I was PM'd a question on this dough, but the sender's inbox was full. Here is the answer:
Yes, the Ischia culture is 1% by weight of the flour. Those pies came from a batch with 1200g flour, so 12g culture. I usually weight about 1g extra to account for what gets left in the bowl and on the spatula, so maybe as much as 12.5g made it into the dough.
I get my culture very active before using. It gets used and fed enough that is is always fairly active. To make dough, I begin feeding it on Thursday. I discard half and feed it again on Friday. I add a little flour and water early Satruday AM then make the dough around noon. I make the culture about the consistency of pancake batter.
My room temp is 77F. By noon on Suday, the dough is ~1.75x. I dump it on the counter and ball it working it as little as possible. I use lightly [olive]oiled glad plastic bowls for the balls. The balls are probably squeezed down to 1.25x the original volume during the balling process. It's ready to go when the balls are at 2x their starting size (as balls - not the original dough volume). If I want to slow things down a little, I put the balls in a big ice chest with a 1/2gallon ice block. Be sure to get them out at least an hour before you need them if you do this. I think it's best to avoid the cold alltogether if possible.
Hope this helps,
Craig
