August 5, 2013 - 5:34am
Should I create a new starter
I have been baking with a starter that I made a few tears ago with great results. I have been reading about the Tartine method and was thinking of making a new starter. If I make a new starter won't I end up with a starter that is basically the same as what I have now ? Isn't the bacteria and yeast the same from when I created one a few years ago. Should I just use the starter I have now and feed it as recommended in the Tartine method. Can you create different starters at home using different methods and end up with distinctively different starters? I was under the assumption that the starter I created at home would end up the same no matter what method I used
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making a new starter. You have the right idea to the Tartine feeding schedule with the starter you currently have and it will be just as it is meant to be.
Especially after you've had the starter all this time, and you've been baking with it. The yeast and labs have probably overtaken your house, and maybe even your neighborhood by now. In fact, they may have been dominant in that area before you ever began to harvest them. There is not much likelyhood of getting anything significantly different just by starting over with a different method. There are even people who say that if you move, after you feed your starter a few times, it will begin to convert to the area you moved to. I'm not sure about that one, but certainly when starting from scratch (or flour), the resulting culture will not be significantly different from any other started in the same area. However, you can get different flavor profiles by changing the environment that the yeast and LABs live in, so converting your starter to the Tartine method may make a difference in the final results of the bread you make from it.
Since your starter is already well established, I would use some of it and just convert it.
Unless you feed a different flour, a new starter, I feel, would be much the same as you original once it matures.