Building a sourdough starter from "old dough"?
First post with my shiny new TFL account!
I just started making bread last summer but have been heavy at it, and frequenting TFL for advice on just about every aspect. I'm baking a fair amount and am quite happy with the bread I've been producing, but up to this point I've been using exclusively fresh (cake?) yeast.
I've been wanting to venture into sourdough for a while, but thought it might be easier to build from a piece of someone else's. I've been asking around at different bakeries (I'm living in Rome, so there is no shortage) for a portion of their natural leaven ("Lievito Madre") and finally received a yes -- but what was given to me was a little ball of dough, made with Lievito Madre. So now my question is, how can I take this and turn it into a mature sourdough culture.
As soon as I got home I fed it, and by the next morning it had tripled! I've since removed some, divided the remainder into two portions, feeding one a more liquid ratio and the other a dryer ratio, and am trying to figure out how to proceed from here. How often should I feed it to bring it to maturity? Will the oil and salt that was in the original dough "disappear" over enough time? Any advice would be a huge help!
Yes, you're right, the oil and salt will disappear after some feedings and some use. The most important thing is that it must be "alive", and you can see that yours is very "alive" because it worked so well.
The refrigerator will make it work slower, and then you can feed it much less often. When it's warm, you have to feed it frequently.
The main thing is to avoid killing it. When you don't kill it, everything else is OK. ?
Thanks for the confirmation! It is definitely alive, as the two continue to thrive.
As for refrigerating it, I've read that during the initial development of a starter it's best to leave it at room temp. and then transfer to the fridge when it's matured after a few weeks. Will the fact that this is coming from an existing source change that? Can I start refrigerating it right away?
... that the answer is "Yes, it's OK to refrigerate".
Not refrigerating is for when your little colony is just starting, and the one you have is strong.
My starters sit in the fridge and once a week I feed them 1:4:5 (one part starter: 4 parts water: 5 parts flour) and when I need sone I refresh some of it and off I go. You’ll find your starter gets into a feeding routine (dependent on temperature etc) and it’s tougher than you think so don’t worry about it. You’re all set. And if you want to change it’s profile (different grain etc) you can change it gradually over refreshments.