April 25, 2011 - 3:22pm
100% hydration starter vs mother starter
Hey,
I'm new to sourdough bread baking and I'm a little confused about one thing. I've recently made my first mother starter from Reinhart's book and successfully made a very nice 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Hearth Bread.
Now, I've found a bagel recipe on the forum where there is needed 100% hydration starter. How can i make this from my mother starter? I've seen this 100% hydration starter in a lot of recipes and couldnt find how to make it from my mother starter.
Could you pls help.
Thx,
Csaba
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if you were to pour off most of your starter, you could feed it at 100% and the little culture remaining would quickly convert the whole feeding to the 100% addition.
Converting starter hydrations: A Tutorial. Or through thick and thin and vice versa
Hope this helps.
I know this is a duplicate to my response to an almost identical recent query. The frequency with which this question gets asked is what prompted me to write the tutorial.
David
Thx for the replies guys and for the link David. Now it starts becoming clearer:) So i just only have to calculate the hydration of my starter.
My mother starter consists of:
- 340g flour
- 255g water
- 113g seed culture
As i understand it's 75% hydration starter. And i should add 85g water to it.
Hello: I have been working from Maggie Gleezer's book and until yesterday I had achieved a nicely rising sourdough starter (pages 91-93). Then late last night when I went to refresh it again and forgot what I was doing. I think I doubled the water, but am not sure exactly how much water went into the new feed. Today, I have done two things:
first: I took a very nice (4x's the size and bubbly) starter (moist, but not liquid) and did the recipe for moving from a wet starter to a dry starter (page 94). I also fed the other part according to the same directions for feeding.
Question: How will I know what the hydration level is on either of these?
Thank you,
Now that you've got a happy starter going, the hard part is over. But first buy/use a scale. Always weigh the feedings so you know how much water and flour you are putting in. Feed your starters on a 1:3:3 ratio, by weight (hungry starter:water:flour) and within a couple of days, you will most definitely have a 100% starter (a wet starter). If you want a 50% starter (a stiff starter), feed your starter on a 1:2.5:5 and again within a day or two, you'll have a 50% starter. Since you are feeding a relatively large amount to your existing starters, the known ratios that you will be using will quickly overcome your mistakes. Please, do yourself a favor and buy a scale. I like the Escali i got from Amazon.
-Pamela