June 5, 2021 - 10:53am
Scaling down Forkish quantities for starting a levain?
In Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast, the quantities for starting and maintaining a levain seem excessive for a home baker, and I've seen several discussions of scaling them down when maintaining the levain, but no explicit mention of scaling them down when starting it. Is it ok to do so?
I have no previous experience starting, maintaining, or even using a levain/starter, so it's all new to me. I read about people maintaining very small quantities, but it also sounds like there may be benefits to feeding larger quantities occasionally to strengthen the culture.
Can I scale down the starting quantities as well, or would that yield too weak a culture?