Newbie signing in and a question (of course)
Hi, I've been baking simple things like biscuits and cookies for years, but I just recently got interested in sourdough bread. I started kinda rogue-like, not following any recipe, just feeling out what the stuff would do. I didn't get any good results that way, not surprisingly. Also, I didn't at first have a kitchen scale. Both of these issues have been resolved, now, I'm happy to report. I have baked some bread successfully from recipes I've found on Susan's blog at www.wildyeastblog.com [1], as well as a couple other recipes that I've converted from standard yeast. It works the same with sourdough, but it just takes a LOT more time!
Now, for the question. I'm keeping a spreadsheet to watch the different recipes I'm making, to look for patterns. I'm an experimental cook and I would like to learn the most bottom-line, basic principles that I can then manipulate to make new and weird stuff! In order to compare and contrast, I have the spreadsheet to automatically convert volumes to weights of various common bread ingredients. I also use it in reverse to see what weight-based recipes look like in volume measures. My question is about sourdough starter. Does anyone know the "right" weight, in either ounces or grams, of a volume measure of 100% hydration starter (or the opposite, the volume measure of a specific weight of starter)? Some recipes I've encountered call for "one cup" of starter, and I need to know what weight it "should" be, in order to plug it into my formula spreadsheet. I know I could measure it myself, but I'm sure it would be hard to get accurate and consistent results.