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Refreshing Mother Starter according to Reinhart's "Artisan Breads Every Day"

Mira's picture
Mira

Refreshing Mother Starter according to Reinhart's "Artisan Breads Every Day"

Hello,

While still at the seed culture stage I'm reading Reinhart's book ahead to the mother starter stage and I admit to feeling confused.  His instructions to convert from seed culture to mother stage are clear; it's the instructions for refreshing that confuse me.

He states: "Whenever the mother starter gets low, rebuild it using 4 oz of the old starter and repeating the instructions above". (ie combining 4 oz of Phase 4 seed culture with 9 oz spring water and 12 o whole wheat flour.)

But then in his following paragraph he states: "To rebuild your mother starter, use 1 ounze of mother starter and add 3 ounces of flour and 2 gto 2.25 ounces of water".

So is it 4 oz or 1 oz of old mother starter?

I want to keep my mother starter indefinitely in the refrigerator. How do I feed it? And do I feed it once a week as I've read in various places, or every 5 days?

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you!

 

Mason's picture
Mason

The instructions with 4 oz are for a healthy starter. If it gets pretty sad (left in the fridge too long between feedings), then you can start with a very small amount (1oz), feed, then use 4 oz of that to rebuild a usable amount.

I always leave at least 1 oz behind of the old starter when feeding, so that if something (kitchen gods forbid) goes wrong, I'd have a backup ounce from which to try again.

Enjoy!

Mason

ermabom's picture
ermabom

I keep 3 oz of starter (I began with PR's instructions in Whole Grain Breads which is very similar to Artisan Breads Every Day's instructions). I refresh 1 oz with 1.5 oz flour and 1.1 oz water. This is my new starter. I leave it out and once it has risen, it goes back into the fridge for the next bake.

I take the remaining 2 oz and use it to build the starter for the bread I'm baking. I typically make the Pain Au Levain from AB Every Day.

I hope this helps

Mira's picture
Mira

Thank you to both of you,

Now....how often do you feed it?  Given my schedule I am only able to bake bread on Saturdays....so can I get by with refreshing my starter twice a week?

Mason's picture
Mason

I make bread about once a week too, and not always sourdough. I usually just feed the sourdough a day before I want to use it. If I have not used it for a while, it just takes longer to double and get bubbly, than if it was fed more recently.

As your sourdough matures and gets happier, it will double after feeding more quickly and be more vigorous in raising bread. Be patient with it at the beginning.

If you bake on Saturday it might be good to give it extra time, say by feeding it Thursday evening, and then put it in the fridge on Friday when it has doubled, then bake on Saturday. It's good for at least 3 days between feeding and using in bread dough ( which is basically equivalent to feeding it again with the read of the bread ingredients).

Mira's picture
Mira

Thank you.

My seed culture is not doing much:(  I haven't yet converted to the Mother Starter stage - as per Reinhart's book - because it hasn't doubled, although it now smells like cider vinegar.  According to ABED, the scent is supposed to change from a beery scent to a cider vinegar one.  I've just aerated it twice a day and it remains sitting on my kitchen counter (temperature ranges 23-25 degrees celsius).

Not sure what to do with my poor starter, if I should throw it out and start afresh with the organic rye that I purchased yesterday.  I wouldn't follow Reinhart's instructions either, I'd follow the more frequent 12 hour feeding schedule that I've read on various postings.  I'm away for work as well, from Thursday - Saturday, so that doesn't bode well either for my poor starter.

melnikne's picture
melnikne

I'm a newbie, but have had great success at Sourdough using Reinhart's book.  However, I'm not sure i understand the refreshing of the starter.  I have 6.4 ounces left.  It smells good and looks good, not dry.  Can you give me a formula for just refreshing it, like how often and do I refresh the whole starter or just as suggested above by ermabom?  If I only refresh 1 oz, what happens to the rest?  This is very confusing!!!

 

thanks!!

 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

No Muss No Fuss Starter is a good way which I recommend http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter

It's quite simple. Keep a small amount of stiff starter in the fridge. Each time you bake take some off and build a levain. When your starter runs low, take it out, feed it, allow it some room temp time to bubble up by half (this way it still has plenty of reserves) then pop it back into the fridge. It can last a long time between feeds this way.

I do a variation of this building 85g by feeding 10g starter with 25g water + 50g flour (40g bread flour + 10g whole wheat or whole rye).

melnikne's picture
melnikne

Thanks for making it so simple!!

melnikne's picture
melnikne

Great help. Thank you so much!

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I'm going to slightly alter something in my future maintenance schedule. Everything stays the same except for rebuilding the mother starter when it runs low. Because it goes for a long time between feeds it will be beneficial to rebuild in 3 stages, allowing the first 2 to bubble up till peaked and on the 3rd only allowing it to bubble up by half. This way you'd be replenishing the yeast population.

Read Dabrownman's No Muss No Fuss starter maintenance I've given a link to. It's such a great way to maintain a starter. Gives great flavour too!

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

I maintain a 100% hydration wheat starter. I do bake fairly often, but keep the 'mother' culture in the fridge. I use some to build my levains and when the mother gets down to around 50 grams I add 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour (usually some of this is whole wheat flour), stir it up and leave it on the counter for most of the day until it at least doubles (sometimes triples!). Once it has peaked I put it back in the fridge and let it sit until I need it again.

I went away for six weeks in the autumn and left some of the mother culture to sit in the fridge that whole time. A couple of feedings was all it took to get it back to full strength again. That said, if you are going to leave it for long periods it is best, as Lechem and dabrownman say, to make it drier (i.e. give it lots of flour for food).