Why do tomatoes react with sourdough starter?
I sometimes make sourdough and have found by accident that by adding fresh tomatoes to the dough, it seems to swell substantially more during proving, or more quickly.
There must be some chemical reaction and I just wondered if anyone knows more about it?
Best Answer
Apart from the pH and sugar your tomatoes bring (as mentioned in the comments), I think there's a third part to the explanation - you're likely adding more yeast!
In Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, there's a section on how to get a sourdough starter started. They suggest that if your starter never gets going, you put some pieces of fruit - like apples or grapes - in it, and the wild yeast which almost invariably inhabit the peel of the fruit will get the fermentation going. There's no reason why tomatoes wouldn't be likewise inhabited.
I suppose you test this hypothesis by making two doughs, one to which you add fresh tomatoes, and one where you add tomatoes from the same source which have been cooked.
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Quick Answer about "Why do tomatoes react with sourdough starter?"
Sourdough expands because of a biological process - apparently whatever bacterial strain you have caught, it loves munching on tomatoes. It could be as simple as extra hydration from the tomatoes causing more fermentation.Why is my sourdough starter so acidic?
DIAGNOSIS: In all cases, the acid/alkali balance in your sourdough starter is out of whack. This happens when: you don't feed it, and the micro culture of yeasts, bacteria and fungi and enzymes begin to break the structure of the food (flour) into its component parts, liquid, solid, and waste.What is the chemical reaction in sourdough starter?
The production of carbon dioxide creates gas bubbles in dough, which, when trapped in a well-developed gluten matrix, expand the dough. When baked at a high temperature, these bubbles expand further as more and more carbon dioxide is produced until the yeasts die off, resulting in that airy, spongy loaf we call bread.How do I make my starter less acidic?
Try doubling your amount of starter and seeing if that makes a difference. You could also add some sugar or honey to your dough. Both of these will reduce the ferment time of your dough because they provide a fast food for the yeast. This will in turn decrease the sourness of your sourdough.Can you get botulism from sourdough?
There have been no recorded cases of botulism a rare but potentially fatal illness caused by the bacterium clostridium botulinum from consumption of bread or cakes.Sourdough Starter Guide + why does it smell like that??
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