Greetings,
I recently purchased a copy of "Flour Lab" by Adam Leonti. The recipe entitled "Sourdough Durum Loaf" on page 94 caught my eye. The author states that he found a sourdough starter at 90% hydration gave better results with bread doughs featuring Durum than the same starter at 100% hydration. He refers the reader to page 91 to learn how to prepare a starter at 90% hydration - the discussion begins at the bottom of the left-hand column. Would anyone with a copy of "Flour Lab" please review the first paragraph of this discussion on page 91? Does his explanation (i.e. the calculations) make sense to you? I came up with a different set of numbers. I want to be sure of the procedure to make the sourdough starter before attempting this recipe.
Very kindest regards....
- Mark M.'s Blog
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I don't have the book, but if you show your calculations, I could verify if your numbers are correct.
Thank you Alcophile,
I understand Mr. Leonti's example as follows for the preparation of a starter at 90% hydration: discard starter (50 g. , 100% hydration) is combined with water (50 g.) and flour (110 g.).
The recipe for "Sourdough Durum Loaf" specifies 510 g. warthog levain at 90% hydration, but is silent as to how to prepare this levain. I intend to prepare 600 g. of levain, reserving 90 g. to propagate the starter. I intend to prepare the levain with mother starter (20% of levain by weight, 120 g., 100% hydration). I calculated that I will need to use warthog flour (256 g.), water (224 g.) and mother starter (120 g. at 100% hydration) to prepare the levain (600 g., 90% hydration). My calculations involved two equations with two unknowns.
I again thank you in advance. Very kindest regards....
50g of 100% starter is 25g flour + 25g water.
25g flour + 110g added flour = 135g flour.
25g water + 50g water = 75g water
75 / 135 is about 56%
Gary is correct. That instruction does not produce a 90% hydration.
Using that example of 50 g discard starter and 50 g water:
50 g discard = 25 g flour + 25 g water
Add 50 g water = 75 g water
Obtain 90% hydration: 75 g water/0.90 = 83.3 g total flour
83.3 g total flour – 25 g discard flour = 58.3 g added flour
Check work: 75/83.3 = 0.90 (90%)
Your calculations for the Warthog levain are correct using the 100% hydration starter.