3/21/20
A fun update. It took one week for Penicillium fungi (blue/white) to grow on the bear. Very interesting since that’s pretty much every bread’s life span. Also, considering there was no barf-smelling microbe throughout the week, this raises the question: was the sour dough edible? Considering the oven temperature of 450F is well over water boiling point, the microbes should’ve died. It is unlikely that there will be thermophiles since the cultures never grew in such conditions.

Darn I wanted to see how it taste. Sayonara my baby.

3/16/20
‘Formal writing’: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15CWvCOdx_TDp5dQI2nv0-KUqoheV3c8z/view?usp=sharing

3/15/20
Also as an update on the air cultures: they both follow the path as the hand cultures. It took longer but now they have cheesy barf smell too. Not much air bubbles that resemble those seen in pictures about leaven. These were thrown away.

Hallelujah! Look at that non-risen bread! Beautiful! Just beautiful! mmmhmmm delicious!

Time to do a lotta daaa-midge and present Babish’s favorite cross section.

Wooooooo. Look at that!
Mmmmmhmm. The inside is slightly wet and it smells like the cheesy barf but after a few minutes the bread smelled exactly like a sourdough! The top had a nice crunch to it too! :O

As seen in the picture, not much air pockets were produced because the culture does not produce any air bubble but its still cool, I baked! It smells good too but sadly I can’t eat it because I have no idea what the kind of microbe was in there. For future reference, it would be good to leave the lid-on bake for five more minutes since the inside was soft.

Side note: We bought a dutch oven, what a great advertisement: science project —> buying product! Also I burned myself, I need to remember to lower the oven rack. D:

Day 29 (Day 23) 2/14/20 8:12 am
Bake day!!!

Preheated the oven on convection setting at 500F, which took about 20 minutes. As a note, next time I just cook it after the 3 hour wait, because the oven is quiet and bread smells fine. I thought I had to turn on overhead ventilation which would drive our bird crazy.

Side note: leaving the dough for 10 hrs caused it to develop that cheesy barf smell. Not as strong as the feed cultures but its there. The dough was pretty squashed and sticky.

8:30 am
Dough was remade into a ball and placed in Guy Fieri’s Dutch oven xD.
Lid was placed on top and the bread was baked for 20 minutes.

8:59 am
Wooolalalala. Sourdough bread looks nice! Time to remove the lid for crisping effect on top. 20 minute bake time, again.

Day 28 (Day 22) 3/13/20
4:15 pm
The leaven expertly failed the floating test again but I’m still going to continue for baking.

The dough was made with lot of flour: 3 ½ cups + 1/3 of whole wheat! The water added was a bit more (~ 2 cups) since I couldn’t get the mixing done fast enough. There was still had dried flour in the bowl. Note to self: mix the two flour types first before adding water. 

I initially mixed with a spoon then processed my hands for form a lump. After the initial 30 minutes, 1.5 TSP of Kosher salt was added and mixed with my hand.

5:11pm
“Gently” kneading was done to the dough, by turning it over every 30 minutes eight times.

9:28 pm
Folding/ ball forming was conducted on counter top that was Lysolied and water cleaned. I followed this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWXA8xFYu9A, but only did it once because running out of time. The dough ball sat on the counter for 30 minutes.

Note: the dough was pretty sticky and cringed to the wooden bowl. I used the wrong bowl. I bet porcelain ones are better.

10:02 pm
The “boule” lost its shape within that 30 minutes. I’m not sure if its dripping like the procedure warn about but its not in a round shape so.. I’m not sure.

The dough was reshaped back into a ball before placed into a large bowl with paper towel covered with flour. The bowl was covered with plastic wrap because the idea of the towel didn’t work me. I ran out of cloth towels but I’be seen Binging with Babish uses plastic for this rising part. The dough set for rising effect for 3 hours.

Side note: I forgot to buy rice flour so I used the regular bread flour for the dusting and sprinkling on top.

12:33 am
Still had 24:16 minutes left, but its late the Cockatoo is going to scream bloody mary if I go to the kitchen.

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Day 28 (Day 22) 3/13/20 1:00 pm
Continued….. BAKE!

Annnd I dozed off past my 2 hour alarm. I guess our Cockatoo thought I was dead and started to screech. Goddammit, I was having a nice dream.

1:07 pm
Well time to bake that bread!

1:24 pm
Guess not, needed to reduce acidity of leaven by making another leaven:
I used a giant blob, probably 1/3 of my initial leaven, 1/2 and 1/3 of flour mix, and 1/3 and 1 TBSP of water. (Damn I keep thinking of details I should’ve added: water is filter sink water. Lukewarm water was made using a combination of hot water from boiler + cold filter sink water). The new young leaven was left to sit for 3 hours.

Day 28 (Day 22) 3/13/20 10:40am

Observed my leaven, still dry and powdery. Cheesy barf smell is masked by the excess flour mix but is still present if sniffed long enough. Conducted the floatation test and the result was negative. That dough sank like a rock! Decide to wait for the extra 2 hours.


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On a good note, the air culture (Aculture) showed some interesting thing. A nice clump of air pocket is observed at the bottom, while the top had a airy feel (see video), squish squish! I first added air it but stirring with the measuring spoon. The smell is still wet dough but lacked the soggy socks scent as past cultures had; there is also another smell I can’t put words to but it smells familiar. After a while, I decide to add ~2TBSP + 3/2 TSP of flour and “x” water until it had pancake consistency. I think I made a mistake here because I was mixing the lab instructions with the steps in the leaven video. I should have let it sit longer instead of adding more food. I will be leaving this open to the air again since I added more food.

A second air culture was made in a small bowl with 2TBSP + ~4 TBSP of water. This will also be left out in the air.

Day 27 (Day 21)         3/12/20 8:04 pm

We start off with an observation of our culture. No gas formation or nice smell: cheesy barf all the way! I decided to continue anyway since I'm near the end but I probably should've restarted again. I didn't want to since I got other projects I need to do. 

Leaven was made with using 1 TBSP of the culture and 1 2/3 cup flour mix. 5/6 cup of water (teeheehee I did math) was added and mixed with the flour. Is it suppose to be dry like dough or wet because I don't think there is enough water? I don't expect it to pass the float test because there is no air bubble observed in the culture. I still want to see what happens when you cook this monstrosity.

As a side experiment I had made a new batch of flour mix yesterday but instead of my hands I let it sit out in the air for an entire day. I can see a little blueing on top perhaps an indication of fungi growth. This was done since I wanted them yeast from the air and not my hand culture; blech! So this was for fun.

Day 27 (Day 20) 3/11/20 1:12 pm

Didn’t do anything to my redo culture. The smell was the same but there might be air pocket formation. Could be the stirring incorporating air yesterday but who knows.


Hourly observation:
No expansion or contraction that I can see. The dough just lost its round ball shape.
Initial few hours (after new batch): wet dough, gooey texture

Hourly observation:
 
12:00 am
Cheesy flour smell. Can’t tell if expanding or the dough just flatten out. Gooey texture and no gas formation. Those holes might just be air pockets made during the mixing process.

6:53 am
Cheesy barf smell! That was fast, whoever is in my culture.
No expansion or contraction that I can see.

10:31 am
Still cheesy! No expansion or contraction observed; the dough looks like it’s just flattening out. I normally have the new batch in a ball shape and placed in center. It always flattening out to a thin layer so I’m it’s hard to tell if its expanding or just oozing outward because gravity. Then again, it wouldn’t make sense for the smell, there is something growing in there. :p

11:43 am
Not change.

1:12 pm
Not change.

Hourly observation:

1:42 pm
Same smell, but I guess its expanding? Because in the later hours you see more gooey dough covering the bottom. In addition, you can see ring clearing of dough around the bottom of the bowl.

2:43 pm
The ring at the bottom is more transparent.
As a note: I should’ve talked about the ring in previous cutlures since this has happened before. I wasn’t too focus on it though, my priority was looking for air bubbles.

3:43 pm
No change in smell just more intense. The ring at bottom is becoming less see through now. Is it because of the lighting? \_(:\)_/

4:42 PM
Smell started to down die to normal levels… I think its more of me lifting the towel and prevent accumulation.

5:46 PM
No change.


Annnnnnd I fell asleep for like 2 hours, whoopie!. Food coma is something alright. There goes my time intervals!
Okay, now I’m getting pissed about at WordPress setup, this is so dumb when you copy and paste from Doc it makes a bazillion blocks! >:(. Why wordpress? Can your program see I’m in a block already? Or is the program treating every Enter as a command for a new block. Yet for some Enter sentences it will clump them together. Hey, if you can ShiftEnter for a new paragraph, read that I’m in a block already and want to continue on that block! I had to write in docs because for some reason the internet was half working: some sites load while others did not like WordPress/ Yahoo/ Bank of America. Hey at least, Youtube was up and running! Hahahaha.

Day 26 (Day 19)          3/10/20 4:14 pm

Another day another dollar. Same ol’ culture, smelly-cheesy barf with no gas formation.
New batch was made with 2 TBSP of flour mix with 4 TBSP of water. A small blob of previous culture was mixed in using my left hand.

Memories bring back, memories bring back you: my first soggy wet culture. 😥 RIP. You and your tapioca balls will be missed.

Edited:
OOPS! Messed up. Today was supposed to be checking hourly and replenishing with water and new flour. I thought it was Day 20. Oh well, its better tomorrow since I only have one class.

Also I just notice the idea of expanding culture. I think that happened for my first cultures: Pretz and first one. I noticed this on my redo culture being smaller than then previous even after a day. I was wondering if I add more than 2 TBSP but that can’t be right, so expansion? Presently there is not expanding… or I don’t think there is. The dough seems to just flat out instead of expanding for all the previous redo cultures. 

Edited edit: oh wait, I did talk about that on Day 7-8 (Day 1 of redo)

Day 25 (Day 18)          3/9/20 7:07 pm

Old batch did not have gas formation and still had the same cheesy barf smell. The flour is still gooey-like and runny.
I am wondering if that is a cheesy smell, my nose is destroyed. 

New culture was made with one blob of culture, 2 TBSP flour mix and 4 TBSP of water. Mixture was made with left hand.The flour mix was restocked with one cup of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

Day 24 (Day 17)          3/8/20 3:46pm

Culture still the same as yesterday. Gooey with a cheesy barf smell with no air formation. Nothing special. 

New batch was made with 2 TBSP flour mix and 4 TBSP of water. This time a good tea spoon (TSP) of previous culture was added. Mixture was stirred with left hand.

Day 23 (Day 16)                   3/7/20                 9:46am

Booooring! Still the same culture as before. No gas formation and released that cheesy barf smell.New batch was made the same as yesterday.

Day 22 (Day 15)                  3/5/20        2:24 am

Well almost forgot about the culture, had to do this late at night… or early morning.
Culture showed no difference from the previous ones. Same smell and gooey texture (drier and brown b/c one day skipped); no gas formation found.

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Day 21 (Day 14)

Studying for midterms! :p

Day 20 (Day 13) 3/3/20 3:50 pm

Culture now has a stronger cheesy barf smell than previous fresh batch. My guess is that it wasn’t left to dry and something was growing since I had only wash my hand once since coming back from school. No air bubble seen though.

Today I made the culture with 2 TBSP of flour and 4 TBSP of water… it seems like I put more water though. Fairly watery this time. Maybe I do need more water and flour like the first culture.

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Day 19 (Day 12) 3/2/20 12:00 pm

I think I missed a day? Oops!
Oh well, made a new batch with 3 TBSP of flour mix + 4 TBSP of water. Mixed with left hand . The culture is losing it smell, probably because I left it for one extra day.

Nothing new to report. No tapioca balls still.

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Day 18 (Day 11) 2/29/20 7:40 am

I did not do anything yesterday because I didn’t feel like it. I am sick but recovering so that’s my reason.

Today woke up early to recapture my … microbes. Same mild smell of cheesy barf with hint of glass and metal. I wonder if the glass is breaking? No gas formation, still the gooey mess it has always been.

New culture was made with 2 TBSP flour mix, 2 TBSP of water and my left hand. This time I didn’t soap the top of my hand going to see if it will produce better results. I want my Tapioca balls back!!!

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Day 16 (Day 9) 2/27/20 8:40 pm

No change compared to previous observations: same smell (a little stronger), no gas formation, blobby blob inoculated into 2 TBSP of flour + 4 TBSP of water. Mixed with my right hand!

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Day 15 (Day 8) 2/26/20 – 1:00 pm

Oops. Made a mistake was suppose to reculture my minions everyday but only had to blog every other day. I memorized wrong.

Today, the culture had the same smell as yesterday just less intense. No extra gas formation.

New culture was made with 2 flour mix, 1 TSP of blob, and 4 TBSP of water. Left hand was used for mixing.

Day 14 (Day 7) 2/25/20 – 4:52pm

Day skipped from culturing. Observations made: metal/ glass smell, not much cheesy or barf stench like the previous cultures. Some gas formation at bottom. Top layer beginning to brown and dry.

Decided to add few drops of water. I think I made it too dry this time.

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Day 13 (Day 6) 2/24/20 – 12:29 pm

Hello there! Once, we meet again. mmmmm. Yes Master Yoda. The redo culture had no gas formation, while continued to have the smell of cheese and barf mixed with some glass/ metal. Not much has changed.

Patience! Patience we must be.
Yes, Master.

New culture batch was made with: 2 TBSP of flour mix + 3 TBSP of water. They were mixed using the left hand. Pray something different happens. :p

Had to resupply the flour mix baggie: 1 cup of whole wheat + 1 cup of bread wheat.

Llaallalaalalal. What day is it? Test is tomorrow! Aaaaaah!
“Seagulls, mmggh. STOP IT NOW!” -BLR

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Day 12 (Day 5) 2/23/20 – 6:50pm

Both Redo culture #1 &2 has a weird smell: metal, glass plus the usually cheesy, barf. Weird for the metal/ glass part but.. \_(:/)_/. There were no bubble formation in either of them. Looks were also the same . Both cultures were thrown away due to drying up. Whoopie, what a lovely cleanup this would be, again! The dehydration makes me wonder am I not giving enough water now?

Redo #3 was made with 2 TBSP of flour, ~2TBSP of warm water, and some blob from Redo #2 and Redo #1. I did mix a little with my fingers. (>_<)
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PCultures had similar results with the Redos: same smell and visual and the lack of gas formation. Both the Cultures were thrown out due to these similarities. For future subsequent cultures, hand mixing will be prioritized.

*Note to self: Embrace the smell, wafting does not produce the right about of stimuli to nose. Direct sniff is a must probably due to the low formation and volatility of the gases. My poor nose and GI tract… pffbbft. Ah, human centipede farts are nice.

I’m starting to get the feel about what Dr. Cohen said about her experiment: a lot of waiting and growing. sigh.

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Day 11 (Day4) 2/22/20 – 11:19am

Woolallala. Redo culture has the flour smell, a hint of soggy socks and, upon first inspection, pure alcohol? That’s very interesting. Never had this before. It could be chemistry since I didn’t really put a lot of microbes in. Perhaps my assumption of fully wrapping with towel gives better results… hmmm. The bottom didn’t show excessive gas formation (tapioca balls) but more than before. In addition, the top layer seems to be dry. Even culture #1 did not dry like this on day 4. Then again it could just be the type of microbes being grown. … or the fact I wrap the bowel more tightly. e.e.e.e Too many variables, such great science here. :p

Redo culture #2 was made with 2 TBSP of flour mix, 1 TSP blob of Redo #1, and 2 TBSP + few drops of water. It was left open in the kitchen for 30 minutes (11:51-12:21pm). I poked at the dry flour twice, not really sure if I want to have Stap again…?

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Day 10 (Day3) 2/21/20 – 3:49pm

Both PCultures have a cheesy + barf smell… maybe some metal smell? HURGAUUH! None of them have air bubbles and Pculture #3 seems to be less soggy then Pculture #2. Time to make more… PCulture#4 was made with 2 tablespoon of flour mix + 2TBSP, 2TSP of water. Less watery as I can see.

The redo culture seems to be following the same path as the Culture #1. It now has a wet sock smell while retaining the aroma of flour mix. This smell of socks doesn’t seem too strong as it did before. Also when I mean wet socks, from my senses it smells like a clean pair that was soaked in water or something, so not as bad. There seems to be air bubble formation at the bottom. Going to need to transfer tomorrow (3rd day) like the first run.

Here we go again!

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Day 9 (Day2) 2/20/20 – 7:06pm

Redo culture #1 only has a wet fresh dough smell. It is still wet and soggy but other than that, there seems to be no growth yet. Also, I’m wondering if the original subsequent cultures had an error since the microbes could be producing more water: cellular respiration? This would account for the persistent soggy mix for a week as seen in Culture #1. Perhaps, I need to wrap the towel better… to prevent oxygen from entering. Culture #1 started out like this: fully wrapped (image#1). After the 3rd inspection, I left the towel on the top while it droop over the sides for darkness. Hmmmm… damn I should’ve kept the ‘rock’ culture. It started with gas formation which was cool… probably my “God-like” hands, too… eh?

Pretz Culture #1 now smells like Day 6 cultures: alcohol and initial cheesy. While, Pretz Culture #2 began to have that barf smell again. “oooweee!” (Thanks Mr. Poopybutthole).

Both culture did not contain any bubbles but I’ll continue to feed them. Hahaha! BLARUGH!!! So, from this we might conclude the yeast in the Pretz cracker are dead. I’ll assume they were labelled because people want to know if there are microbes in the food we eat, hahahahaha! Mmm… yeast. Interestingly, the Pretz cultures (Pculture) did not utilize the hand as the stirrer, but the measure spoons which was wash with antibacterial hand soap then rinsed with very hot water and dried! Perhaps when lifting the towel, the microbes decide to float in; or they settle when I was stirring. Because both Pculture are proceeding similar to the original cultures I decide to continue feeding them until the end of the month, using Pculture #2 as the parent culture.

New Pculture #3 was made with 2 tablespoon of flour mix, prob 3-4 tablespoon of lukewarm, and one stringy blob of Pculture #2 from the bottom.


“ooooweee. Tune in tomorrow to see how we’ll unravel this mess” – Mr. Poopybutthole.

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Day 7-8 (Redo: Day 1) 2/18/20-2/19/20 – 11:37am

The 2nd culture did not dehydrate (veeeeery gooey) and has a very very very strong barf, cheese smell. I think I’m going to throw that away now. BLEEECH! While the 1st culture now smells like stinky feet and cheese. BLUARGH! Ms Frizzle taught us to get messy for science but this is HURGAAUUH!!!

Culture #1 became dry but I’m not sure if I want to culture it. Hmmm. Oh, it looks like there is mold at the bottom: white with hints of blue. Okay… its not just dry but hard as rock! Well can’t use them anymore. I guess that’s what it meant neglecting to feed them after 2 days.

The second culture also went into the bin. There was no bubble formation, and was nice gooey, wet mess that was easy removed with paper towel. (sorry no selfie with this :/). It still looked like Day 6 cultures, so no physical change I can see after 2 days.

On a side note it looked like the Pretz culture formed some air bubbles. :O It doesn’t have the soggy socks + sourness smell like the first culture, instead it still pertain it doughness and gooeyness. I decide to make the 2nd gen for the Pretz culture: couldn’t get a teaspoon but a gooey blob. Unlike culture one when scrapping aside the top layer the bottom did not smell but the dough was nice and airy like… still gooey though.

I will be starting over again: this time I think I let my flour mix sat in kitchen open to air for culturing ~30 min (1:50-2:20 pm). Whatever are probably ruining the project.

Edited: eh, still add water over my hands for the new culture but mixed with the measure spoon.

Decide to poke at the redo lump with my fingers.

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Discussion for me:
So now I know why landfills must put a plastic layer over each trash layer. This is just a few hand full of gooey, smell flour blob. I wonder what a landfill smells….

Probably should have saved culture 2 but oh lord did it smell. Also it seems like the dough blob increased in size? Why does my redo seem smaller .. It’s 2 tablespoon right? Wth.

Also “Oh what the hell”, I forgot to take a picture of that gooey mess, culture #2.

Day 6 2/17/20 – 10:07 am

Hello darkness my own friend. The 1st culture now has the barf smell and perhaps initial mold growth due to the dark brown color. ‘Tapioca gas balls’ can still be seen at bottom.

The second culture has a very strong smells like cheese + thousand island and spoilage. Hmmm. I did not make another batch with the barf culture because it smelled so bad and because its too wet. No gas formation too. Will wait another day. :p

Also the idea with the pancake mix was scrapped due to the leavening used in the powder: chemistry! I found that Pretz sticks have <1% yeast though. Not sure if they are dead or alive… probably dead because bake but… SCIENCE! Made a small batch with a crushed Pretz Stick.

I should probably note that whenever using the new glass bowls + measuring cups, they are washed with soap + hot water then rinsed with filter sink water and dried with paper towel. No gloves worn. Tsk tsk tsk. Hand washing was only done.

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Day 5 2/16/20 – 11:18am

OH GOD!!! THE HUMANITY! Well what a flop. No more “air bubbles” and now there is a strong barf like smell HUURGGEHH!!! BLARUHG!!! Poor cultures.
Professor! Do we have to go on?! Aaaaah >_<

The first culture also seem to change, now its more dry but still a gooey center. Still have bubbles and now has a ferment/ alcohol smell. Woolalala. BLARUHG!!!

Hmm I wonder what it should smell like… I think I make a culture with some pancake mix.

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Day 4 2/15/20 – 9:30am

Smell is much more wet and sour. Seems like the “tapioca balls” at the bottom are the gas formation. More have formed and the surface of the flour mix has a soggy-looking layer. Woolalala. Science!

There seems to be two layers indicated by the coloration when remove 1 stringy blob. However its not the desired dry crust. Maybe too much water? Will keep 1st culture for now.

New mixing had only left hand finger doing the work.. eeew snob. Also probably too much water again. After reading day 5, it seems the top layer should be not be dehydrated.. as much as the first… so “WE SHALL SEE. We shall see. we shall see. You see?” BBT 2013

“Buckle your pants!” BBT 2013

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Day 3 2/14/20 – 4:43pm

The dough mix smell like a whole wheat dough with a bit of sourness. A few bubble pop on surface but the bottom doesn’t? Can’t really tell it might be gas at the bottom but right now they look like tapioca balls. xD

It prob also smell like wet socks? e.e Staph?

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Day 2
Did nothing. Also didn’t check :p

Day 1

Added 2 tablespoons of flour mix into a clear bowl. Mixed with warm water using my left hand as a stirrer. Consistency seems alright. Add my right hand for good measure.

This dark corner should be suffice.

Day 0

Went to Albertsons to buy raw material. Bye bye Jackson, hello Lincoln!

Began experiment at 4:34 pm PST. Mixed the bread and wheat flour together. This feels weird. Hahaha.

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