SC - Sourdough starter

[Decker, Terry D.]

> >By feeding the starter with water and flour when it goes 
> dormant, you add
> >the sugars produced by the amylase reaction to feed the yeast and
> >lactobacilli and aerate the starter to refresh the lactic 
> acid production.
> >Just letting the starter sit does not improve the flavor.  At room
> >temperature, my starters tend to cycle through active to 
> dormant about every
> >12 hours, so they usually are feed morning and evening.
> 
> Ok. So I'll keep my starter and I'll start feeding it twice a 
> day.  Conceivably, I'd like to use it to make bread 2-3 times a 
> week.  Now,  the original recipe says to stir in just 1 
> teaspoon of sugar 
> once a week to care for it, but if I use it I should 
> replenish it with 3/4 
> all purpose flour, 3/4 cup water and 1 tsp sugar.  I put in 1 
> tsp of sugar 
> last night and of course I've never used it---will this be 
> enough to get it 
> active again or should I be adding more flour and water?
> 

> Marsaili:-)

IIRC, the sugar (sucrose) hydrolizes into invert sugar (an eqimolar mix of
fructose and glucose) of which the glucose can fuel the fermentation.  The
lactobacilli really need some of the sugars from the amylase reaction (flour
and water) not used by the yeast.  Since you are going to use this as a
continuous starter, I'd recommend adding the flour and water rather than the
sugar.  

If you are using a bread machine, use the 1:1 volume mix they recommend but
try 1/2 cup to 1/2 cup.  That should keep the sourdough thin enough for the
bread machine.

Since I don't know how your full recipe reads, I'll simply say that the
recipes I work with tend to replace 2 to 4 cups of the flour with starter
mixed together with the water and flour in the recipe.  After allowing it to
proof, a cup of the proofed dough is reserved for the starter pot, and the
rest is mixed with the other ingredients, formed and allowed to rise.

If you are going to be working with sourdough for any length of time, I'd
recommend getting a copy of Ed Wood's World Sourdoughs from Antiquity.  I
picked up my copy from Devra the Baker at Poison Pen Press:

http://www.poisonpenpress.com/

Bear