Noob with starter questions...

Submitted by peejee on January 6, 2010 - 12:58pm

Noob with starter questions...

I know probably not a surprise to you guys :) Anyway, I'm a complete beginner if you don't count my Mom's Amish bread starter when I was like 10, so it's been many many years, that I've even attempted to make bread, let alone start my own starter.

So long story short, I decided that since I eat bread a LOT why not try and make my own, save a few coins that the grocery store. I remember how much bread and sweet rolls my mom made as a kid, so I looked up starters, and read and read and read some more till my eyes started to cross. I found the starter recipe that was just flour and water, 2 things I happened to have at the house a 2 in the morning.

So I mixed it all up, stood there for an hour just waiting to see a bubble or something, while hubby is pulling at me to come to bed. Sooo I wake up in the morning, pull up the website I was going by, read everything again so I don't mess it up any. Went to fed him, and watched some more, happy to see a couple of bubbles, and went about my day.

That evening there was about a half of an inch of yellowish liquid, that didn't sound like any of the bad things that could happen, but more like hooch, I guess. So I decided to feed him again. But I was torn about throwing any of it out, it just seems so wasteful. I divided it into 2 and feed like the recipe said todo, since it had doubled through out the day.

Its been 4 days, and I've finally started dumping some of it during feedings. But my first question is WHY do you dump half of it or even part of it for feeding while starting, I understand that if you don't dump it you can end up with a TON, but is there another reason, and have I made a mistake with ending up with 3 separate containers using the "waste"?

I guess it might help to know what I'm doing so that you could answer it, apperently after reading about 15 pages in the forums about starters, I have an extremely hydrated starter, the recipe called for 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water to start, then feeding are 1/4 cup of each.

Next question is, when I feed him, it is the consistancy of thick pancake batter, and pretty lumpy. When I stir it after about 6 or so hours, it seems to have changed consistancy to that of thin pancake batter with no lumps. But before stirring it looks all clumpy and separated, with no distant layers like I've seen in pictures. He and he's two brothers live on top of the microwave, if I'm not cooking the kitchen is roughly 70 degrees, might be slighly cooler in there but not by much. I have their jars covered in plastic wrap with a hole poked in the top of it.

So, my question are...

Why are you suppose to trash some of your starter when starting him? Aside from the obivious if you don't you'll end up with 3 containers like you now have. Is there a reason beyond that?

And is my yellowish but somewhat clear liquid hooch?

And when the consistancy of the starter batter changes from thick and lumpy to thin and not lumpy, is the starter ok, or is it hungry, and is he eating properly?

Thanks so much guys and gals, for any and all help. And thanks to the owners and mods that make this forum possible, cause WOW, lots of info

Shirley

Filed under:

Sourdough and Starters

Submitted by Nymphaea on January 6, 2010 - 1:41pm.

I think I can help with this...

I´ve only been doing this for about 2 months, but I should be able to help with these...

The only reason you have to remove it, is because you need to feed it equal or more weight each day, if you leave it out. Thats increasing in powers of two or more, and can get crazy quickly. So instead you feed a smaller amount back to the amount you want.

If you want less waste, try to bake every day, and make just enough starter to have enough for baking and the leftovers is what you keep and feed. That way none of it gets thrown out :)

The yellowish liquid is most likely hooch, yes, and generally I find if you are getting it when feeding daily, and leaving the sourdough out, you most likely have too much liquid, though there shouldn´t be anything wrong with it.

And sourdough will always thin out over time, so yes thats a good sign. It means that the yeast and bacteria are doing their jobs.

Hope you enjoy your sourdough as much as others do :)

Submitted by Janknitz on January 6, 2010 - 2:30pm.

For frugal sourdough management

Keep your starter small. Less waste, less to feed it. When you need more volume for a recipe, it's easy enough to build it up.

After your starter is perking along and you have established how often you use it and what you will bake with it, you can decide how much to keep. I keep around 180 grams, that's just enough to have 120 grams of discard to use for my weekly sourdough english muffin recipe and 60 grams left to be fed with 60 grams of flour and 60 grams of water. If I need more for another bake, I just take my discard and build up the amount needed. This means I am almost never throwing starter away.

It's literally a few pennies of flour and water when you must toss, rather than use your starter. It's still very frugal. I put it in the compost bin.

Hooch is OK, but it's also a sign that your starter is "hungry". You should consider switching from volume measurements to weight. 1/4 cup each of flour and water is NOT 100% hydration. Your starter needs more flour by weight.

You may also be needing to feed your starter more frequently as it becomes active--probably every 8 hours if stored at 70 degrees. It will not really be strong enough to leaven bread for a few weeks, though, so you will have to bite the bullet and throw some away unless you have a swimming pool out back to store it in.

Submitted by peejee on January 6, 2010 - 2:57pm.

Ok another question then, and

Ok another question then, and I am sorry if it has been covered six million times already. If hooch is a sign that the starter is hungry, then I'm going to be feeding the thing a ton, cause it starts to show about an hour or so after feeding. The recipe I was using says to keep half of it, then feed it 1/2 cup of flour and water, not sure one the weights of it all, need to buy a scale. I have about 1 1/2 cups of starter so that about 3/4 cup after halving it, which to me makes it lean more heavy on the starter side as opposed to food, or do I have the math worked out incorrectly in my head, totally possible there. Should I remove more than half of it or simply feed it more at a time, or increase my feedings from every 8 hours to every 4 or 6?

Submitted by Nymphaea on January 6, 2010 - 3:06pm.

Well...

As I said earlier, you should be feeding the sourdough equal or more to its weight, so if you´re feeding it half a cup of flour with 3/4 cup of starter, you most likely are starving it.

Try to lower it to about half a cup of starter, and feed it a cup of flour, or more. That way, even without the scale right now, you should be feeding it generally well. Water you generally add to get the hydration you want, so that is not as important.

A good thing to keep in mind is a recipe is a guideline, not a rule. Play with it until it works for you :)

Submitted by Janknitz on January 6, 2010 - 4:23pm.

Or even smaller . . .

How about a two tablespoons of old starter, fed with a three tablespoons of flour and slightly less water (SO much easier to measure with a scale!!!)? You don't need to keep huge volumes of starter in this early period.

You might find this blogpost interesting: http://yumarama.com/blog/1066/why-discard-starter/#more-1066 A very good explanation and a great picture ;o)

As for the hooch, I know it's really hard to wrap your mind around this because you are measuring by volume and not by weight, but with your method you are not feeding your starter as much flour as you are discarding--that's why it get's "hungry". This is so much easier to understand if you are weighing out the ingredients, but for now, keep in mind that 1/4 cup of flour does NOT weigh the same as 1/4 cup of water, and weight is how the hydration percentages are determined.

As Nymphea said, to compensate at this point, feed your starter more volume than the amount of starter that you keep.