Hi all,
Thanks to many helps from people here, I got new starter which seems to be going well until now.
What I have done and am doing is like this; around 75 ~80% of hydration, putting the culture in the fridge during daytime and taking it out at night . I fed it twice on day 1 and 2 .
Many recipes say 'once a day or twice a day' , but I'd like to know the condition of culture at the time when the culture is ready for the next feeding .
Is this the time when the culture has collapsed back to it's original size ? Or just should I wait for 24 hours or 12 hours as the recipes said ? Isn't there a possibility to mess up all the job because the culture is fed when it is over developed or prematured ? I am a little bit concerned about this problem as I couldn't follow a standard recipe .
Replies
it looks pretty good to me. You can't really fed it too often, and it won't die if it has to wait for a meal! If it's used all its food you will probably notice it has deflated slightly, so may have left a tide mark on the side of your container.
From memory, I think I fed my twice daily for the first week or so - but I left it at room temp the whole time. If you refrigerate it, it will eat slower and you won't need to fed it so often, but if it's just kicking off, then leave it at RT all the time and keep up the twice daily meals. Once it's about 10-14 days old, have a crack at making a loaf - as long as it shows nice bubbly activity, and smells sweet and yeasty, which yours appears to be doing. Then all you need to do is put some "refreshed" starter in the fridge and leave it unfed until before you want to make you next loaf, fed it up and bake again!
When you make a loaf, always remember to save a bit of your starter to pop back in the fridge for next time. That said, I have forgotten a couple of times, but have just broken off a bit of dough and put that in the fridge, and it worked just fine!
K.
Happiness is making bread.
Why do you think it is that hard, feed it let&it grow a while, then put it in the refig,don't worry about it.When you want to use it, take it out of the refig, the night before, it will be sunk to the bottom of the jar with a liquid on top, the liquid on top,is called huch,in old times,people use to drink it,like a wine, stir,it up,mix the liquid, with the stuff in the bottom. If it is too full, for your contaiorner, pore some down the drain, feed it, with flour and water, it don't mater, if to liquid, add more flour,if it is to dry add more water, if you put to much food in it, it will over flow. Go to bed, in the morning, when you get up, you will find out,that it is full of bubbles and ready to go. When do you need to take it out of refig. Whenever you need it, the night be before. I don`t know how to kill it, I would belive that I might have left it in the refig, for a year I use a container with a screw on lid, I keep it loose, I need to let the perssure out. Don`t stress about it, don`t worry about it
Thank you , karniecoops and Gary...
My culture is 5 days old.
I just want to know the best time of feeding to get the best result.
After being fed, cultures experience several stages before the next feeding ; growing, reaching at the peak, falling back and finally deflating .
So I'd like to know which stage is ideally the best time for feeding . I understand, the first and second stage won't be the time, then how about the half way of falling back or completely deflated stage ?
Or doesn't it really matter ? no difference as long as cultures are fed once or twice a day ?
Love your train of thought Gary - perfect.
How do you know when it's ready? Fed it until it bubbles up then go for your life! Making a loaf is another way of feeding it, so it will think all its christmasses have come at once! It won't even matter if it's slightly deflated, just give it a go and you'll find out soon enough.
The first few loaves might not be ideal if your starter is just new, but they will only improve as your starter gathers strength as it matures
K.
They say "pancake batter thickness". If it is not that thick, will it develop the hooch quicker and not bubble up? Once again, 1st day at around 90 degs, 2-4th at 70, and just getting that yeast smell. I think.