Starting a starter, fmi
I want to post here how I started my sourdough starter, and what happened throughout the process, so I can come back and review if necessary later.
All amounts are weight measurements measured on my Salter scale. All water is Brita-filtered water at room temperature. Starter is rotated between two Mason jars with each feeding so jar is always kept fairly clean and sludge-free. Ring cap is placed loosely on jar after feeding.
Day 1: Combined 4 oz KAF bread flour and 4 oz Brita-filtered water. Put in Mason jar and loosely covered with ring cap.
Day 2: Morning--Fed with 4 oz water, 4 oz flour.
Evening--The starter had more than tripled during this day and was foamy, bubbly, runny and sour-smelling. Causes a lot of excitement in the house. Stirred down, dumped to 4 oz starter, and fed with 8 oz flour, 8 oz water (1:2:2 ratio).
Day 3: Dumped all but 4 oz of starter. Fed with 8 oz water and 8 oz flour. Some small bubbles, but nothing spectacular. No rise.
Day 4: Dumped to 3 oz, fed with 6 oz water and 6 oz flour. There has been no rising since the big foamy mess of Tuesday.
Day 5: Kept 6 oz starter, fed 6 oz water and 6 oz flour. (I don't know why I decreased to a 1:1:1 feeding, probably just a senior moment.)
Day 6: Kept I don't know how much, but I have notes I fed at 1:1:1.
Day 7: Same as Day 6, fed 1:1:1.
Day 8: Fed in the AM 1:1:1 (on 3 oz of starter), then fed in the PM the same way. The starter rose by double this day.
Day 9: Fed 1:1:1 on 3 oz of starter, then had to stir down 3 hours later bc starter had tripled. Fed again at noon, 1:2:2 on 3 oz., tripled again in 3 hours. Kept stirring down all afternoon. Fed again in the PM, 1:2:2.
After that, I followed bwraith's advice and started feeding 1:4:4 feedings on a small amount of starter, like 20 grams. The starter is doubling on this diet after about 6 hours. Ambient temp in the kitchen is high 70s.
Day 10: Baked with starter! Made good bread! Experiment is a success!!!
Comments
Good for you, Kjknits! Sounds like you have a lively starter. Keep the little bugger going and enjoy the breads that you make with it.
PMcCool