Miracle starter

[dellavecchia]

I had to leave town unexpectedly that ended up being a full week. In the chaos, I forgot about my starters. When I returned, my room temp starters had a thick crust on top that was moldy and smelled awful. I carefully removed it and underneath was smooth starter that did not look that bad. After two feedings a day apart, one is doming and the other is almost there. They both smell and taste normal as well.

John

[wheelman]

so you never refrigerate your starters?  do you have to feed more frequently because of that? 
glad they survived!
bill

[teglia]

From the limited knowledge i have on starters you have to feed starters at room temp minimum twice a day

[dellavecchia]

From the limited knowledge i have on starters you have to feed starters at room temp minimum twice a day

My starters are kept at room temp. In the winter they are fed every 3 days, and the summer every 1-2 days. When feeding I discard 80-90%.

John

[texmex]

Wow John, that's a lot of discard.  I still have trouble with that!  Discard is just not something that I can embrace very well. 

[dellavecchia]

Wow John, that's a lot of discard.  I still have trouble with that!  Discard is just not something that I can embrace very well. 

Just out of curiosity, what is the problem you have with discard?

John

[texmex]

 
That I have to DISCARD it!
 

I have actually used plenty of discard for breads but the thought of throwing out a perfectly good bit of starter just rubs me the wrong way...I wanna use it all, so I've tried to use it all up as I go along. 
I was baking every week, both bread and pizza, then I had a lull, and suddenly my starter increased to a point where it was bake double or discard for real.  I then decided to take some unfed starter and created a dough with it.  Yeah, probably gonna be more than just a little bit of discard involved in that experiment,  but I had to try it, and will bake tonight or tomorrow.

[dellavecchia]

On a normal basis I am using 2 tablespoons of flour to feed, so the discard is very small.

John

[wheelman]

John, is 2 tablespoons + water enough to replace 80-90% of your total starter?  i'd like to try room temp but i'm not sure i understand what you're doing. 
thanks,
bill

[texmex]

This is what I'm trying to do myself, keep the volume at minimum. 
Still, I can end up with too much starter if I don't bake often enough. 
I keep thinking that a smaller jar would help me to maintain a smaller starter amount.
keeeeerazzzy!

Actually I am very fond of the 20% starter doughs I've made recently both for bread and pizza, and that does use up a lot of starter.

[dellavecchia]

Bill - I keep about a tablespoon or less of starter and then add 2 tablespoons of flour and around the same of water. When I want to use the starter, I keep the discard and feed it based on my needs. There is no reason for me to keep huge amounts of starter around as I always use a young levain for bread and at most 5% water for pizza.

This works for me and my "New England" starter. I keep two versions of it, one for pizza which is fed caputo, and one for bread which is fed a 50/50 mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour.

John