January 4, 2016 - 1:42pm
Newbie needs more Info!
I am using Reinhart's Crust and Crumb to make my first sourdough barm starter. Some of his directions are a little vague and confusing to me. Can someone explain simply what needs to be done? My question is concerning the starter once I put it in the fridge for use later on down the road. Do I cover the top loosely or is a tight lid okay? Also his directions on page 75 on feeding it make no sense to me. If I have 4 cups of starter in the container, how much water/flour should I feed it and how often?
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I always seal my starter once I refrigerate it on the chance that it will expand enough to try to escape its confines.
The directions for Day 5 have you adding 4 cups of flour and 3 cups of water to whatever you have after day four. This assumes that at that point, having refreshed your starter on day four, your starter is growing actively as evidenced by its being bubbly.
Note: This recipe is making an enormous amount of starter (culture.) As a home baker I never use more than 1/3 cup of active starter for any recipe. I keep about 1 cup of starter in the fridge at all times. If I'm going to bake using starter, I throw away about half of what's in my container in the fridge then mix in 1 cup each of water and flour. I leave that on my counter to ferment overnight. I then use a portion of the bubbly starter the next day and put the rest into the fridge until the next day before I'm going to bake.
The largest amount of starter I've ever seen was made by a professional baker who was making hundreds of loaves. A home baker will NEVER need a tenth of that.
Thanks for the reply. I guess I should have been more specific. I have already formed and currently baking loaves. My question was how do I feed it. It is confusing because I might have 4 cups in my fridge but joe breadguy has 2 and 3/4 cups. Do we both feed it the same amount or is there a formula for that?
Keep an amount of starter that fits how / how often you use it. In my case, I use 100-150 gm roughly every third day, so I keep about 180 gm in the fridge. Each time I use some, I rebuild it back to that amount. I keep it at 100% hydration, so if I use 120 gm, it's easy to rebuild by mixing 60 gm each of flour and water into the unused 60 gm.
There is no wrong way, as long as it works for you.
I keep about 3 or 4 ounces of starter in the refrigerator. I refresh this monthly or sooner. I throw away all but about an ounce and then add flour and water to the rest in the ratio of starter:flour:water = 1:1:1 by weight. Mix let stand for an hour and return to the refrigerator.
When I make bread I take the starter out the day before. Assume I have 4 ounces of starter and I need 27 ounces for my bread. I add 4 ounces each of flour and water to the 4 ounces of starter, and let it sit at room temperature for the day. That evening I add 12 ounces each of flour and water mix and remove 4 ounces and put that back into the refrigerator. The remaining starter I let ferment overnight, and make my bread from this the next morning, discarding any remaining starter.
Ford