I'm still a newbie at this, but I don't understand something.
In many of the books that I have read they have you start your baking off by throwing away 1/3rd of the starter, or 1/2 the starter. They then have you add flour and water and then use that starter for your bread.
While I keep my starter in the refrigerator, it always becomes very active once I take it out. At least doubling in size. I've been using that (and not throwing any starter away) without any problems.
So if it's active, why throw any away?
Second.
So a recipe tells you to use 1 cup of starter. With the starter you (at least me) have a lot of bubbles, so 1 cup of that really isn't a cup of starter. Again no problems, but I can see where sometimes I might be adding as much as 1/4 more starter than I did the last time.
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Hello Dogjudge,
When you are starting your culture from scratch and it is not fully developed and stable it makes sense to discard some before the next feed as much to keep the volume under control but it also gets rid of some of the waste products that accumulate.
Once you have your established starter and keeping it in the fridge as you are, then you prepare your levain by taking some of your culture from the stock and give that a feed to build the quantity that you need and also feed your stock culture to replace what you have taken out. Then it goes back in the fridge - no discard, no waste. For example if I need 180g of levain for my loaf, I take 90g out of my stock and feed it with 45g water and 45g flour and leave it on the bench to rise before making the dough. I add 45g water and 45g flour to my stock and put it back in the fridge.
In terms of the amount of starter that you get for your loaf you could probably make a loaf using a teaspoon of culture provided that you managed the development and proving correctly so from that point of view the accuracy doesn't matter all that much. Where accuracy is more important is in the consistency and reproducibility of a result. Some bakers can comfortably work by feel and by eye whereas others prefer the comfort of working with more exact measures and recommend the use of digital scales to ensure that the quantities are correct particularly to achieve a consistent dough hydration. So if there is a quarter more or less of starter it probably doesn't matter as the only real effect might be on the final hydration of the dough. As long as you are getting results that you are happy with, I am pretty sure that I have never heard of a loaf that was inedible even if it wasn't necessarily pretty.
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
I have purchaseda starter from sourdough.com and have re-acctivated it. Given it the first feed and it looks and smells great- what do I do now? Do I feed it again before I bake bread and do I have to throw some out and then start to feed some leftover, just not sure even though I have read a lot on here.
Also, we have a wood fired pizza oven - floor size of 1m diameter and would like to know how to fire it for bread baking - do we leave the coals in and close the door or remove them and bake with door on or off? Any help greatly appreciated.
Hello conwaychris55,
Your starter should be pretty much ready to go. Use some to make the levain for your bread and feed the rest to keep for your next batch. Try to keep the amount that you keep with its feed at or about the original weight so that there is no build up or waste.
As far as using a wood-fired oven, you really need to plan a major program for pizza, bread, roast, stews etc to use the heat that you have put into the system, otherwise you will be using an awful lot of firewood for not much return given that it is likely to take two or more hours of firing to get the whole kit and kaboodle up the temperature.
Have a read of this article which gives you a pretty good run-down on getting the oven ready and baking your bread if not for the other things that you really should use the accumulated energy for.
http://www.slowfoodandhandforgedtools.com.au/bread-recipes-beginner.html
Good luck with your projects.
Farinam
Thank you Farinam, We do use our oven all the time for Pizza, roasts etc just haven't tried bread yet as we are unsure if coals need to be in or not and whether to move the bread around or just leave it. I will read the article you suggest, thank you.
As well as the page linked to, there is a host of other information on that site (inclusing a link back to this site).
Farinam
I just want to add. For both comercial yeasted breads and sourdough breads you can almost use any amount of starter/yeast you want. You have to learn forget about rising times and go by the signs of dough being ready. Dough size, gluten development, poke test, windowpane. More yeast/starter less rising time and\ generally less flavor development. Less yeast/starter longer rise times and generally more flavor development.
Thank you Bobku, this is a whole new world for me. Guess it will be a lot of trial and error until I get the science right.