Scaling back Tartine Bread Starter technique
I pain stakingly calculate grams to tablespoons, teaspoons and calculate everything to the last detail, here it is
To Start making Starter from Day 1
Flour blend (50% whole wheat, 50% white bread flour)
Step 1: 2 tablespoons flour blend and mix 1.54 tablespoons water(1 and half tablespoons water + 1/8 teaspoons water), mix the flour and water together,leave it in a container and loosely cover the cap for a day or two(depends on the temperature of your country) 0.04 tablespoons X 3= 0.12 teaspoons. 1/8 teaspoons = 0.125, and I have a 1/8 plastic teaspoon in my home :-)
Step 2: Once the yeast is alive and the starter is bubbly, Take 2 and 4/10 teaspoons out from the starter, put it in a container, add in 2 tablespoons flour blend and mix with 1 tablespoon + 1/5 teaspoons water. (I guess 2 and half teaspoons is close enough or perhaps 2 teaspoons + 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons which comes to about 2.375 teaspoons, I guess that is close enough because temperature will vary in different places so how fast the yeast grows will also affect results)
Repeat the above step for 15-20 days where your starter rise and drops predictably.
On the day you want to make the tartine bread, take one tablespoon from the starter to make the leaven, and then like the above step, there will be enough starter left for step 2 to continue this step. But of course when your starter rise, one tablespoon isn't quit one tablespoon, clean your hands and push the starter into the spoon to make it compact and dense if you know what I meant :-) as the original technique is based on weight, I translate all using weight calculation, but when the starter rise, it is flully and one tablespoon is not quite one tablespoons anymore.
If I am free, will add in the calculations, but I may miss including one or two calculations, however all has been calculated, may miss certain calculation for the sake of "SHOWING" it here, but all have been calculated , every factor and possibilities included.
Original recipe at martha stewart tartine recipe, you can google it, I just scale everything down.
Calculations may change, I may double check for errors, so use this recipe at your own risk.
Original recipe
315 grams flour blend
400 grams water
400/315=44% more water than flour
1 tablespoon of flour blend is 8 grams
Therefore two tablespoons is 16 grams
16 grams water is 1.0666 tablespoons
Since first time doing water is 44% more. 1.0666 X 1.4444= 1.642
1 tablespoon of bread flour = 7.94 grams
1 tablespoon of wholewheat flour is 8.10 grams
1 tablespoon of water is 15 grams
1 tablespoon of flour for tartine recipe which is 50% wholewheat and 50% bread flour is 8.10+7.94/2= 8.02 grams, for simplicity we take it as 8 grams
So if we start the starter from day 1 at 2 tablespoons flour we will use just 2 tablespoons of flour mixture which is 16 grams(8 grams x 2) and 1 tablespoons of water which is 15 grams, to be more precise, 16 grams of water is closer to 1 tablespoons + 1/5 teaspoons water because equal flour weight and equal water weight.
I arrive at this calculation by this. 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoon.
16/15 grams(flour and water each in tablespoons)= 1.06666,
0.066666 X 3 = 0 .199999 or 0.2 teaspoons, since my measuring equipment has 1/4 teaspoons, I use 1/4 teaspoons, more accurate is 1/5 teaspoons.
Total weight of starter is now at 32 grams
2 tablespoons flour blend 16 gr
1 tablespoons + 4/5 teaspoons
Original recipe
315 grams flour blend
400 grams water
400/315=44% more water than flour
1 tablespoon of flour blend is 8 grams
Therefore two tablespoons is 16 grams
16 grams water is 1.0666 tablespoons
Since first time doing water is 44% more. 1.0666 X 1.4444= 1.5405 tablespoon, closer to 1 and a half tablespoons of water.
1 tablespoon of bread flour = 7.94 grams
1 tablespoon of wholewheat flour is 8.10 grams
1 tablespoon of water is 15 grams
1 tablespoon of flour for tartine recipe which is 50% wholewheat and 50% bread flour is 8.10+7.94/2= 8.02 grams, for simplicity we take it as 8 grams
So for feeding the starter,we will use just 2 tablespoons of flour mixture which is 16 grams(8 grams x 2) and 1 tablespoons of water which is 15 grams, to be more precise, 16 grams of water , so we are lacking 1 gram of water here. So we need to add 1 more gram here. 1/15= 0.06666
I arrive at this calculation by this. 1 tablespoon is 3 teaspoon.
16/15 grams(flour and water each in tablespoons)= 1.06666,
0.066666 X 3 = 0 .199999 or 0.2 teaspoons, so the lacking 1 gram is equal 0.2 teaspoon 2/10 teaspoons = 1/5 teaspoons.
Feeding starter at martha stewart tartine recipe
150grams flour + 150 grams water is = 300 grams tota to feed, and add 75 grams starter to 300 grams, note that the 75 grams has water and flour already in it, 75 grams X 4 = 300 grams, when it says remove 75 grams to reuse as starter, you must feed it 4 times more. So 25% of 2 tablespoons flour blend and mix with 1 tablespoon + 1/5 teaspoons water is 2 and 4/10 teaspoons starter.
2 tablespoons flour blend and mix with 1 tablespoon + 1/5 teaspoons water = 3.20 tablespoon mixture. This would be the amount of starter you need and feed it with what I have scaled down.
So total of 3.20 tablespoons in teaspoons is 9.6 teaspoons as one tablespoon is 3 teaspoons. 9.6 divide 4 = 2.40 teaspoons.
I bet some of you must be confused by now, but doesn't matter, just follow the first post and you will be ok :-) Second post can be ignored because I was still calculating that time.
You certainly put a lot of thinking in your volume measurement conversion. But a scale is just so much easier to use, I also have a spoon scale for very small amounts, they don't cost much and are very convenient.
I hate all that waste of perfectly good starter, discarding most of it, and I always downsize my starter amounts to minimize the waste.
Karin
I hope you like my calculations and find it useful. I know the calculations is not in order and I may have done some calculation in my head and not written everything done(maybe), I hope all my calculation is here, and yes it was quite tedious to do the calculation but I have done it, measurement with spoons is not as accurate as weight but close enough. I hope you find the information here useful for you.