114: 7 Sourdough Myths BUSTED! - Bake with Jack 

Jack: Dont leave yet! Me: Its five am but I will listen to my king

Rule 7! It is so true. I had a guy tell me I needed to score my loaf with a box cut to make a nice proper traditional loaf. (I proceeded to tell him about scoring being a signature for back when a communal oven was used.) Still to this day I chuckle because I randomly did a box cut and posted it along side a loaf with an ear. I got immediate props on the box cut 🤣

Omg, I was having fun with sour dough until I wasn't!!! YOU HAVE FREED ME!!! I'm excited to jump back into it!!

I agree with royksk, a fantastic myth buster! I've been on my Sourdough journey for a couple of years now. I took it on as a baking 'challenge' and to my amazement, I found it to be the complete opposite! Once my practical method was honed, I was stunned by how flexible Sourdough bread making is. I experimented with all sorts of seemingly daft ideas: extended auto lease (overnight - and it does make the dough really extensible), regimented folding, sporadic folding, slap kneading, salt in with everything, salt added after, feeding the starter every day, leaving it for a week with no feed, 85% hydrated, 65% hydrated and everything in-between. They all came out and were edible! It's so hard to cock it up! I've tried really hard to push the envelope of doom and I've not managed to have a disaster. After all, this is how our ancestors produced leavened bread for millennia, and as far as I'm aware, they didn't have access to digital scales, measuring jugs, accurate ovens or timers to run their folding schedule to. They just fitted into what they were doing that day and cracked on making delicious bread! Thanks for your tips Jack - scrapings method is my absolute favourite! I do hate waste!

I'm Californian and like the sour. I keep a culture covered with a towel on my refrigerator in the hopes of adding variety. A backup culture inside. Normally I mix them together around once a week, feed it and start again. Recently my Mother passed and I was out of town for most of a month. The refrigerated culture was sleeping and fine. The one on top had dried halfway down with a thick, brown coating. I tore away the crust and it looked sort of like half dried cottage cheese but the color was normal. I scooped up a wad of this and it smelled like strong sourdough. I fed it and marked the level. A few hours later it had jumped up. Everything back to normal. My culture has a lot of complexity. And very sour.

I've had my starter for about 10 years (I've lost count at this point), and I've gone two months, maybe three months before feeding it again. No problems. I don't get rid of any of it. I feed it with 25 g flour / 25 g water about three times and it comes right back.

Spot on! We home bakers embrace the inconsistency that professionals avoid. In loaves, as in children, the result is always a surprise!

This is your best video yet because you've just dispelled all the myths that have stopped me baking sourdough bread. I tried it many years ago and did all that feeding and discarding every day etc., etc. To me the name SOURdough meant it must taste sour. I like a chip butty with plenty of salt &vinegar and of course vinegar is sour. That’s entirely different to having a fresh, thick slice of bread with loadsa butter which, for me, shouldn’t taste vinegary. I'm convinced, and will embark on a new voyage of sourdough. Thanks a million Jack 😃 By the way, Jack, if you were in America I reckon you could rake in millions of dollars as “Evangelist to the Church of Bread.”

Your comment about "Should". Yes. On particular occasions over the years I have had the opportunity to respond "I prefer not to be should upon."

When I first got in to sourdough I heard that the starter was hard to maintain, and I can confirm that it was all a myth. Iv been able to keep my starter alive for over 4 years. Sometimes I leave it in the fridge without a feed for 2-3 months. When I want to use it I pour of the liquid, scrape off the top layer and wake up my starter with a teaspoon of the original starter. Within a few of days it's ready to use again. Keep producing great videos Jack, loving the bread making principals.

Exactly! I began yeast baking around Thanksgiving 2018, and started my sourdough starter around Christmas 2018. I’ve been baking with sourdough for less than a year and from the start knew I NEVER wanted to waste “discarding” perfectly good ingredients. The starter I began was an experiment on keeping a micro-sized starter. So began with just a teaspoon of flour and 60% in volume of water. I didn’t have to discard anything and kept adding a bit more flour than I did the day before for 10 days, when I had a little over a cup of starter. Then I bought a kitchen scale. I had 3 starters at one point (mostly org. white wheat, org. whole grains, and a white stiff starter at 50%-60% hydration), currently just have 2 that began living in the fridge over the summer. My method is like Jack’s scraping method...keep just a tiny bit, 5-20 grams, then feed it up to the amount needed for baking. I also increase the starter amount in a recipe if I need it to prove faster, but it’s a little tricky to balance the acidity and speed of gluten digestion by the larger yeast colony. I try to make a new recipe almost every time, trying new add-ins, reading up on effects of the add-ins on dough development. :) It’s fascinating, makes for lots of nerdy reading and I LOVE IT.

I’ve kept starter “discard” in my fridge for months and months (like 6+), and take it out, stir in the hooch, feed a small amount for a couple of days, put in a warm spot - boom! Happy and bubbly.

Sourdough to me should taste like the flour used in it. I have had sourdough loaves that I use a mixture of grains in and you would swear by tasting it that I had added butter or nuts to the dough. As a separate note chemicals used to treat wheat in a field is not intended to kill the microfauna living on the wheat itself but is instead often sprayed to kill weeds while the wheat is dormant over winter or before it is even planted. I lived in central US in the heart of wheat country for the last few years. If you still wish to use organic though it is your choice. Personally I use King Arthur because they used the wheat from the farmers local to me. Great video though! I am looking forward to sourdough September!

Thank you for this video, and the entire sourdough series. I did some research online before making my own starter. The sheer volume, variation, and inconsistency in the information that's out there just supports what you say about practicality and flexibility. They all work; one just needs to find what suits your situation. This gives us confidence to experiment. And I really love the no-waste approach! Thanks, Jack!

Jack, thank you so very much for sharing your valuable expertise and knowledge with us! I really appreciate it!

So glad I found your channel. You’ve confirmed a lot of the principles I learned the slow way from tinkering around the kitchen and I’ve learned a lot of new tricks to put to the test watching your videos the last couple of days! I baked my first sourdough last week and can’t to practice, practice, practice. Keep up your amazing work! Cheers from Canada.

You know Jack, although you have an accent, you have the most _perfectly enunciated_ speech I've ever heard. Your clarity of speech is _awesome_ !

I just love you Jack, this video in particular is great because I agree if a recipe or method is too difficult to fuss with we won't enjoy baking with it. Keep it simple and fun! Your energy is great, your humor is enjoyable, your tips are smart. Thank you.

Thank you so much for busting these myths. I was about to give up soudough baking but am now fired up and ready to go again

Once again a great video Jack. Been doing your scraping method since you first posted the vid and it was a game changer for me. Looking forward to your next exciting instalment 👍👍

Jack you are spot on! I just wish I'd had this video a year ago when I started my SD journey. By trial and error I've developed most (still have some discard... oh well) of the principles you've discussed. So much fun sharing the baking journey with you - thank you!

Love this! The more people busting myths the more people we will have baking sourdough.

I really needed this video. I'm using Jack's videos to learn how to make sourdough bread properly. Thank you for busting those myths.

You are awesome for the home baker!! Wish I lived closer to take your classes. I have learned so much, most importantly not to be afraid of each process and practice, practice, practice to get it right. Best advice you gave me.

Loving the sourdough videos! Made my first lot of sourdough loaves and rolls with your recipe, absolutely brilliant! Cheers

Thank you so much for your viseos. You make things so more accessible and simple. Those myths that poisoned our way of making bread... I love your videos!

Hey Jack, 1st of all I love the fact that you think that nobody should say. I should you should and that should turn us off right away... I do love the fact that you enjoy the baking part of sourdough bread I do as well. Sometimes? My loaf turns out really amazing and sometimes it's not as good as I thought. It was gonna be but it is all a learning process. Thank you so much for being here and I will continue to follow you... Thank you so much for being you I enjoy your site very much thank you for your help

I have had a jar with scraps of starter in it for about a year. kept it in the fridge. never fed it. never messed with it at all. this week I added some flour and water and overnight I got bubbles.

You know, this was incredibly motivating. The two main reasons I have been put off sourdough for the half year or so I've been baking is because of the maintenance (I've heard two leaves a week somewhere, evenly spaced, and I don't have the time to do one halfway through the week) and the taste. I like the funk I've been getting with my overnight bulk ferments but I do not like the sour qualities of any bread I have thought to be sourdough. I'm from the Netherlands and whenever on holiday in Germany the bread there is decisively off-tasting, with that unpleasantly sour aftertaste, that's been my reference for years now and that's motivated me not to try it. Guess I'll have to go to the baker and ask for a proper bit of sourdough before I commit, but you have just taken away two major barriers between me and this world!

I love this! I am late to the game here, but I love all of your vitality and passion for the craft. My sister says “don’t let anyone should on you.” Say it quickly out loud, and you’ll get it. I love it, and I’ll make that my mantra for my new sourdough journey.

Jack, THANK YOU!! I've been wanting to do sour dough bread for so long. Now, I'm going to watch your video's and learn your way!! Then I will try again!!

12:15 Calm down Jack 😂 I've been baking bread for a while now and was also put off by the "high maintenance" aspect. You have reassured me that it's a myth. I'm so glad I watched this video. In fact, I am going to make a starter today. Great channel.

So glad I came across you. Ive been procrastinating making a loaf because it all seems so complicated. I’m a fan and baking tomorrow!

Thanks Jack. You have the best videos I’ve seen on the topic of sourdough bread. Today is the day for my first loaf. I’ve got my starter going this past week so am looking for a recipe & method but I have no scale so it’s been a challenge finding a recipe that isn’t based on weights.

Thanks for this. I've been getting into sourdoughs over the past few weeks thanks to this and other youtube channels. I've baked about ten loafs since June with the same starter. I know Jack likes to be precise and that's fine. However, I think myth 8 is that precision is actually required. It's not. I've been eyeballing things from day 1. I don't own a scale and I judge hydration by feel. If it's too sticky, I add flour. If it's to dry/stiff, I add water. Being precise is only needed if you don't know what 'good' feels/looks like. Same with starter maintenance. Basically when you feed it, you basically take some of the old starter and combine it with some fresh flour and water. How much does not actually matter that much. Feeding your starter tends to have the issue that your container can only take a certain amount of starter (after it bubbles up). So, you need to lose some one way or another. The most economical way is by using it. You don't actually need to use a a lot of it to get a usable amount of starter. The 50% new flour is sort of a minimum when feeding. You can over and underfeed without much consequences. Technically, when you are using starter to create a dough, you are vastly over feeding it. Overfeeding is not a problem, ever. The yeast loves food. If you underfeed it, it will eat the food faster and you will need to feed again a bit sooner. If you are keeping your starter in the fridge and you are planning to bake bread, simply split it into two containers, feed both and put one back into the fridge. Feed the other portion a couple of times to revive it and get the amount of starter you need/want. Once usually does the trick for me but if it's been in the fridge it might some more feeding. So take it out two days or so before you use it, and let it do it's thing for a while. Once bubbly, you can proceed to making some dough. As jack, mentions. Higher hydration simply requires putting more effort into shaping and folding. On the plus side, it will be too wet to knead so it becomes a no-knead bread. With lower hydration, if you knead, longer is better. This is where you create gluten. The last few of Jack's videos explained strength vs. structure. Basically, higher hydration means you need to rely on the yeast to develop strength because kneading soup is impossible. So, that means you need more time. It also means that structure and shaping requires more attention once the yeast has created the gluten for you. Structure just means aligning the gluten. Basically you want the strings of gluten to go in the same direction. Stretching and folding is all about that. If you mess this up, your dough won't rise as much as you'd want. Higher hydration requires more skill and time but less effort. Lower hydration just requires elbow grease to build strength and then the shaping is easy. For taste development, temperature and amount of starter you use are key. If you are going for a slow rise, do your proofing in the fridge and use less starter. The yeast will multiply exponentially and if you use less of it, it will simply a few extra generations for it to consume all the dough. If you put it in the fridge, it will replicate at a slower pace. As Jack mentions, low and slow equals more tangyness. If you are in a hurry or want less tangyness, do the opposite and use more starter and bring up the temperature. It's simple but easy to mess up. Half the success is simply understanding what is happening.

I really appreciate your enthusiasm. Most big bakeries are using yeasted bread, that they pass as sourdough.

Jack, you are excellent and have encouraged me to actually *bake bread*.. now I enjoy fresh bread every day.. thanks to you! 🥰

Jack you just saved me more years of my life worrying about feeding daily and what the heck to do with my discards! Love love your vlogs and very educational! Sourdough for dummies I say!

Thanks jack. This helped with my confidence about baking sourdough. Ive got a fancy starter on the way,which probably wasnt nessecary, but good to know that ive started with a good quality product and really cant kill it. Cant wait to get started

this is gold!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have struggled with all these! you are amazing!

I love your videos! I baked my first sourdough today and it was heavy, really dense and no puff! Lol ...but made a perfect doorstop! I'll try again in a week.

Sourdough discard crackers are amazing though!!! Lol

you have been such a help on my sourdough journey Jack! Please let us know if you ever do a Canadian tour :)

Another engaging and informative video message, cheers Jack 👍

Btw....I love your awesome explanations that simplify in layman's terms. I look at sourdough starter, as creating the fermentation for the basis of the flavor for sourdough, and the gas or puffiness of the sourdough is actually, the most important part for natural rising/proofing of the dough. I love your sense of humor! God bless you and your family, Jack! Stay safe in these crazy times!

Thank you so very much for all this great info!

You crack me up! I’m so glad you don’t “should” on people!!! I feel the same way about that word!!!

Wow THANKS FINALLY you have taken away my issues with making my own sourdough. I lived in San Francisco for 25 years and loved sourdough along as well as other delicious breads. But I never made sourdough myself because the process took daily attention and how was I going to make bread everyday. And why would I want to through dough away. Now it all makes sense. And I can’t wait to get started with more breads.

OMG! YOU ARE HILARIOUS & FUN. you made me smile thoughout. Thanks for making me want to continue trying to make a good sourdough load. Hugs!

Jack mate, you're saving my bread one video at a time! So glad I found your channel (and quite confused why you don't have more subscribers and views) 🤷‍♀️

Very informative. Yes!! Sourdough should be practical!! Heartfelt agreement to that. I have been scared away from making my sourdough bread even though I had a successful starter smelling very lovely. I just got intimidated by the long hours and the process which I was not familiar with. Plus the time management was not my thing... 😱 All those was true until I stumbled upon your sourdough series. Thank you for the videos and information. ♥️

Thanks so much, Jack for your tips and other video on sourdough. I’ve made it about 4 times now and the last time I got just about (in my opinion) a perfect loaf!

I never feed my starter and I never throw any of it away. I make it, leave it for 5 days, make bread and move on with my life. That was how I learned to make it nearly 15 years ago.

I smiled so big at your spot on description of "should".. applause applause and this crowd went wild 👏👏👏

Lower hydration. Yes! Thanks. Excellent instruction.

Listen to what Jack says! Watch what he does! This recipe yields a dough that you can handle and form. You can bake it in covered cast iron for the complete time (45 min), then uncovered for 15 min with oven turned down to 375’.

Wow, you have certainly allowed me to breathe a lot easier about making sourdough, enough that I've just today started another starter. Hope it turns out good! I used home-milled organic einkorn, which might just prove to be a bit industrious an undertaking, but I'm desperately wanting to do this. So thank you for your videos that are super fun to watch and full of information I've not heard before.

Appreciate the twang theme, anti vinegar, more my style.

You are AMAZING Chef!! Thank you!

We don't "should" in our house either :) :) Grateful for your down to Earth myth busting, you constantly put everything in wonderful perspective and always inspire. Thank you Jack!

I worked these out my self, being a home brewer. The supermarket sourdough is a bit of lactic acid added

You Jack are a bread saver!!!!!!!!! First time I tried to bake it was a mess ...... Then I found you videos... bloody lavant what a waste of time

My maaan.... You are the absolute best at baking bread here on YT. Keep on please.... Greetings from Norway....

Very very very helpful! Thank you

You absolutely nailed it. I had tried and miserably failed to make my own sourdough starter several times and gave up on the idea for years. A few weeks ago I tried again following a "proper" recipe and in fairness, it worked! I baked 2 nice but far from perfect loaves and was pretty proud. I knew with practice they would only improve as well Then it dawned on me that I'm just one person and I won't need to bake another loaf for almost a month now, but I have to keep feeding and discarding my starter EVERY DAY??? The cost of the flour and waste of the discard put me right off and (don't kill me for this) I decided to throw away my remaining starter. I know, I know! But the idea of keeping up with it every day and throwing half away each time, AND setting aside 3 days whenever I fancied a fresh loaf when I could stick with my tried and true yeasted bread in 3 hours just seemed absurd to me I will try again but I'll definitely be using Jack's method, it just makes so much more sense

Thank you Jack for the tips. I especially liked tip #7. I'm looking forward to the next sourdough video's. I'm wanting to prefect a sourdough sandwich loaf for a nice soft and fluffy slice that will toast up nicely. I haven't bought bread from the store for the last 2 months - just eating what I make at home. So far they all taste good but I cant seem to get to that light fluffy slice I'm wanting. I'm here to learn.

I just stumbled upon your channel. I subscribed. Now I'm all in on your sourdough play list. I needed this video. Thank you. I'm a beginner and I agree with you on the taste profile I'm excited to give your recipe and starter a go.

You give amazing tips. Thank you.

Absolutely right. I don't like my bread to be too sour, so i bake on the same day. Simple.

That’s a proper myth busting Jack!🙏

I have found out that the leftover brine from fermenting sauerkraut or beets makes for an excellent substitute of sourdough starter!! I ferment vegetables by putting them in a jar with just salt, or water and salt (no whey, no brine from a previous batch, no nothing except for spices to taste) and I let them ferment at room temperature for a few days and then move them to the fridge. Then when I'm finished eating them, I mix the leftover brine with a little bit of water (otherwise the brine alone is a bit too salty) and the flour and that's it, that's my dough!! (no added yeast or starter of any kind a part from the brine). Of course the dough is pink when I do this with the brine from beets, and the bread has a touch of sweetness and of beet flavor, but just a light touch (which I like). It puffs up wonderfully! Since I've discovered this, my sourdough starter in the fridge is working a lot less and she's starting to get worried 😂

Love to watch your video norammly I don't like to watch and listen youtuber talks.. but you are the exception..coz I love the energy and no BS! Opps ! did I just say the S word? Keep up the good work!

Hi, Anke from Belgium here. At the beginning of my journey I kept a big jar of starter in the fridge. After having followed a workshop on sourdough I had an epiphany!! 😀. Now I keep juste 15grams in the fridge. When I want to bake, I juste take out 10grams to start feeding (3x) & refeed the 5grams remaining with 5gr water & 5gr flour. It was a game changer for me!!! How do you feel on cooling times before slicing? Because at the workshop they said to have it cool down about 10h before slicing, unless you eat it all the same day. Juste to keep the moisture in & to having nothing to evaporate. Thx!! BTW; I love your video's!!!

you're hillarious! and thanks now we can relaxxxx.. it's just a sourdough.. so many scary stuff outthereeee..

Being watching a lot of videos about sourdough starter.. Never made sense to me, the feeding and discard approach, no matter what explanations was followed. Finally, I saw your videos and agreed completely. Thank you.

Thanks for the video Jack! I bought a $10 sourdough starter off of FB marketplace before doing any research. The recipe to feed it includes sugar and salt (!). I believe I have converted it to a real sour dough! I've been too scared to actually make a loaf, just making green onion pancakes from the "discard". Your videos are helping me feel confident that I can actually make a decent loaf. Thanks again!

Hello Jack, i am loving all your videos and really admire the simplicity you bring to bread baking. just a quick question...when you make a sourdough starter and fed it until it was alive and then left it for a prolonged period of time without feeding , would you be able to still use it for baking bread after that? or would you need to start feeding it again in order to get the wild yeast up and running ?

8º Don't be perfectionist. I've been baking breads since I was 12 years old and decided to accept the challenge of sourdough following your instructions and recipe. First time, as I imagined, the bread collapsed and was horrible, second time I used a tin (as I do in all my breads, because I have no patience to shape) and the result was a beautyful and delicius loaf; a little bit sour and very moist (80% hydration). I've discovered a completly new world of breads even using regular strong flour (no organic here in Portugal), no perfect shapping or no dutch oven. Next try: 15% whole wheat. Thank you Jack!

The main thing is to understand what you are doing and why i.e. salt: salt strengthen the gluten so is probably better to add it not at the beginning but at the end to make dough more extensible As for the lysis: I discovered that one hour is more than enough. Sourdough starter I make from lukewarm water and a spoonful of raisins. When some of them are floating I mix part of the water with the same amount of flour or so. No precise measurements, when this mix is bubbling I use it as levain for my bread directly or maybe I make biga from it to make my life more complicated if I'm in the mood

on the dead starter chapter. what i heard on the subject is that when the starter runs out of food it makes "hooch" (mix of lactic acid and alcohol) and it floats to the top, what i heard if the hooch is clear or slightly cloudy the starter is hungry and can be saved, if the hooch is darker and discolored the starter is too far gone.

You are right about everything. I stopped feeding my starter. My bread is delicious, doesn't taste like vinegar. I stopped buying bread from stores, it's junk full of junk :)

I agree with you Jack on sourdough in the big stores...

Great video, thank you !! 🥖🍞🥐

It should be fun!..right Jack!..enjoy🙏🤓

Wow well said ty great video 👍

Hi Jack, wicked video on 7 sourdough myths busted. As normal you sort the wheat 🌾 from the chaff (excuse the pun🤣) love your rant about Supermarket sourdough fake bread 😂 can I ask you what would be the lowest hydration you would advise to make a sourdough bread without compromising the finished loaf? Thanks and as always keep on doing what you are doing 👍 Matthew

great video !

You’ve just put together a great set of myth busting responses. I’m on my fourth sourdough loaf and what you say helps to consolidate what I’d been thinking, questioning and pondering over. Great stuff - thank you!

Jack for PM 👌 spot on advice

Great video Jack a long time ago I tried sourdough, it was awful very sour and went in the bin. I then used your recipe and learnt when my starter reached its peak ( around 5 hours ) now it tastes great

Subtle rhymes in here =-) Thanks for the creative advice and myth busting!

Love this video! Esp #7.

So funny. I’ve made sour dough loaves that sort of flopped that didnt rise properly. If required a chain saw to cut it. Lol. But it still tastes lovely and it didn’t sit in my stomach like most bread does when I eat it. I love all these suggestions because I’m still learning about how to ferment starter. I just love fermented foods. And I cook most of my own food. So awesome to learn this new skill. I feel like a science student. 😊

One source for sourdough myths on this side of the pond could be from Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" and I quote "Feed the Bitch...Feed the Bitch or she'll DIE!" "The Bitch" was his Baker friend's pet name for the starter.

Thanks dude. I baked my second sourdough bread tonight, and it was delicious (first one was a disaster).

thnx for the vid Jake! here goes a question for you: what happens if i add the starter directly to the rest of the dough, skipping the feed & rise process? can the starter use that dough for feeding itself? would my dough pop? thnx in advance for the answer ❤️

This will put other youtube sourdough/starter vids/channels out of business. They are so wrong. I had to learn that these myths the hard way. Wished I saw this video earlier.

Everything you said is spot on. I never get tired of hearing your advice/information/encouragement. When one lets go of all that “professional instruction” you become a real life baker. And that is success.

Hi Jack, one accumulate a bit of discard then all they simply can introduce it in their next recipe.. I'm a scrapings follower but from time to time I do accumulate a small amount but I use it in my next sourdough mix

Well this video SHOULD be... haha awesome video. Hope you keep up the good work