Barb at King Arthur

October 21, 2022 at 10:44am

In reply to by Bryn (not verified)

Hi Bryn, as long as you have an appropriately sized jar, you could probably maintain a starter at 30g (although I haven't tested a starter quite that small). Your starter doesn't always have to be maintained with equal parts by weight of starter, water and flour. In fact, one way that I often adjust my smaller starter feedings is to reduce the percentage of starter as compared to water/flour fed. This slows down the ripening process and allows my twice a day feedings to line up closer to the peak rise, which helps keep the yeast vigorous. For example, rather than feeding 20g each of starter, water and flour when it's warm in my house and the starter seems to be rising fairly rapidly, I will shift to a 1:4:4 routine (starter:water:flour, by weight) that looks more like this: 7g starter + 28g water + 28g flour. Although I am using up slightly more flour with this type of feeding, it does seem to keep my starter more active when I'm maintaining it at room temperature. As you feed your starter leading up to baking, you can gear your feeding amounts to reflect your actual needs, rather than building much more starter than you require. For example, if you wanted to make a 1/2 batch of our sourdough foccacia recipe, you only need 170g of ripe starter, so your final build might be something like this: 30g starter + 85g water + 85g flour, which would give you enough starter for the recipe, plus enough leftover to feed and perpetuate. Keep in mind that when you offer your starter a larger feeding like this it will take it a bit longer to ripen, but that can come in handy when you want to feed your starter before bed and get a good night's sleep, and still have your starter ripe and ready for baking the next morning. 

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