{"id":1189207,"date":"2023-10-05T12:45:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T16:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1189207"},"modified":"2023-10-05T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T16:45:36","slug":"three-kitchen-gadgets-to-take-the-guesswork-out-of-sourdough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1189207","title":{"rendered":"Three kitchen gadgets to take the guesswork out of sourdough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists figure we\u2019ve been baking for anywhere from 11,000 to 14,000 years<\/a>. And while the fundamental chemistry of leavening bread hasn\u2019t much changed over the intervening years, we have developed countless shortcuts to make the bread baking process easier, faster and more convenient through products like baking soda, baking powder, instant dry yeast; and tools like electric ovens, stand mixers and food processors.<\/p>\n

With the busy holiday baking season right around the corner and visions of sourdough stocking stuffers for friends and family dancing through my mind, I recently picked up a new starter culture (shout out to MatKat Bakery<\/a> of Modesto, California). Normally when I maintain a starter it will either live in the fridge or on my kitchen counter. The problem with that is the yeast and bacteria that make sourdough, well, sour, prefer the ambient temperature to be in the mid-70s to low-80s, making my kitchen counter a little too cold \u2014 and fridge far too cold \u2014 for the starter to expediently rise when I feed it. But you better believe we have gadgets to fix that. Here are three that will maintain an ideal temperature for sourdough starter to live in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sourhouse Goldie<\/h2>\n

That is precisely what the Sourhouse Goldie<\/a> is designed to do. Growing out of a significantly-overfunded Kickstarter<\/a>, the Goldie is essentially a small heating pad enclosed by a large glass dome meant to create a tiny, cozy microenvironment for your starter to live in.<\/p>\n

An integrated thermometer tracks the temperature under the dome and relays that information via a three-color LED in the base. Blue means it\u2019s too cold, red means it\u2019s too hot and yellow indicates you\u2019ve reached the \u201cgoldilocks zone.\u201d If it is too cold, you can turn on the heat which will raise the temperature to the goldilocks zone and then keep it there indefinitely. If your kitchen is too hot, an included \u201ccooling puck\u201d that otherwise lives in your freezer can be set on top of your starter jar to lower the temp.<\/p>\n

\"the
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Andrew Tarantola \/ Engadget<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The dome is quite tall, able to accommodate my normal quart-sized starter containers, though the included pint-sized graduated cylinder is plenty big enough to hold a few hundred grams of fed starter. Despite its height, the bell sits sturdily atop the heating platform and forms a firm seal at its base \u2014 enough that things can get rather steamy under the dome if you trap any moisture in there while feeding your starter. Overall the device has a surprisingly small footprint and a sub-six-inch diameter. I can pick it up, move it around my kitchen as I work, shove it into a corner or onto a pantry shelf when I\u2019m not using it \u2013\u2014 the thing fits most anywhere. It runs off a USB plug (and an included wall adapter) giving you added options in potential power sources.<\/p>\n

Beyond providing a quick visual reference for how the starter is doing, I also like that the Goldie provides a bit of entertainment as the starter rises. I always get a little tingle of pride as I see the culture that I have raised and cared for flourish and grow under the dome.<\/p>\n

Overall it\u2019s ludicrously easy to use \u2014 you plug it in, turn it on and put your starter under the dome. From there it can keep indefinitely, assuming you maintain power and keep feeding the culture. This method can get labor and resource intensive given that keeping a starter active at those temperatures will require feeding it every 12 to 24 hours. Think of it like a yeast-based teenager \u2014 depending on your feeding ratio (starter vs flour vs water added each time) you can end up running through food for it far faster than you realized possible. I like to keep my starter in the fridge if I\u2019m not planning on using it for a few days (to dramatically slow the culture\u2019s metabolism) and I\u2019ve found that I can bring my starter back to activity far more quickly by putting it in the Goldie rather than my kitchen counter.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not so hot on the Goldie\u2019s price point, however. For as much as I like it, $130 for a hot plate and bell jar feels steep to me (they don’t even include the jar for the starter pictured in their marketing), especially when the user has very little direct control, or even understanding of what the starter is currently experiencing. It\u2019s a very vibe-heavy experience for an activity where I\u2019m then expected to calculate hydration percentages out to two decimal places.<\/p>\n

Brod & Taylor Sourdough Home<\/h2>\n

The Sourdough Home<\/a>, from baking equipment purveyors Brod & Taylor, takes the nearly opposite tack in heating, cooling and maintaining a starter. Where the Goldie is a kitchen gadget, the Home is kitchen equipment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mini-mini fridge, one that sits on your countertop to house jars of sourdough starter, and can dial in your desired air temperature to the degree. It\u2019s bigger and boxier than the Goldie; taller, wider and deeper too. The interior is split horizontally by a removable shelf that can hold either a single quart jar or a pair of pints. The front face features an LED touch-sensitive thermostat which ranges from 41 – 122 degrees fahrenheit. It really is a tiny refrigerator that also gets warm on command \u2014 or a tiny oven that gets very cold, depending on how you look at it.<\/p>\n

\"a
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Andrew Tarantola \/ Engadget<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

With the Goldie, I find myself splitting the starter\u2019s time between living in my regular refrigerator and in the device itself, getting ready for use. And that generally works when I\u2019m only baking on the weekends or need to activate the starter for a spur of the moment project. The Home replaces that entire situation with a single countertop device. The starter lives there \u2014 I never get it lost in the back of my full-size refrigerator, I never forget to feed it for a week with it hanging out on my counter.<\/p>\n

Getting the starter ready is as simple as adjusting the thermostat up a handful of degrees; preparing it for hibernation is the same, in the opposite direction. The Home incorporates a fan into its design, so it does make slightly more noise than the completely silent Goldie, but the whirring is barely audible to me, a middle-aged guy with moderate tinnitus.<\/p>\n

I like the Home. It provides a degree of control and precision that the Goldie cannot match at a price point $30 lower, at $99<\/a>. Interestingly, it appears that both the Goldie and the Home draw the same amount of power (100 – 240V), so don\u2019t worry about electrical efficiency when deciding between them.<\/p>\n

The Breadwinner<\/h2>\n

While both the Goldie and the Home do an excellent job of keeping your starter at its optimal temperature, neither will alert you when the culture is ready for use. That\u2019s where the Breadwinner<\/a> comes in. This Wi-Fi connected growth sensor screws onto the top of any wide mouth (86mm) mason jar. It measures the starter\u2019s rate of rise after a feeding and until it peaks a few hours later, marking its readiness to use.<\/p>\n

Traditionally I use my eyes and a series of rubber bands around the jar measuring its growth at the top of every hour to figure out when my starter\u2019s rise is slowing down (which means its ready to use). The Breadwinner not only does that for me, but also sends me email alerts when it\u2019s ready. It also saves all of that data to an online portal where I can track it in real-time and mine it for historical trends about the culture\u2019s previous performance. I can also plug into a social network \/ online journa<\/a>l of like-minded bakers, share recipes I\u2019ve used my starter in and generally keep track of everything I\u2019ve used it for.<\/p>\n

\"on
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Andrew Tarantola \/ Engadget<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This is a really handy gadget when I\u2019m getting ready for a bake but not necessarily able to hang around my kitchen until it\u2019s ready. I can do other chores or run errands and feel secure in the knowledge that the Breadwinner will shoot me a note when it\u2019s time to get baking. I also like that the device can be tuned to the size of the jar \u2014 16, 24, 32 or 64 oz \u2014 for more accurate readings. The Breadwinner runs on four AA batteries, which will last anywhere from two weeks to a couple months, depending on how often you\u2019re feeding your starter and using the device. If you want to get really fancy, you can use the Breadwinner and the Home or Goldie in tandem with each other, rapidly rewarming the starter and knowing precisely when it is ready to use.<\/p>\n

\"The
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Engadget<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I do wish the activation button wasn\u2019t quite so easy to, uh, activate. I kept accidentally turning it when I was just moving the jar around between feedings, which required me to log into the portal and delete the blank records from my starter\u2019s profile. I\u2019m also not sold on the price of $125 MSRP, which is a solid chunk of change for a narrowly applicable and entirely optional kitchen tool (though we could see a discount arrive ahead of the holiday shopping season). I also have concerns given that the company behind the Breadwinner is still a small startup. If they go out of business, their servers, where the Breadwinner\u2019s data and utility reside, will go offline as well and you\u2019re left with a hundred-dollar novelty jar lid. If Brod & Taylor or Sourhouse go under, yeah I\u2019ll lose warranty repairs, but the devices themselves will keep working.<\/p>\n

Who would find these gadgets most useful?<\/h2>\n

This is $355 worth of gear altogether \u2014 a new, not refurbished, KitchenAid 4.5-quart stand mixer<\/a> worth of gear. That\u2019s a lot of flour. Still, the prospect of having my starter ready to use \u201cin a few hours\u201d rather than \u201clater this evening,\u201d and of not kicking myself for forgetting to take the jar out of the fridge the night before \u2014 that\u2019s worth at least $100 to me. Maybe $225, but I\u2019ve been burned like starter in a hot oven by proprietary kitchen platforms<\/a> before.<\/p>\n

\"a
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Andrew Tarantola \/ Engadget<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Really, the choice of keepers comes down to your personal preference: between the more whimsical vibes of the Goldie and the calculating precision of the Sourdough Home. If you\u2019re only planning on using your starter on one or two bakes a week, splitting its time between your fridge and the Goldie is the way I would go. Conversely, if you\u2019re working with your starter more than half the days in a week and need to keep it perpetually at the ready, a dedicated housing space like the Sourdough Home would likely serve you better. The Breadwinner works equally well with either warmer, or on its own. If you tend to multitask other chores and responsibilities during your recipe\u2019s proofing times, the Breadwinner can help keep you on task and keep your bake from falling flat.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/three-kitchen-gadgets-to-take-the-guesswork-out-of-sourdough-164536914.html?src=rss
\n
\nSource: Engadget – Three kitchen gadgets to take the guesswork out of sourdough<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists figure we\u2019ve been baking for anywhere from 11,000 to 14,000 years. And while the fundamental chemistry of leavening bread hasn\u2019t much changed over the intervening years, we have developed countless shortcuts to make the bread baking process easier, faster … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,110],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1189207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-engadget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1189207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1189207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1189207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1189207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}