- Aug 26, 2012
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oh one more thing, sorry to be so long winded. If your starter gets funky you can bring it back almost all the time unless its really gotten bad. What you do is something called "Washing". To to do this you pour out all but a small amount of the starter and feed it in at least a ratio of 6 to 1, higher is preferable, two or 3 times a day. When this happens I don't usually bother to measure for proper hydration but I problably use a 10 to 1 ratio. It takes about a week, sometimes a couple of weeks but it will almost always come back
The other thing I wanted to mention about building starters. If you want to get sour bread just double the volume of the starter when you feed it and try to get a mixture that is rather thick, then ferment at about 85-90 degrees. If you want a less sour, potentially lighter bread you can triple or quaduple it. Remember that the bacteria casues most of the sourness and they grow rather slow in comparison to yeasts so you want to slow down the yeast by giving smaller feedings and increase the temp which makes the bacteria grow faster. The thicker consistensy gives the starter a more anerobic environment and reduces oxidation
The other thing I wanted to mention about building starters. If you want to get sour bread just double the volume of the starter when you feed it and try to get a mixture that is rather thick, then ferment at about 85-90 degrees. If you want a less sour, potentially lighter bread you can triple or quaduple it. Remember that the bacteria casues most of the sourness and they grow rather slow in comparison to yeasts so you want to slow down the yeast by giving smaller feedings and increase the temp which makes the bacteria grow faster. The thicker consistensy gives the starter a more anerobic environment and reduces oxidation