Italian cultures from Sourdoughs International

[Pigslips]

This is our 9pm feeding, (this is getting to be like having a baby to feed, at least it doesn't cry).
Again a yeasty great smell almost sweet.  The last 12 hours have held a temp of 71' to 73'.  Lots of bubbles.  Looks great to me.  We also split it two, this is to dilute the culture and reduce acid buildup.
Next feeding 9AM, NIGHT ALL.

[Pigslips]

This is our third day of activation; the two jars created last night are now 12 hours old.  Again we mixed in a cup of Caputo ‘00’ Pizzeria flour and 3/4 cup room temp. Filtered water, mixed well.  We set aside a little over a cup of culture and threw out the rest in each jar.  As a small experiment we rinsed out one jar with filtered water before refilling and just scraped the old culture out (not rinsing) of the other jar.  Again this is to dilute the culture and reduce acid buildup.  I won’t do more pictures till I’m done as they all look the same.  The culture this morning had that wonderful yeasty flour smell.  I’ve only worked with the Caputo ‘00’ Pizzeria flour once before but I must say it has a fantastic smell and taste to it as no other flour, if you can find it by all means try it.
 
The picture is before we mixed in a cup of flour and water.

[Pigslips]

Fourth day AM feeding and nothing really new.  If anything the culture has a very very slight acid smell.  There is no liquid or hooch.  The bubbles are very small.  As far as cleaning jars between feedings one can see the cleaned jar is not doing as well as the non-cleaned jar.  It’s working but not as well.  I won’t clean again.
 

[Pigslips]

Question;  Instead of feeding both jars every 12 hours why could'nt I dump one jar out, feed the second jar then split the second jar up between the two jars.  I would only use 1 cup flour instead of two?

[ponzu]

You could.

You could also just throw one of the jars in the fridge as your back up starter and focus on feeding one jar.

Or you could try my boiling water technique with the backup jar and see how much quicker you have a usable starter.

Anyway keep us updated!

-AZ

PS are you still planning on doing a caputo run to seattle later this month?  If so I would be very interested in a bag.  thanks.

[Pigslips]

You could.  You could also just throw one of the jars in the fridge as your back up starter and focus on feeding one jar. Or you could try my boiling water technique with the backup jar and see how much quicker you have a usable starter. >:DAnyway keep us updated!  -AZ PS are you still planning on doing a caputo run to seattle later this month?  If so I would be very interested in a bag.  thanks.

That's a great idea on your boilng water take, I'll try it.
Yea on Seattle, I leave on 9/28 get back on 10/01.  I'm driving.

Because of another posting I found out I'm doing my feeding-discard wrong!
It should be A.) discard all but one cup.
                   B.) feed 1cup flour, 3/4 cup water
My culture has been ok structure wise but slower moving, this news should help.

[Pigslips]

Thursday morning, I'm going to call these done after feeding three hours ago.
This was my first time at this so I'm far from being a pro but some things I did worked well.
I only did one culture, I took Matthew's advice and cut back on the first flour and water.
I kept everything clean, used filtered water, tried not to use cross utensils.
I asked for advice and thanks to Matt things worked out textbook, thanks again Matt.
I read this forum and to all those who came before me thus saving me bigtime, thank you.

Gordon 

Update note from Ed; Yes, it matters (larger jar)  in more than one way but a  1 inch rise in your jar is probably close enough.  But that bigger jar will probably help your culture get too acidic and sooner or later it will be too acidic and the dough will not rise well.  Everytime you feed a culture in a 1 quart jar you have to discard part of it or the jar will overflow.  This helps to reduce the acidity.  With a bigger jar you just keep feeding it and each time you do it gets a little more acidic.
 
Ed

[DenaliPete]

Thanks for posting your responses from Ed, that is very helpful.

It makes me wonder though how one can create a bigger batch of starter (like a bakery would) without making the environment overly acidic.

[Pigslips]

Thanks for posting your responses from Ed, that is very helpful. It makes me wonder though how one can create a bigger batch of starter (like a bakery would) without making the environment overly acidic.

I think what Ed thinks is that I have this big jar and never throw out any. He said; "With a bigger jar you just keep feeding it and each time you do it gets a little more acidic."  So I've read that bakeries and such have to feed several times a day thus using up alot of starter.  In other words it's not the size of the jar, it's how much you use and not allow acid to build up.  Hope this helps. 

[Matthew]

Thanks for posting your responses from Ed, that is very helpful.

It makes me wonder though how one can create a bigger batch of starter (like a bakery would) without making the environment overly acidic.

The starter is fed & used so regularly that it doesn't have time to become over acidic.  Most bakers who use starters use a tiny bit of fresh yeast as insurance whether they are willing to admit it or not.

Matt

[Pete-zza]

Most bakers who use starters use a tiny bit of fresh yeast as insurance whether they are willing to admit it or not.

Matt,

That is a common practice, an example of which I noted in Reply 11 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8011.msg69016/topicseen.html#msg69016.

Peter

[Matthew]

Matt,

That is a common practice, an example of which I noted in Reply 11 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8011.msg69016/topicseen.html#msg69016.

Peter

Peter,
You've got a crazy memory!  I was part of that thread & didn't remember it up until now.  I was very confused myself on starters at that time, my starter was around a month old then.  I'm sure you'll find that thread too

Matt

[Pete-zza]

Matt,

I tend to have a good memory for words that people use in posts, including my own, so that enables me to find old posts faster when I use the forum's search feature. For example, the original post where I discussed the Sullivan Bakery and its use of IDY with its sourdough starter was back in 2006 at Reply 1 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3839.msg32101.html#msg32101 . In that case, I remembered that the baker's name was Travis.

You certainly ain't confused about starters anymore. You have become a superstar .

Peter

[DenaliPete]

Because of another posting I found out I'm doing my feeding-discard wrong!
It should be A.) discard all but one cup.
                   B.) feed 1cup flour, 3/4 cup water
My culture has been ok structure wise but slower moving, this news should help.

Is this everyone's common practice?  I have not been feeding my starter a cup of flour at a time, I think I'd go through so much flour that way.

I get a pretty good rise adding 1/4 cup flour and 75% as much water to my starters, that seems to work pretty well, but if I'm going about this wrong I'd like to correct it.

[Matthew]

Matt,

I tend to have a good memory for words that people use in posts, including my own, so that enables me to find old posts faster when I use the forum's search feature. For example, the original post where I discussed the Sullivan Bakery and its use of IDY with its sourdough starter was back in 2006 at Reply 1 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,3839.msg32101.html#msg32101 . In that case, I remembered that the baker's name was Travis.

You certainly ain't confused about starters anymore. You have become a superstar .

Peter

Thanks Peter,
I went back & read some of my posts when I was a newbie & got a good chuckle.  I even asked Bill at one point if he had ever mixed 2 different starters together.

Matt

[Matthew]

Is this everyone's common practice?  I have not been feeding my starter a cup of flour at a time, I think I'd go through so much flour that way.

I get a pretty good rise adding 1/4 cup flour and 75% as much water to my starters, that seems to work pretty well, but if I'm going about this wrong I'd like to correct it.

There's nothing wrong with that at all.  I routinely feed my starter 100g of total flour & water unless I'm trying to build them up to make a sponge.

Matt

[Pigslips]

Question:  will any flour work for feeding?   

[DenaliPete]

I think I recall reading somewhere that your starter can become accompanied to a diet.  IE, when swapping from Rye to white flours, one should to it in parts over the course of a week or so to make sure the culture doesn't die off.

If you are using white flours though, I think you can pretty well substitute any other white flours interchangeably.

[scott r]

This may be conventional wisdom, but I have had great luck going between rye and white flours without any issue at all (certainly no dying off).   One thing is for sure, starters definitely love rye flour!   

[DenaliPete]

They also love a shot of pineapple juice in leiu of water every now and then, its a surefire way to get the yeast happy it seems.