I’ve been maintaining a 60 gram refrigerated started that’s fed about once every two weeks (although we sometimes hit three weeks during more hectic periods) for almost three years. I bake with it every month or two. I must admit, I don’t do any of the building in preparation for a bake until the night before. I take it out of the fridge, feed and pop back into the fridge what I’m going to keep, and build the rest for baking. I measure whatever I have, then add equal measures of water and flour to get the total starter called for in the recipe. For instance, if I have 60 grams of unfed starter straight from the fridge, 20g of it goes back in after being fed equal portions of flour and water, about 40g goes toward the recipe, and I add about 94g each of water and flour to bring it up to the 227g of starter called for in the recipe. Voila. After sitting out on the counter overnight, I have a happy, bubbling, ripe starter waiting to begin the day.

I sometimes wonder if we baby the starter because that’s what we’ve been told to do or we believe in some secret mystique surrounding starters. We’re making it into something more complicated than it is. From my limited experience, it seems a younger starter may need more constant TLC, but an established one can take a bit more casual handling.

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