I am trying to establish a starter for the first time. As I understand it, I remove half of the starter and then add that same amount back in water and flour every day.
So (for example) if I have 100g starter (50g flour/50g water), I would remove 50g and then add 50g flour and 50g water back in. So the next day I'll have 150g starter. Then I remove 75g, add 75g flour and 75g water. So then I'll have 225g starter.
Is there any way to not have it grow so much? I mean, could I keep it at 100g (or whatever arbitrary number) some how? Or do I necessarily have to grow it in the beginning and then later, once it is established, it can stay at a small size?
Thanks a ton!
These posts are (a) really interesting and well-informed; and (b) will give you a good idea of what’s going on and what to do.
Don’t be put off by the title - you don’t have to use juice, plain water will do, it just takes a few more days and usually goes through a nasty stinky stage but this is nothing to worry about
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
To answer your specific question about the amount to discard and amount of fresh flour and water to add, it is a bit different when when you are starting a brand new starter compared to maintaining an established one.
The first thing to do is to get your starter up and running - and to do that, follow the approach in the Pineapple Juice posts or similar. Once you’ve done that, then you need a maintenance routine...
One thing to note is that the amount of starter you keep really doesn’t matter - you can keep a teaspoonful just as well as a cupful - it’s just that weighing really small quantities is a nuisance, and keeping a bathtub full of starter is just very wasteful. Also you ideally want the amount of starter you keep between bakes, to be a decent match to the amount your recipe uses, leaving just enough left over so that after you’ve fed it you’re back to your original weight again (that’s not as hard as it sounds, you just have to fine tune things a bit once you’re used to it).
When it comes to the feeding itself, you will hear people talking about feeding (for example) “1:1:1”. The three numbers mean, in turn, the weight of old starter, the weight of water added and the weight of flour added (i.e. SWF).
So let’s say you want to keep a constant weight of 90g of starter, and you want to feed at 1:1:1. Lets assume you’re not baking at the moment, so you just want to keep the starter ticking over. So the first thing you do, is discard 60g of your old, hungry starter (well, in fact you don’t necessarily discard it - you might make delicious pancakes for example...). Then you add 30g water, and 30g flour. Voila! You now have 90g of freshly fed starter.
For what it’s worth I just keep my starter in the fridge and only feed it the day before I intend to bake; however do feel free to keep it on the counter top and feed it every day like it was a pet... many people do...