November 6, 2008 - 9:07am
Nancy silverton rye starter
So I am in the process of making a rye starter from Silvertons book I wonder something. For the second feeding the book says the starter should be stiff dry and hard to stir. So the problem I am having is it is just runny and bubbly. I don't know if this is a problem or not follow the recipe to the letter and get the same result it is thick but not extremely thick and hard to stir as she says in the book. I have to tell you even though I got a good price on this book at Amazon it has to be the most expensive bread books to use as I have duped just about a ton of bread four just building my starter up to make this rye one.
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:))) I spent half an hour last Sunday going through her recipe for rye starter, trying to calculate hydration. I don't think I have ever seen more byzantine procedure. If I didn't know any better I'd think making a starter is black magic. It's a very good book, but there's a reason why it is so widely available for a fraction of its original price.
Mike
JIP,
I haven't made Ms. Silverton's starter, but I have heard a lot of people complain about the incredible amount of flour that is consumed in the process. For my money (a whole lot less money!) Sourdolady's technique is much better. You can read it here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233
PMcCool
I HAVE A STARTER I am simply asking a question pertaining to the consistency of the rye starter conversion, As I said I am making a rye starter from my white starter I am following her (Silverton's) feeding schedule to build my white starter up to baking strength and create a rye starter. To add to my original post in the book there is an image ofa rye starter and it looks like an extremely dry dough and mine looks NOTHIING like this.
Oh, I see. I had exactly the same question - her recipe gives about 150%, so it should be not even a batter, but soupy almost water like liquid. In general I think that three feedings with rye flour in your regular proportions is enough to convert to rye.
Mike
I have been getting a soupy resuly as well it's just in the book she says it should be so thick and dry there should be cracks on top and it should be hard to stir.
It is really a math problem. I built a spreadsheet for the very first recipe in that section - Normandy rye, where I set total weight of the dough constant and hydration of the starter variable. The number I'm looking at is final dough hydration. When I play with the numbers I see that at 60% starter hydration I get ~65% dough hydration, and with my flour it sounds about right for soft, slightly sticky dough she describes.
If this calculation works out in a similar fashion for other recipes I'll just have to assume that her flour and her environmental conditions are wildly different from mine and I need to make major adjustments to her recipes.
Mike,