recently fed?
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