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Day 5 of my starter...what 's now?

kitui4u's picture
kitui4u

Day 5 of my starter...what 's now?

I started 5 days ago with a rye starter with some Apple juice...anyway it looks like it grows every feeding I am at twice a day...1) Does it have to grow 2 times or 3 times? It does grow every time (twice a day)...so I guess it is finally working, right? I started collecting the discards...2) are any discard good to recycle in a recipe or only the one that have risen? Some of the starters are more pour able than mine, I need to scoop it to discard. 3) are starters more creamy than scoop able?  Thanks from a newbie

Abe's picture
Abe

1: No. It depends on many factors. Flour used, hydration, ratio of starter to fresh feed etc. 

2: Yes. Look up starter discard recipes in google. 

3: See no.1

kitui4u's picture
kitui4u

thanks

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

the description. Typical beginning starters are fed once (or less) per day and the discards shouldn't be used in these early stages while the starter is sorting itself out.  Now for detail.... What directions are you following and what are the measurements of flour and water? Very important, What is the temperature of the mixture?  How does it smell? Got any pictures?  What other signs and changes do you see other than rising? Any aroma changes or color changes?  Compare to a fresh mixture of rye flour and water. 

Edit..ah, I see, there are several posts about this starter going on. Try to get the starter to just feed on rye flour and water.  It may slow down a bit without the apple sugars but let it tell you when it is ready to be fed. 

kitui4u's picture
kitui4u

I never used apple sugar, I used 1T of fresh pineapple juice and it worked. Not sure how can the starter telling me that he wants to be fed?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

you first wrote apple juice and apple juice contains sugar naturally.  Does the starter rise with a nice dome, levels out starting in the top surface middle and then gently starts falling slipping down the glass?  (100% Rye starters can allso get a stiff dome and fall inside where the collapse is hard to see but a gentle poke of that peaked dome will help investigate if that is the case.) it can rise twice or more but usually the starter is fed after the first rise and fall.

 

kitui4u's picture
kitui4u

I actually re-did it with rye and it was much easier. Thanks