Well it depends on how you maintain your starter. Has it been sitting in the fridge for a week or two between feeds? If yes, then it will benefit from more than one feed. But if you use your starter often and it's never more than a few days between feeds, and it performs well, then a single feed will suffice.
About the appearance and consistency... It looks good to me. What does it smell like when it has peaked? Whether your starter is watery or not depends on the flour, hydration and how much fresh flour to starter in the feed. For a nice and healthy starter you want the fresh flour to be equal to, or more than, the weight of the starter. Otherwise the very fermented flour within the starter is too high making it more watery, overly tangy and if you use a high percentage of starter then the gluten of the dough will be compromised.
The video is helpful. Suggestion - put a piece of tape on the container to indicate the initial level of your starter. This will help to better evaluate the rise.
If I understand correctly, your starter is falling and ends up watery. If that is the case, you’ll want to feed it right when it starts to drop. But that depends on your hydration. A wet starter won’t rise the same as a drier one.
Tell us about your starter. What flours, ratio, temperature, etc.? Generally, most shoot for a 12 hour feed. That way you’ll only have to feed twice a day.
While it is an oversimplification, there are two different kinds of organisms in sourdough, yeasts and lactobacilli. For making bread, you want to favor the yeasts, which make carbon dioxide. For making pancakes, you want to favor lactobacilli, which makes lactic acid.
When making bread, it is the yeast which makes the carbon dioxide which slowly leavens the dough. When making pancakes, the carbon dioxide is created when you add baking soda which combines with the acids, that reaction accelerates when the batter is warmed by the hot pan.
In general, it's much easier to make lactic acid, the starter doesn't require anywhere near as much care. It is more difficult to evoke good yeast growth.
It appears you have good yeast growth, at least during the day when the sun is warming the room. However, the water of which you speak is not visible. What is possibly happening as it rises and falls is a complex reaction of nighttime lower temperatures and lower yeast activity, and possibly coupled with exhausted food supply. My guess is the water is not water, but rather watery acids that have formed as dough temperature drops at night.
If you're making pancakes, and you only want the acid, you're probably fine, with a refrigeration caveat (see next paragraph). If you're trying to optimize yeast growth for making bread, you probably should feed it.
If you're making pancakes, it's easiest (less work) to refrigerate the starter shortly after feeding and incubating it, long before the organisms have exhausted their food supply.
This morning, I made one pancake from refrigerated starter I made a couple days ago. It had a little watery acid on top, which I whipped (mixed) back into the sourdough, measured out my 150 g starter for my pancake, and put the jar back in the fridge. I did not incubate it because I did not feed it. I probably won't feed (refresh) it until I have little left in the jar, and that will be maybe a week or two if I keep making a pancake for breakfast every morning, or it could be longer, as I don't eat pancakes every day. My sourdough pot, a wide-mouthed glass jar, is about 1/2 gallon total capacity. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 1 month before I must feed it. The coldness of the refrigerator, 36-38°F slows the various organisms down. All I want is the acid from the lactobacilli, I don't care about yeast.
When you're making sourdough for bread, you are trying to optimize yeast growth for usually 3 feedings before incorporation into bread dough, and you do that at room temperature or optimally at 75-85°F (this is a point of endless debates among enthusiasts, what temperatures are optimal for evoking yeast growth). At those temperatures, it will go about 8 hours before it must be fed. However, that also depends on your refresh ratio.
Sourdough for pancakes or acid-base chemical reactions are much different from sourdough for leavening bread. The latter requires much more work on your part.
Perhaps I will write a longer, stand alone post (there is an old one by me, but it probably needs rewriting), for now this should get you started:
67% all purpose flour 33% cake flour 160% water
Per the USDA, all purpose flour is 10.3% protein, and cake four is 8.2%: ((67% x 10.3%)+(33% x 8.2%))/100% = ((0.67 x 0.103)+(0.33 x 0.082))/1 = 0.09607 = 9.607% protein.
For refreshing existing sourdough batter using a half-gallon sourdough pot, you may use 415 to 500 g for the flour weight:
278 g all purpose flour ≈ 278.05 g = 415 g x 67% 137 g cake flour ≈ 136.95 g = 415 g x 33% 664 g water = 415 g x 160%
The gram weights for making the pancakes are located here.
How many times must it be fed before being used?
Well it depends on how you maintain your starter. Has it been sitting in the fridge for a week or two between feeds? If yes, then it will benefit from more than one feed. But if you use your starter often and it's never more than a few days between feeds, and it performs well, then a single feed will suffice.
About the appearance and consistency... It looks good to me. What does it smell like when it has peaked? Whether your starter is watery or not depends on the flour, hydration and how much fresh flour to starter in the feed. For a nice and healthy starter you want the fresh flour to be equal to, or more than, the weight of the starter. Otherwise the very fermented flour within the starter is too high making it more watery, overly tangy and if you use a high percentage of starter then the gluten of the dough will be compromised.
The video is helpful. Suggestion - put a piece of tape on the container to indicate the initial level of your starter. This will help to better evaluate the rise.
If I understand correctly, your starter is falling and ends up watery. If that is the case, you’ll want to feed it right when it starts to drop. But that depends on your hydration. A wet starter won’t rise the same as a drier one.
Tell us about your starter. What flours, ratio, temperature, etc.? Generally, most shoot for a 12 hour feed. That way you’ll only have to feed twice a day.
I agree with Lechem, your starter looks active.
Dan
50g ap, 50g whole wheat,100g starter,100g water,
I see thanks man:) but my starter is out it hasn't been on the refrigerator yet, i have another in the refrigerator that i feed once in a week.
San Francisco motherdough of the 1970s era was reportedly fed every 8 hours, that was for making bread.
Another post of yours which I replied to, just a few days ago, was about sourdough pancakes.
While it is an oversimplification, there are two different kinds of organisms in sourdough, yeasts and lactobacilli. For making bread, you want to favor the yeasts, which make carbon dioxide. For making pancakes, you want to favor lactobacilli, which makes lactic acid.
When making bread, it is the yeast which makes the carbon dioxide which slowly leavens the dough. When making pancakes, the carbon dioxide is created when you add baking soda which combines with the acids, that reaction accelerates when the batter is warmed by the hot pan.
In general, it's much easier to make lactic acid, the starter doesn't require anywhere near as much care. It is more difficult to evoke good yeast growth.
It appears you have good yeast growth, at least during the day when the sun is warming the room. However, the water of which you speak is not visible. What is possibly happening as it rises and falls is a complex reaction of nighttime lower temperatures and lower yeast activity, and possibly coupled with exhausted food supply. My guess is the water is not water, but rather watery acids that have formed as dough temperature drops at night.
so is not a problem if it drop downs?
If you're making pancakes, and you only want the acid, you're probably fine, with a refrigeration caveat (see next paragraph). If you're trying to optimize yeast growth for making bread, you probably should feed it.
If you're making pancakes, it's easiest (less work) to refrigerate the starter shortly after feeding and incubating it, long before the organisms have exhausted their food supply.
This morning, I made one pancake from refrigerated starter I made a couple days ago. It had a little watery acid on top, which I whipped (mixed) back into the sourdough, measured out my 150 g starter for my pancake, and put the jar back in the fridge. I did not incubate it because I did not feed it. I probably won't feed (refresh) it until I have little left in the jar, and that will be maybe a week or two if I keep making a pancake for breakfast every morning, or it could be longer, as I don't eat pancakes every day. My sourdough pot, a wide-mouthed glass jar, is about 1/2 gallon total capacity. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 1 month before I must feed it. The coldness of the refrigerator, 36-38°F slows the various organisms down. All I want is the acid from the lactobacilli, I don't care about yeast.
When you're making sourdough for bread, you are trying to optimize yeast growth for usually 3 feedings before incorporation into bread dough, and you do that at room temperature or optimally at 75-85°F (this is a point of endless debates among enthusiasts, what temperatures are optimal for evoking yeast growth). At those temperatures, it will go about 8 hours before it must be fed. However, that also depends on your refresh ratio.
Sourdough for pancakes or acid-base chemical reactions are much different from sourdough for leavening bread. The latter requires much more work on your part.
thanks you very much ;)
Can you also share your pancake recipe in grams? please:D
Perhaps I will write a longer, stand alone post (there is an old one by me, but it probably needs rewriting), for now this should get you started:
67% all purpose flour
33% cake flour
160% water
Per the USDA, all purpose flour is 10.3% protein, and cake four is 8.2%:
((67% x 10.3%)+(33% x 8.2%))/100% = ((0.67 x 0.103)+(0.33 x 0.082))/1 = 0.09607 = 9.607% protein.
For refreshing existing sourdough batter using a half-gallon sourdough pot, you may use 415 to 500 g for the flour weight:
278 g all purpose flour ≈ 278.05 g = 415 g x 67%
137 g cake flour ≈ 136.95 g = 415 g x 33%
664 g water = 415 g x 160%
The gram weights for making the pancakes are located here.