February 3, 2010 - 2:53pm
Pineapple Juice Starter Help Needed
Hi, I'm new to making a starter. I goofed twice. I used whole wheat and rye flour so I added 2 tablespoons pineapple juice instead of one. I think that's ok but am not sure. My mistake I made today was I am on day 4 and I was supposed to add water & flour instead of doing the two tablespoons of flour and juice, but I goofed and repeated adding the juice and 2 tablespoons of flour. Is that ok? Should I continue andd then tomorrow and the water & flour? If not, I'll start over.
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Don't throw it out, just march on.
I think rainbowz suggestion is a good one. "March on" and learn as you go. I'd give it at least another week. However, if in the end the whole thing turns out to be a failure, toss it out and start over. We don't usually learn much from our successes but our failure are wonderful teachers so hang in there and know that you have just joined a lot of us who have "been there, done that".
I think I went through four starters, a full 10 lb bag of flour (yipes!) and giving each one about 2 weeks with no activity before Mini got me on the right track.
Thanks for the info. I just checked the starter and it seems to be active, so tomorrow I will do just flour & water and see how it goes.
for a couple of days to help starter overcome a certain bacterial problem (it has a name, which I do not recall at the moment), so that the "good guys" in your starter win and it is active and healthy. Adding pineapple juice extra time should not hurt then. As for adding the extra tablespoon of it, it will change your starter's hydration (water to flour ratio). Some people are very precise about it, and some are not. As long as you know the amounts of liquid and flour you put in, you can calculate the hydration and later adjust as needed. That is my understanding of things.
Best wishes,
Kroha
One recipe I found called for 1 tablespoon of juice the other recipe called for two tablespoons of juice. So I think I will be ok on the amount of juice I added. Right now it looks like it's working okay.
Are you doing this for a class or personal enjoyment? Depending on where you live you will see varying ease at which a starter is formed. I live in northern California and around here you can have a starter if you leave the flour out too long on a moist day!
I'm doing this for personal enjoyment.