Refreshing starter

Jeff, this is a mouthful but I think you will find some information in the following text.

I think that the subject of starters has consumed more server space on this site than any other. In my opinion it is because people think their is some magic associated with a starter... you know, my great great grandmother's original seed or that mystic San Francisco starter. They also think that starters are fragile, but in my experience it takes a whole lot of neglect to kill a starter.

To me a starter provides two thing: flavor and leavening. The flavor additive is either more sour or less sour, and this comes from how wet or dry I mix my starter when I refresh it. A wetter starter tends to be fruity and sweet and a drier starter tends to be more sour (acidic). With that said, I can take a sweet starter and turn it into a sour loaf of bread by managing bulk fermentation and proofing, so a tangy sourdough bread does not depend strictly on a sour starter.

When it comes to leavening I take my lead from something James MacGuire taught me. It really isn't important whether you refresh your starter every day or once a week. Just keep doing it the same way every time. Your starter will adapt and appreciate the rigid schedule. What he is inferring is that, if you want a predictable outcome you need predictable products when making bread. Your starter will balance out over time and then provide a predictable amount of leavening and flavor development when given a predictable set of time and temperature criteria.

It isn't that the starter will or won't work if you do not adhere to a rigid schedule. You just won't have a predictable result and you may find yourself chasing the clock, and/or disappointed with your end product i.e., it was really wonderful last time but not so good this time. Professional bakers cannot afford inconsistency, and serious home bakers may create their own problems by fluctuating their starter refreshment schedule.

Here is a quote I read in a recent copy of  "Bread Lines" magazine, a subscription publication from The Bread Baker's Guild of America (published with their permission). The author is Lauren Bushnell and the article is entitled "The Gestalt of Sourdough: The Science Behind Sourdough". (Bread Lines - Summer 2017) Ms. Bushnell is paraphrasing the words of Debra Wink, a well-respected expert on the subject and an instructor in a class she attended:

 "It is a myth that there are regional differences between sourdough cultures. What some see as regional difference is most likely the result of everyone in that area making bread with the same characteristics and maintaining the sourdough starter in the same way. It’s not that certain microorganisms are unique to that region, but that bakers are manipulating the environment of the starter to favor certain ones."

 I support her contention. If everyone on this forum maintained their starters in the same identical way, and with the same refreshment ingredients, I think our breads would too have a predictable TFL signature.

So, feed your starter according to YOUR schedule, but stick with it. If you fall off the wagon, take some time to reestablish and get going again. Just be aware that your starter may not perform the way it did the last time you used it. There is nothing magical about your starter, or anyone else's starter for that matter. If you try hard enough you probably can kill it and if so, start a new one. If push comes to shove ask a baker for a small piece of their starter. If they are reticent to share then, in my opinion, they are living in a fantasy world.

Jim

You don't need to refresh your starter that often.

What I have learned over the past decade or so, is that a healthy starter is actually quite forgiving.  Once I've gotten my starter up and running - this is my method:

First, whenever I refresh, I weigh the starter into a bowl and double it using a 1:1 ratio of flour to water.  I have trouble with numbers some times, and maintaining a 100% hydration starter makes my life easier.

I keep my starter in a 1 quart mason jar.  Once I've measured out the amount of starter I'm keeping - usually 100 grams, see math laziness above - I fill the jar with water, put on the lid, and give it a good shake.  This is the water that I use to refresh the starter.  I usually keep 200 grams of my various starters.

If my starter has been in the fridge for longer than a week, I usually refresh twice before using it - or as long as it takes to begin rising and falling predictably.

I refresh my starter so that I will have enough to make my leaven.  Once I've separated what I will be using, I refresh again going back to my normal 100 grams of starter with 50 grams water & my flour mix.  I give it a good stir and put it directly into the fridge.

There is will sit until the next time I need it.

The longest I've ever had starters in my fridge is about a year.  My life was chaos and I didn't bake bread and they got forgotten in the back of the fridge.

If I am working with a forgotten starter, or one sitting longer than 2 weeks, I do not discard ANY.  I weigh the entire contents of the jar, double it, and hope for the best.  Only once has the starter been beyond salvage.

I have Ed Woods' book.  In it he refers to a study done by two microbiologists, Sugihara & Klein, on San Francisco sour dough culture specifically.  There is a myth out there that if you transplant SF sour dough starter to another region, it will eventually turn into a different starter. This is incorrect.  I actually downloaded their entire study and read it.  (there are a few, and they are all interesting.)

In a nut shell, there are 2 or 3 kinds of wild yeasts that form a symbiotic relationship with a wide variety of bacteria (yeast is the smallest mushroom, it is not a bacteria).  The bacteria, don't want any other bacteria invading their patch, so they create antibodies to repel them.  Even in a dormant starter, these bacteria and their produced antibodies are in such huge numbers that the stray bacteria in the flour and water being fed to the starter simply have no chance.  It is the bacteria that give the cultures their unique flavors, and it is these that are specific to different regions.  

In San Francisco, CA, there is a bacteria called Lactobacillus sanfrancisco (nothing to do with milk or any dairy product btw).  Some sourdoughs have a variety of bacteria, a SF sourdough has just the one.  This one-on-one relationship is what give SF sourdough it's special flavor.  

So, there are starters specific to geographical locations, and you can maintain them without fear of them turning into something else provided that you never mix them together or expose them to commercial yeast.  I mean, you can mix them in a bread recipe, but don't let a big glob of SF starter get into your Bahrain starter, because you might loose your Bahrain starter.

I know that many people feel differently.  I am not trying to cause an uproar.  Personally, I choose to believe the work of two microbiologists.

Well Hadster, I'll see your two microbiologists and raise you a Debra Wink (who is also a microbiologist)!  :-)

That's the beauty of this industry. It's like climate science. Who's scientists do you choose to believe?

I like your refresher method. Since I commented earlier today I remembered that I have a piece of a starter that has been sitting in the back of the fridge for about 5 months now. Tomorrow I think I'll pull it out, feed it and see what happens. My guess is that within 24 hours I'll have an active starter.

And, like you, if my starter has been sitting for more than a week I will run a refresher before I use it in a levain.

Thanks for the information.

Jim

With no disrespect intended, I think many go overboard with starter maintenance. I used to carefully measure the starter, flour and water, but no more. A stiff starter keeps better, maybe 60% hydration. I like about 75% so I used this a few times to get a feel for the consistency.

Now I just dump most of my spent starer leaving maybe 3 ounces. I pour in some water, mix well then add some flour. I then add a little more flour or water to get a mildly stiff starter. Done.

My go to daily bread is a close approximation of Hammelman's 5 Grain Levain. I use 60 grams of starter to make a levain that makes about 3kg of dough for 4 loaves. I refuse to believe that a few grams of flour or water in my starter makes a difference in the product.