March 19, 2009 - 3:41pm
How many feeds to use different %
I was playing with my 100% starter and made a 60% for the jmonkey pizza (my 100% 20g, 12g water and 20g flour). That was 12 hours ago. It has pretty much tripled, if not more. I'd like to mix up the dough now so it's ready for tomorrow. Now I know I've read you're supposed to discard/feed a few times but I wondered why. Will the flavour be lacking if I don't? Will it just not rise properly? The rising isn't so much a problem with pizza of course...but while I was playing I also made a 125% for my JH vermont sourdough. I have little containers all lined up on the counter with stickers and taped measurements on them, my husband just walks through shaking his head...........
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Well the genreal opinion is that a starter of different hydration favors different kind of lactic bacteria. But I personally think you should stick to one hydration and do just as you did, convert it for a specific recipe.
If the 60% hydration starter is ready then use it for bread, it will be no diffrent from using a 100% starter and then correcting the water content of the bread dough. If you were to keep your 60% starter alongside your 125% starter for a couple of days you whould see that they become a bit different, but still nothing that makes it worth having two starters to feed.
Thanks Kuret, there are a lot of opinions on the matter it seems....but like you, I think keeping the 100% and adjusting ingredients is best way. I printed out a how-to on doing thats..and with my trusty little calculator I think that's the way I'll go in future.