STARTER MAINTENANCE

· Once you have your sourdough starter up and running and it is stored happily in the fridge – don’t forget about it!

· It needs to be fed to keep it alive! I recommend a once a week feeding schedule - It needs a 1:1 feed of flour and water.

· How much flour & water? That depends on the appearance of your starter... read on...

· If there is a dark liquid on top - it’s called ‘hooch’ (see photos below) - you can either pour it off, or stir it in.

· Hooch is evidence that your starter has exhausted the sugar supply in the flour and needs to be refreshed. It needs a 1:1 feed of flour and water. This is called ‘refreshing’.

· You must feed the starter min. once a week to prevent the organisms from exhausting the sugar supply.

· Along with the wild yeasts there is also a friendly beneficial bacteria present called Lactobacillus which we want in abundance in our gut.

· Lactobacillus feed on sugar and produce two kinds of acid as a by-product: lactic acid that gives the sourdough its distinctive flavour and acetic acid that gives its sourness

· Depending on the conditions of your starter, one or the other of these acids is produced in greater abundance.

· Liquid starter (near equal balance of flour and water) makes more acetic acid and your bread will have a more distinct sour flavour.

· A stiff starter (higher percentage of flour to water, about 2:1) makes more lactic acid, giving your final bread a more mellow, sweet taste.

· Wild yeasts are crucial in this environment because commercial yeast would never survive in such an acidic environment. Therefore, you get all the gut health benefits from wild yeast.