I am making Nancy Silverton’s sourdough starter recipe from the food.com site. Due to that there were some unclear directions and when I began to feed my starter after the 6 days of grapes soaking I put the feeding into the bucket without only using a portion of it. After two days I realized it wasn’t doing what is should and came on this site where thanks to the lovely people here I figured out I was supposed to discard most of the original beginning bucket so I got 200g from my starter and began the 3 times a day feeding but it is the 3 day and it hasn’t ever risen it only bubbles. Is there any saving it?
I'm not very experienced but I just took a look at that recipe and there are many things it does differently from the usual recommendations. What stands out to me most is the advice to refrigerate when it's so young and weak, the advice to refrigerate when feeding daily, and the advice that it can be kept 4-6 months in the fridge without feeding. I bet it's possible to do all those things, but I don't think you are as likely to have success as if you followed more common recommendations: do not refrigerate until it's well established, feed 2x/daily when keep at room temp (that's once it's established, less often while it's getting going), or feed weekly or maybe every other week if kept in the fridge.
I'm sure your starter could be saved, but I'm not the right person to advise on the details. But if you are feeding it 3x/day while it is still weak, that is almost certainly overfeeding, altho you don't mention what feeding ratio you are using.
You might want to take a look at these articles, which explain a lot of the science that is going on, and give a more typical recipe for starting a sourdough starter. Make a decision if you want to proceed with trying to save the starter you have, or would rather start over from scratch with a different method, and proceed accordingly.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
Good luck!
Thx littlegirlblue! I think it can be saved too but we will see :)
I forgot to mention I didn’t ever refrigerate my starter and I read another post on here that gave me a 3x a day feeding schedule so that’s what I have been doing.
There are a lot of details you don't mention that will affect things. What kind of flour are you using? What temperature are you keeping it at? You say you are feeding 3x/day, but you don't mention the feeding ratio?
If you don't know what a feeding ratio is, it works like this. 1:2:3 for example means 1 part starter, 2 parts water, and 3 parts flour. That would make a very stiff starter, and too big of a feeding for a weak starter, but it's just an example. Taking 10g starter, 20g water, and 30g flour OR 50g starter, 100g water, and 150g flour would both be examples of 1:2:3 feeding ratios. The amounts don't matter; just the ratios between them. Most seem to keep a pretty small amount of starter on hand as that reduces how much flour you need to feed it. To continue with my 1:2:3 example, let's say you did the 10g:20g:30g. That means when it's time to feed again, you have 60g of starter. You will only keep 10g, and feed it 20g water and 30g flour again. That way you stay stable at 60g. After you've taken the 10g and fed it, you "discard" the rest. However, that discard does not need to go into the trash bin. You can use it in a wide variety of recipes so it's not wasted.
If you post this additional info, it will make it easier for others to help you.
I have been using KA bread flour until I ran out and wasn’t able to get anymore but was able to find a grocery store that was selling bread flour so I have been using that. Below is the feeding schedule I have been using and I have been following pretty precisely minus mixing it with an electric mixer or using a whisk 300 turns. I mix until fully incorporated. My kitchen is about 24 c
1)
200 г starter
150г food (60г bread flour or strong all-purpose flour+90г water 25С)
Whip it with a handheld electric mixer or a whisk (300 turns), leave it at 21-24С for 6 hours.
(2)
200г starter
170г food (70г bread flour or strong all-purpose flour +100г water 25С)
Whip it, leave it at 21-24C for 6 hours.
(3)
200г starter from the previous step
190г food (80г bread flour or all-purpose flour + 110г water 25С)
Whip, leave it for 12 hours at 21-24C.
What does r stand for? Is it a unit of weight/mass? or volume? If it's a weight measurement, then your starter is going to be watery-er than most pics you'll see, as it seems most people keep their starters at 100% hydration. If it's a measurement of volume, I might have confused myself but I'm pretty sure that would mean it's even higher hydration. I'm unaware of any point at which it would become too high hydration to work. Just be aware your starter will not look or behave like most others you see and you'll have to make adjustments to use most recipes. Higher hydration will also reduce how much rise you'll see, because the bubbles will rise to the surface and pop sooner.
Those are at least relatively small feedings so it's not as overfed as I first assumed when you said feeding 3x/day. However, my first guess is that that it is still being overfed and overdiluted. It needs a chance for the acidity to build up for the yeast to activate.
It's not an r, it's a г, the Cyrillic analog of g. Meaning it's in grams.
Ah. ty.
Sorry I copied the original post for the feeding schedule and that person used r or whatever the meaning is. The only way I figured it out was something in the original wording of this persons post.
I haven’t been able to find pineapple juice yet and the last thing I tired was a 1:1:1 ratio which I think made it taste less sour and more like flour and water. It just doesn’t rise all it does is bubble. I really don’t want to chuck it..... : (