Hi!
I've recently made my first starter using the Earth Food and Fire recipe. It's healthy, and going well.
It's now 8 days old and I'm at a loss for a feeding schedule!
I followed the EFAF recipe until day 5, and then have just been guessing the amounts of starter to discard and amount of water and flour to add - I've been taking about half of the starter out and adding enough water and flour until it's a thick gloopy texture and keeping it at room temp.
It rises very quickly and gets an alcohol smell within a few hours. In the picture, the first lines are where it was after feeding, then the second line up top, is 10 hours after (kept on the bench top for 2 hours and the fridge for 8).
I've now put it in the fridge to try and slow it's growth.
Can someone please give me a manageable feeding schedule as I will only bake about twice a week, if that!
*it's plain white flour.
Thank you!
There are plenty of options, but I would work backward. When you bake, how much starter does the recipe call for? Just picking a number, say it calls for 100 grams. Then assume you want two refreshes before you bake ( though I often just use one ). Then pick a feeding ratio - some use 1 part starter to 1 part water to 1 part flour ( 1:1:1 ) others give the starter more food like 1:2:2 . So assume you were going with a 1:2:2 that means your second refresh should be 20 starter 40 water and 40 flour. ( I would actually add a little to each number so I can have some left over to go into the fridge, so assume 22:44:44). Your first refresh would then need to yield 22 grams, so I divide by 5, and I need 5 grams. 5:10:10. So since my first refresh is only 5, I need to keep 5 grams out of my last build, and put it in the fridge. Obviously all the number can scale up or down as needed, and 5 sounds a little small, so what I would do would take 15 grams of starter, and through it in the fridge. The morning before baking day, take out the 15, discard 10, and feed 5:10:10. When that has matured, I would take the 25 and refresh 25:50:50 and then pull out 15 to go back in the fridge till next time I was ready, and when the rest is ready, use 100 for baking and discard the rest. If you find the starter is maturing too quickly for your schedule, then change the feeding ratio to 1:3:3 or whatever suits your schedule.
Thanks for the info!
I've given the 1:1:1 ratio a try, it's quite a lot runnier than I'm used to! Will see how things go :)
someone here suggested i give the starter a higher percentage of flour. while it made the starter stiffer, it did mean less frequent feeds.
Interesting! I've tried a 1:1:1 ratio now and will see how it's goes. It's quite runny so I may end up thickening it up. I've got 2 lots going now actually, to test consistency, so will see which one is easier :)
good luck with your starter.
i was feeding my hungry starter 3 to 1, and it worked pretty well. i tried 2 to 1, but i preferred feeding less often. other starters did fine with 1:1:1, but like yours, my hungry starter would get that smell after just a few hours.
I went to that site and read the directions. In the summary of the steps at the bottom it calls for equal weights of flour and water, so it should not be any more runny than you were doing it before. In one of the steps - I think stage 4, it says add 2/3 cups of flour and a splash of water, but I am guessing that is just a misprint.