The Fresh Loaf

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Converting Rye STARTER to White Starter?

Ogi the Yogi's picture
Ogi the Yogi

Converting Rye STARTER to White Starter?

How many grams of rye would you recommend using to building a white flour starter? 

Or would you just recommend making a levain with the rye starter I already have?

My rye starter is 100% hydration! 

I need from 100g to 360g of white starter for various recipes! 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

take the amount of levain you need and divide it by 15.  360 /15 =24 g.  This is the amount of starter you need plus the amount of the first feeding of white flour in a 3 stage levain  So take 24 g of starter and feed it 24 g of white flour and 24 g of  water.  4 hours later feed it twice the amount - 48 g each of flour and water without throwing anything away.  Then 4 hours later feed it twice the amount again or 96 g each of white flour and water.  24+ 24+24+48+48 +96+96 = 360 grams where 180 g is flour but only 12 g of it is rye.  When the 3rd feeding doubles in volume it is ready to use or store in the fridge to use anytime in the next 24-48 hours.

Ogi the Yogi's picture
Ogi the Yogi

Thank you so much! I finally figured out the formulas for changing my starter's hydration and now decided to move on to converting to different flour builds! 

Quick question for the Ken Forkish recipe he asked for Pain de Campagne he asked for 360 grams of levain, I went ahead and made mine from 100 g. rye starter (I converted mine to 80% hydration) + 100 g. whole wheat + 400 g. white flour + 400 g. water. The levain I got was super active but now I am wondering whether or not I should have used my 100 g. of rye and how that impacted the final loaf, which was delicious but maybe not structure perfect. 

I always appreciate your input!!