leaven maintenance - keep or discard
My wife and I are relative newcomers (as a couple) to sourdough baking.. She used to bake long ago, and I've made bread, but never using a starter.
About two months ago, we started a starter from scratch, and have been baking with it since. She does most of the baking, and I have been most often been the feeder or our new pet (named Old Who's'it). I'm a software engineer, and, by training and disposition, tend to feed by weight, while she feeds by volume, when she feeds. The starter has been healthy and responds well to feeding.
We are in what we think of as maintenance mode ... weekly feedings unless preparing to bake.
We have a minor disagreement, and I'd like some input.
I try to maintain a 100% hydration, and the feedings she does should also keep the starter at 100% hydration, except for one thing:
I use (for biscuits, which work with discard leaven) or discard excess leaven. She adds her fed leaven to the remaining leaven. For example, if we have 300 grams of leaven, she will mix 1/2 cup leaven, 1/2 cup water, and a scant cup of flour together, and add that mix to any leftover leaven. By my experimentation, that means, starting with about a cup of leaven prior to feeding, she will end up with a mix of 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of leaven, and a scant cup of flour. This means, to me, that she will not end up with a leaven at 100% hydration. I don't yet know how to calculate the actual hydration, but, I think, it is not 100%,
Given the same situation, I will do one of two things ... measure the weight of the leaven, and add an equal weight of water and flour ... if there is 230 g of leaven, I add 230 g of water, and 230 g of flour.
Or, I will measure about 115 g of leaven, add 115 g of water and 115 g of flour, and discard the leaven in excess of the 115 g that I used for the feeding.
I contend that my approach will leave us with (varying amounts) of leaven at 100% hydration.
Please help me know if I am doing this correctly.
By the way, the leaven seems to be pretty happy either way. Just, as a scientist, I want to know the answer.
Thanks,
sharkura
However 1/2 cup of water to 1 cup of flour comes to about 100% hydration give or take. As long as what is being fed to the leaven is done in that volume ratio one should end up with near enough 100% hydration.
1 cup water = 236g
1 cup flour will vary! Depending on flour and how it's measured. But on average it'll be 120-125g
I used to do volume until I purchased Jeff Hamelman's book Bread. He advises metric weight and I currently use 1:1 ratio. I have 3 starters now about 8 years old and refresh 1x per week. I have wheat, rye and white. I recently received Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. He specifically recommends metric weight for consistency.
On the discard my business instincts always said to save as much of the existing starter as possible but all the Bread authors tell me to discard most of the starter. Robertson suggests discard 80% of the starter. When you refresh starters you are feeding and the more food the healthier the starter. Robertson's basic recipe for country bread has me making 400 grams of leaven with the starter. Curiously, he recommends mixing 200 gas of water and 200 grams of 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat with 1 tbsp. of the starter. The rest is discarded. His basic recipe uses 200 grams of the leaven and using the rest as starter for the next bake. Be remedied that Chad is baking every day.The result is a sweet starter which imparts a sweeter flavor to the bread characteristic of the whole wheat. I just baked my first loaves and the flavor was good.
My standby recipes are for NY Sour Rye and Polish Country bread which use prodigious amounts of acidity sour leavens (rye 1025 , the PC 500 grams). My wheat is more deism (sweeter). The leaven is ready when a small amount will float in a cup of moderate room temperature water.
Good Luck with your baking and keep your starter happy with lots of feeding. The more frequent the better it will mature and provide you both with great breads.
Regards,
Big Crusty
Thanks for the input, BC. I'll look for some of the books you mention.
We've been very happy with the quality of the bread we've been making. Kim (my wife) makes an awesome sourdough cinnamon-raisin swirl bread. Sadly, I am now gaining weight. JK. Good stuff, though.
Sharkura
Jeez. Maybe I'm in the minority but I just toss most of the starter and throw some flour and water in and mix it.
I leave it at room temperature which is supposed to require twice- daily feeding. I feed typically once per day and it's fine.
My bread is consistently excellent.
I dunno but I think starter is a lot more flexible than most people give it credit for.
Minority Report, that is. From an even better story by Phil Dick.
In any case, as an engineer, I enjoy the process, understanding the, dare I say it, the mathematics of bread (or anything, for that matter). Different strokes ...
However, I do see your point. As an earlier post mentioned, some sources say discard most. I have been using my discard to make biscuits, and, I love them.
I'm going to try scones next.
Thanks for the input.
Sharkura
love, i had a starter that worked well like that. feed it without weighing and not huge amounts of flour and it was happy and bubbly, rose well and made good bread. my current starter, however, is voracious! feeding it double its weight twice a day isn't enough for it, even three times and it goes slack and liquidy, possibly because it got warm and my kitchen is several degrees warmer, but even in colder temps - 65 to 68 - this is one hungry stater.
right now, i'm doing 5x its weight in flour twice a day, and while it seems very happy, that barely holds it for 12 hours. once the two are built up, i can't wait to put dry some and put one in the fridge.
Ours seems to be happy whichever of us feeds it. When Kim feeds, it seems slightly more thin, where as mine tends to resemble an outer space monster that can stretch its body until it wraps around your head. But, they're really not that different, especially with respect to results.
I guess we'll just keep doing what we're doing. Maybe split it, and let her feed one, while I feed the other. Throw them into a pit and may the best leaven win.
Time also to maybe try some other types of bread ... right now, we're working with organic, unbleached. Maybe some rye next. I love rye ... whisky and bread. :D
Sharkura