Isekai ni Otosareta… Jouka wa Kihon! - Ch. 22.1

[x_renon_x]

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

I find it weird that the Redrawer/Cleaner is the one giving notes and explanation for this rather than the TL, PR, and or QC.

 

[outinthegardener]

i was thinking more of stalingrad

You've fallen for one of the classic blunders! Never wage land war in Asia in the winter!

 

[popinloopy]

Thank you for the update!

 

[Wildtale]

I find it weird that the Redrawer/Cleaner is the one giving notes and explanation for this rather than the TL, PR, and or QC.

Just happened to be an area of expertise for me.
Of course, I've only been keeping starter for 8-9 years, so there may yet be holes in my knowledge. ^^;;

 

[Oeconomist]

Note how the English-system units for baking generally differ one from another as powers of 2. They are a matter of halvings or of doublings.

 

[Nesiax]

AI takeover soon
the golem learning capabilities is really scary

 

[EchoGirl]

Other than knowing that 'bread needs yeast/starters/etc' i'm just impressed he's able to do all that, magic aside, considering i don't esp remember him being some kinda hobbyist cook/chef or like 'into camping'/surviving/hiking before he reincarnated into this world lol, like he was just an average salaryman? right lol, and not even a gaming otaku, tho i am enjoying this story more than other op thing, it'd be a pain when? he deals with the other humans rather than living peacefully with animals lol

(tho i do know japan teaches the kids/teens how to cook more than in an american school but not necessarily boy scouts stuff)

Be nice if he learned some kinda communication spell or so, or meeting some kinda elf or beastgirl freed slave or so too

 

[Eliminateur]

AI takeover soon
the golem learning capabilities is really scary

wait until the golems learn to "take care" of the 5th division intruders at night too....

so yes, they'll be suffering some fantasy vietnam, with the trees talking and all

 

[unnamederror]

that's not even golems anymore, it's just an AI robots

 

[Xeroslayer]

More! I neeeeeeeeed it!!

 

[koga88]

It is pretty funny that almost everything he invents/remembers from scratch ends up being reproduced by the little golems as effectively and better than his own original creations.

Has to hurt the ego a bit, but gives him room to keep inventing and the fact that the golems wouldn't even exist in the first place without him should take the sting out of it.

 

[berryoragami]

Thanks for the chapter!
And the baking tips

 

[OisE]

Well you can try to cook crêpes with only flour and water but it will look more like cement that batter.

 

[Kadoc]

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.

Yeah, I agree, but that was my reaction while reading it.

 

[Lindwern]

Not gonna lie, even if it was a bit off, the starter from a mix of flour and water still seemed more normal than the one I read where they got starter from fermenting fruit.

its possible to start a starter from fruit but it depends on the fruit, a common one I've read was grapes, there are natural yeasts in the skin of grapes and sometimes it leaves traces of the flavor of the fruit in the starter
there are also fermenting fruit in water then using that water with flour to create a starter

 

[Drifter]

I assumed there were some magical shenanigans at work where the bread making is concerned but the insights on how its done IRL were interesting nonetheless.

Just as odd is how isekai characters manage to find domesticated crops just growing in the wild. We developed what we know as food crops over thousands of years, their ancestors looked nothing like what we eat now.

 

[Lan]

I assumed there were some magical shenanigans at work where the bread making is concerned but the insights on how its done IRL were interesting nonetheless.

Just as odd is how isekai characters manage to find domesticated crops just growing in the wild. We developed what we know as food crops over thousands of years, their ancestors looked nothing like what we eat now.

https://mangadex.org/chapter/f2988c96-8e86-4914-8a8f-87d047cd86cd/9

Here he guesses some wheat seeds fly toward the area.

 

[Seraphus]

This is not slow life, it's




Ssssssslllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww




Lllliiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeee

I love this story, but I'm getting antsy about him finally contacting the beastfolk, and plot progression...

 

[EchoGirl]

This is not slow life, it's




Ssssssslllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww




Lllliiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeeeee

I love this story, but I'm getting antsy about him finally contacting the beastfolk, and plot progression...

it'd be nice if it got animated like the camping cooking isekai , it'd probably be able to cover ten chapters per ep and pick up the pace/plot more, but it's fully caught up to the raws already as opposed to the JP ver being on chapter 60 so you'd probably have to read other series in the meantime

not sure if there was a webnovel to read tho

 

[EchoGirl]

New chapter in raws. wonder if anyone's getting drunk off the wine lol