been baking for a few years and still having trouble knowing the exact time to use starter to create pre-ferment.
My sourdough starter is 50g existing starter + 50g rye four + 50 room temp water. It takes about 5 hours to peak.
My question is ... am i mixing my pre-ferment at peak time, or should i wait for the starter to exhuast itself and fall before adding it to pre-ferment mix?
Thanks!
Daniel in SF
In reality, these terms mean the same thing. The final build that has created the amount of starter for your baking that day is commonly called the levain. It's just that the starter has been developed over two or three "builds" to create the required quantity. You should always use a fully active starter / levain to create the final build. You must also use the levain when it is at its peak of ripeness (fully active).
Cheers, Gavin
As luck would have it, I just now started tomorrows bread. Since my starter/Mother, ( I prefer the later term) is freshly fed, only a few day ago, I put it right into the preferment/levian. (I prefer the later term) If my refrigerated mother was near to a feeding, I have been known to feed the mother culture and give it a couple of hours before beginning a build. As far as only adding your preferment/levian when it is at peak, that is not always what is called for. Some formulas call for a "young" levian. Some of our friend Mauizio's formulae come to mind. Personally, I am not that meticulous, with the timing. I know my mother is strong and I like to begin my final dough builds when the levian is about half way to peak. That is just one of my personal idiosyncrasies. When I write my first book, (pipe dream) it will be very apparent that I sometimes go against the grain. Smile.
Thank you very informative.
im still a little unclear though.
my understanding was that, in addition to having the timing just right for your pre-ferment. the timing of the mother starter feeding had to be timed correctly as well? Instead you mentioned that you feed it the day before and because of this, i imagine it had deflated at that point?
Im still trying to generate an understanding rally. Im seeing that the yeast simply wants fresh sugars to eat and im seeing that if one puts a well fed (mature) starter into a mix for a new pre-ferment, it might as well react like a human would when presented with more food after a giant meal...'Ehh im full , no more eating for me" Do you think this anaology is correct?
Hello, Dan.
Since my mother culture is stored in the refrigerator, he does not use up all the sugars from the last feed quickly. Since the mother culture still looked very active albite at a slowed rate. I could tell it would be fine to go right into the levian build. As luck would have it I have a sample to show you. Now, had the refrigerated mother looked collapsed and passed peak, I would have fed him before starting the levian build. Please refer to the photos below.
First photo is the ripe levian after 12 hrs. You can see the bubbly rippled top, clearly.
In this second photo you can see that the levian is floating in the final dough water.
Enter the Bosch universal. The levian is fully dissolved in the final dough water, before adding the flour.
After the final dough four is well mixed/and hydrated, we are ready for a short 30 minute autolyse.
Your mother culture when presented with a large meal will begin to reproduce and recrute the youngsters in devouring the sugars!