September 17, 2011 - 6:16pm
Pineapple starter question
I'm on my fith day of starting a new pinapple juice starter from the Debra wink recipe. At this point she recommends taking 1oz out of the jar and adding 1oz of water and one 10z of flour daily. Not thinking it out too well and wanting to get out of the land of 0z into grams I pulled out 50 grams of the starter or whatever it is at this point (from a total of about 85 grams) and added 50g of water and 50g of flour. Didn't realize I was about 20 grams off in my estimate of how much an oz was oops! This shouldn't be a problem right? I'm finally starting to see a few random bubbles. I held on to the remaining starter just for the heck of it.
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The weight proportions are the same, everything will be okay. 1oz = 28.35g.
Jim
Debra's instructions say to feed the starter using a 2:1:1 ratio "once daily until it starts to expand and smell yeasty." If you're seeing only a "few random bubbles," you should still be feeding it using the 2:1:1 ratio.
woops hey I guess I did read that wrong. Little matter though since I came home to this :)
After about 24 hours. It was ropey when I ran a spoon through it and smelt of alcohol meaning of course it was hungry. Any tips for younger starter maintance when it's still in the early stages? This is about 6 days in. I eventually want to maintain enough starter to pull out 180 grams for baking 2-3 times a week.
every 12 hours or once in the morning and then again in the evening. Keep the amounts small. You want it to peak (rise and start to fall back down) under 12 hours at 23°C (73.4°F) The first 12 hour might feel like pushing the starter (if it doesn't peak.) If it rises under 12 hours then reduce and feed it. The next 12 hour feeding should show more activity. With each 12 hr feeding, the activity should be increasing and a pattern should begin to show.
When you want to test it's ability to rise high, put one teaspoon of starter with 4 or 5 times water and flour and see what it does within first 8-12 hours. If it more than doubles, try it in a recipe. Keep track of the time and compare the test to your recipe (starter to added flour) to get a ball park idea of when your dough will be rising. :)
On another subject altogether... While typing here, I am drinking old left over coffee from a thermos. Yep, I know, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I had made normal drip coffee for my son for a hiking trip yesterday as the afternoon was scheduled rain and 12°C. Well, the coffee is fantastic! First I was thinking the boys put something into the coffee to give it an exotic spice flair... sort of like gingerbread lurking in the background flavours. Then it dawned on me... that thermos was used for spiced red wine previously! Oops, I'm out of coffee... now what?
Mini
Thanks for the advice, do you think it's advisable to switch to a 1:1:1 feeding if it's not doubling within 12 hours? From about 8pm to 8am looks like about a 50% increase in volume right now.
After it peaks, the starter typically falls, so it's possible you simply missed seeing it triple on volume.
leaving the discard to sit 24 hours or until it peaks.
Well, the starter can't double if there isn't enough food. Your starter is showing signs of being hungry. Right now the food amount is low. By giving it enough to double, it probably will. With each 12 hour discard & feed at 1:1:1, the rising time will shorten and the volume of yeasts will increase.
Thanks guys sounds like I'm on the right track then. I will continue with 1:1:1 feedings every 12 hours, right now I'm doing 50g starter, 50g water, 25g white flour and 25g wheat. My guy seems frothy enough and happy though well eaten after 12 hours so I will keep it up until I see more vigirous activity.