Barb at King Arthur

April 14, 2020 at 9:47am

In reply to by Debbie (not verified)

Hi Debbie, I apologize for the delay in responding to your question! The feeding routine you are following (equal parts by volume of flour and water) is definitely likely to produce a very liquid starter. Our regular starter recipe is made up of equal parts by weight of starter, water and flour. If you're feeding by volume this would be: 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 113g) starter + 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 113g) water + 1 scant cup (4 ounces, 113g) AP flour. The consistency of this starter right after feeding is a thick, but easily stirrable paste. As it begins to ferment and rise it becomes more like a thick pancake batter. The stiff starter referenced in this article is composed of 1 part starter : 1 part water : 2 parts flour by weight, and has a stiff dough consistency. There are lots of ways to create and maintain a sourdough starter, but the proportion of ingredients in your current starter is going to make it much more difficult for you to see the starter rise and double in size. This is because the consistency is so thin that the fermentation bubbles rise right through the starter and collect on the surface, rather than being dispersed throughout. I would encourage you to try our regular starter recipe linked above, and to store your starter in a jar that is taller than it is wide (a quart sized mason jar works well for the quantities listed in our recipe), so that you can gauge your starter's progress more easily. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! 

Barb

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.