Isekai ni Otosareta… Jouka wa Kihon! - Ch. 22.1
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For those of you who'd be interested in a longer explanation:
There are a few aspects left to be desired in how the MC made and used his starter. Some of this is just par for the course when it comes to how Japanese home bakers make sourdough, and some of it can be chalked up to magic.
First off, the initial culturing medium of flour and water is really wet. The standard for the initial culturing of sourdough starters is a 1:1 flour to water ratio by weight. By volume, like what the MC used, that would be close to a 2:1 flour to water ratio. The flour portion not only contains the food, but also the bulk of the yeast inoculating the culture. Some instructions will ask for an even higher ratio of flour to water to start out with. Interestingly, what the MC used appears to be standard for Japanese home bakers.
Second, while it is perfectly possible to culture a starter from scratch in five days, such a starter is still a baby. One could try to make a loaf of bread with such a young starter, but it is highly unlikely to produce the kind of fluffy bread that the manga describes. In addition, starter should not be kept in the fridge unless it is a mature starter that is culturing too quickly, or you want to use it less frequently – in which case you would not have to feed it while keeping it there.
However, I’ll let that slide, because everything is magic in this world and so of course the yeast would be too.
Third, wild wheat – like what the MC found – has much less gluten than the hybridized commercial wheat we’re all familiar with. It would probably be more like an ancient grain, such as einkorn, the kneading time for which is very short. With that much kneading, his bread should be tough and flat. Even if it is more like a high gluten content wheat, he would still only need to knead once prior to letting the dough rise for the first time.
Finally, my last gripe would be that he seems to have used the entirety of the starter in one recipe. The whole point of having a starter is to use some of it in a recipe and refresh the rest with feeding for later use. This helps strengthen the starter and make it more active, thus making for a better rise as it matures. Again, it seems that Japanese home bakers skip this and just use the whole culture.
There are other nitpicks I could have, but the above are the biggest.
TL;DR:
1: The MC did it wrong – the initial culture is too wet, unless you’re from Japan.
2: The culture is too young and weak to make fluffy bread right off the bat.
3: The MC did it wrong – he kneaded the bread dough too much.
4: The MC did it wrong – he should have kept some of the starter for later use, unless you’re from Japan.
If you’d like to learn more about making and keeping your own sourdough starter, I would highly recommend the following blogs (these are the same as the ones mentioned in the TL note):
https://cultured.guru/blog/category/fermentation-recipes/sourdough
https://crustylabs.com/
https://culturesforhealth.com/blogs/learn/sourdough
https://sourdoughbrandon.com/
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/
Thank you, and happy baking,
Wildtale, CL/RD
There are a few aspects left to be desired in how the MC made and used his starter. Some of this is just par for the course when it comes to how Japanese home bakers make sourdough, and some of it can be chalked up to magic.
First off, the initial culturing medium of flour and water is really wet. The standard for the initial culturing of sourdough starters is a 1:1 flour to water ratio by weight. By volume, like what the MC used, that would be close to a 2:1 flour to water ratio. The flour portion not only contains the food, but also the bulk of the yeast inoculating the culture. Some instructions will ask for an even higher ratio of flour to water to start out with. Interestingly, what the MC used appears to be standard for Japanese home bakers.
Second, while it is perfectly possible to culture a starter from scratch in five days, such a starter is still a baby. One could try to make a loaf of bread with such a young starter, but it is highly unlikely to produce the kind of fluffy bread that the manga describes. In addition, starter should not be kept in the fridge unless it is a mature starter that is culturing too quickly, or you want to use it less frequently – in which case you would not have to feed it while keeping it there.
However, I’ll let that slide, because everything is magic in this world and so of course the yeast would be too.
Third, wild wheat – like what the MC found – has much less gluten than the hybridized commercial wheat we’re all familiar with. It would probably be more like an ancient grain, such as einkorn, the kneading time for which is very short. With that much kneading, his bread should be tough and flat. Even if it is more like a high gluten content wheat, he would still only need to knead once prior to letting the dough rise for the first time.
Finally, my last gripe would be that he seems to have used the entirety of the starter in one recipe. The whole point of having a starter is to use some of it in a recipe and refresh the rest with feeding for later use. This helps strengthen the starter and make it more active, thus making for a better rise as it matures. Again, it seems that Japanese home bakers skip this and just use the whole culture.
There are other nitpicks I could have, but the above are the biggest.
TL;DR:
1: The MC did it wrong – the initial culture is too wet, unless you’re from Japan.
2: The culture is too young and weak to make fluffy bread right off the bat.
3: The MC did it wrong – he kneaded the bread dough too much.
4: The MC did it wrong – he should have kept some of the starter for later use, unless you’re from Japan.
If you’d like to learn more about making and keeping your own sourdough starter, I would highly recommend the following blogs (these are the same as the ones mentioned in the TL note):
https://cultured.guru/blog/category/fermentation-recipes/sourdough
https://crustylabs.com/
https://culturesforhealth.com/blogs/learn/sourdough
https://sourdoughbrandon.com/
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/
Thank you, and happy baking,
Wildtale, CL/RD
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i was thinking more of stalingrad
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Thanks for the insight on sourdough making.
However, I'm a bit more confused about the final bread recipe. Did MC really use 2 parts flour to a total of 10 parts water? That'd make a crepe mixture, if anything. Definitely not a bread dough as depicted, it's way too wet for that.
From what I've seen and experimented with, most bread recipies call for a hydration of maybe 70-80% or even lower. Yet MC ends up going for 500%. Just seems strange. Am I reading this right?
However, I'm a bit more confused about the final bread recipe. Did MC really use 2 parts flour to a total of 10 parts water? That'd make a crepe mixture, if anything. Definitely not a bread dough as depicted, it's way too wet for that.
From what I've seen and experimented with, most bread recipies call for a hydration of maybe 70-80% or even lower. Yet MC ends up going for 500%. Just seems strange. Am I reading this right?
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Thank you very much for the chapter, can't wait to see what happens when the other people finally show up!! 
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Left bubble: He used 2 parts of flour to 1 part of water and starter
the 10 parts of water was in contrast with the 1 part of sugar (right bubble)
The scale and weights he made only estimate halves and quarters, since he has no idea how much the stone he cutted weighted. So his recipe is something like:
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of water mixed with 1/2 cup of starter
1 tbsp of sugar diluted in 10 tbsp of water
pinch of salt
It's only a rough example since he is using a scale he is dealing with weight not volume, but it was easier to me imagine cups than kilos and grams haha
Last edited:
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Ty for the chapter! I always like to see when the group shares their choice and knowledge obtained from the chapter.
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And now I'm craving for some bread...
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Thanks for the detailed explanation.
It's not explicit here, but I'm pretty sure you're right with the last section I quoted here: he's cheating using magic to compensate where he makes mistakes or lacks knowledge.
His magic can do pretty much anything he imagines so, as long as he can picture the result in some way, it works out.
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It's not sad. They didn't intend to eat the bread. They wanted to study it in order to learn how to make it.
Which they did. Better than the MC did. Golems for the win.
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"Take back your shit and hold our beer while you sleep..."
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Sour dough makers / translators…, nice.
