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A judge at the county fair told me my sourdough was "too sour for bread, too weak for vinegar" so I cut my bulk ferment from 8 hours down to 4
I sold 14 loaves at the Saturday market in Bend the next month, up from 3. Anybody else get a judging comment that stung but actually worked?
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pat_harris18d ago
That "too weak for vinegar" line is doing way more work than people give it credit for. What that judge was really telling you is that your ferment was running long enough to build acid but not long enough to build the good stuff that balances it, and that is a totally different problem than just "too sour." Cutting to 4 hours fixed the balance, not the sour. Here is the thing though, nobody talks about how much the temp of your dough matters here. If your kitchen runs warm, 8 hours is basically a full day of bacteria doing whatever they want. Drop your bulk to 4 at 78 degrees and you get flavor without the sharp bite. Try the same 4 hours in a cold kitchen and you might get almost nothing. So the hours are only half the story, the temp is the other half, and that judge probably meant both even if they said neither.
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