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Courtland J. Carpenter
February 03, 2026
Like a Sous Vide for sourdough bread, helps get consistent results for your flour mix risings.
I've looked into warmers and finding places where I could get good results without drafts or variable temperatures, but this is better. It reminds me of some of my sous vide cookers where you can dial up the proper level of cooking for steaks and other meats without worrying about over or under cooking. Here of course the goal is the proper rising of sour dough starter. With very mixed success and failures, I've tried to create some starter batches. My house is drafty, open and the heater/AC vents are in sometimes not so good positions. Only my dining table has worked and only fairly not a very consistent place for results. Because of that I've scrapped several starter batches and have never maintained a batch I could consistently feed new flour and water to create more starter.This will be a game changer, already the first batch helped me bubble up the inherent yeast reaction in the first couple days that is better results than ever before. I was able to dial up the perfect temperature, I'm using 74 degrees F, to allow for the rise, and am on the third feeding. I think this will get me some consistent results and save me some money over buying bread from the grocery. While I have groceries delivered, and due to snow and ice I can't do a regular trip to the grocery. Here I can create the starter to mix and make some good sourdough bread and not have to take up freezer space by freezing grocery store loaves that may dry out and lose flavor and texture.I'll have to read up a little bit to see what will work for different temperatures. The incubator as I'd call it will accommodate some fairly good-sized graduated starter jars and is easy access to keep daily feedings of the starter mix. My large air oven on bake is big enough to accommodate the bake crockery to make the classic round loaf with the cuts on the top. I've always loved good sourdough bread, I used to buy sandwiches from a shop that specialized in them, but they closed all locations in my city some years back. I know the combination they use three thin sliced meats, three cheese blend, black olives, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and mustard. I usually stock most of that save maybe the olives. Anyway, this new unit allows me to incubate sourdough starter anywhere in the house so it can be placed where needed. One caution, I would guess in summer not to put in direct sunlight or a warmer area of the house as while it warms it does not cool, so you can still overheat your starter. Recommended.
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Vincent Wu
January 30, 2026
Upgrade your sourdough tech, this device keeps your starter colony feeling like a 5 star resort
Don't be fooled by this low tech device, despite its ostensible simplicity, is the perfect solution to providing the optimal temperature for your sourdough starters to thrive and love life!The device is so simple it doesn't even come with any documentation, not that it needs documentation. There are up/down arrows that adjust the temperature within a range of 70-100F. There is a timer button that you press to add *hours* only (no minutes, or subtracting time). Very simple, press the timer button up to 12 times to have the device auto shutoff after a half day. There are 3 indicator lights facing the user that glow red when the device is heating the small surface, and switches to 3 blue lights when the device is waiting to cool down before the next heating cycle; this makes it easy to tell at a glance exactly whats happening with the system. Its hard to ask for a more simple system!Regardless of what container you are using (beaker, mason jar, cup, etc), a silicone, rubber, or some other semi flexible mat will help immensely in conducting the heat as the thermal conductivity of air is horrific. It's difficult to understate how bad air is so to illustrate my point lets consider some actual figures. Thermal conductivity is measured by W/m*K, lets shorten to "TC" (thermal conductivity). Air has 0.024TC; vs water at 0.6TC; vs computer thermal paste which is betweeen 8-12TC; or regular solid silicone which is about 19TC; or carbon steel which can go up to 50TC. So you can see even water is 25x better at conducting heat than air, and silicone is almost 800x better. So definitely do get a little sheet of some kind of rubbery material to place on the heating surface to maximize the transfer to the glass surface of your proofing jar.One of the accessories for this is a big glass dome which would cover a mason jar full of starter. It makes it look very nice like a science experiment and does a great job trapping warm air, but imo using a conductive pad will do a lot more for efficient heat transfer than the overpriced dome, especially if you are using mason jars with crummy contact area. To emulate the effect of the dome you can make a simple foil tent over your jar which might be even more effective (albeit no where as pretty to look at).This device is a great deal, its a pretty uncommon item so price comparisons are difficult. However if you are serious about cooking sourdough this is a small investment that pays off in convenience and your live sourdough stock will love you for it.
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