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β€œThe other main difference is that this version is twice the scale of the original, since there was some evidence that maintaining it on too-small a scale could possibly risk over-diluting the developing culture with each refreshment.” - if I have a mature and healthy tiny starter, is there reason/benefit to scaling up now?

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Yeah, I've run into all of these problems along the way and have done reasonably well eventually at solving them. Six months in, with a two month break in the fridge in June and July, mine is finally starting to hum along, though I have yet to bake actual bread with it. What's the rationale for 1/2 and 1/2 and weaning off the whole grain? It seems like the only way to keep my culture healthy is to do almost 80% rye flour and allow over 24 hours between refreshes on a 15g/15g/15g (or greater) starter.

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I started a quarantiny starter 1.0 on 9/15, feeding it 10/10/10. I started feeding it 2x/day about 7 days in. It rises nicely after feeding and seems pretty active. I tried baking with it on 9/28 and it was a colossal failure - the bread was heavy and flat like a giant hockey puck. I haven't tried again. Should I scale up to 20/20/20? I am almost out of the initial jar of "food" I mixed up when I started (50/50 Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat and King Arthur Flour Unbleached Bread Flour).

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Following the NC State Rob Dunn lab 10/10/10 wild sourdough project I have had several failures using KAF. The latest is an organic rye which has matured over the eight weeks feeding twice a day. It made beautiful fig and walnut sourdough rye foccacia two weeks ago. My problem is after storing in the fridge a 10/20/20, it develops a fruity vinegar smell which is very pungent and doesn't rise. When I refresh at room temperature covered with a paper towel it does fine and recovers. When I use a loose lid, it gets the terrible off smell again. Too much anaerobic lactobacillus? Does the same thing when I try to switch to KAF AP. I tried feeding 10/15/15 and 10/20/20 but the same smell with AP flour.

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I keep getting orange mold on top of my starter- any idea where it’s coming from or what I’m doing wrong?

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Oct 18, 2020Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Just wanted to thank you again for your Quarantiny starter project. Not having to discard so much flour at a time gave me courage I needed to try it out, and now I am baking at least a loaf a week, and I just taught my 77-year-old dad how to bake sourdough and sent him home with a nice healthy offspring of my starter.

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hello! i have a question.. is it okay to bake with a sourdough starter that already doubles in volume in under 5 hours (it did that on the 7th day), but doesn't smell sour or yeasty? it's on its 8th day today, by the way !! ~

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Hello! I created a starter using the method in Ken Forkish's book, which indicates that you have a bake-worthy starter after 5 days, which is clearly much shorter than the method described above. It also calls for a 1x a day feeding with 50g starter, 50g wheat flour, 200g white flour, 200g water, and storage on the counter. I'm way too new at this to understand whether both that and your approach would work or whether I should be modifying my current starter approach! Mine has been alive for about 12 days, being maintained on the aforementioned schedule. I've made a few levain breads, none of which have the coveted large holes but have a pretty good crumb. But I want to make sure that I'm doing the right maintenance for long term consistently good levain breads. Welcome any thoughts!

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Hi Andrew,

I just started a tiny starter based on your original instructions, and fed it for the first time today. I’d like to scale up to this 2.0 version, how would I do that?

In your original instructions, you say to transfer half the starter to a clean jar before refreshing it. Do you have to transfer to a clean jar before each feeding? Thanks!

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How close should we follow the time interval for 12-hour feedings? I think I am ready to move to the 12 hour feeding schedule, but that puts me at a 1:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. feeding schedule. Ideally, I prefer to do feedings at 5:00

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Looking for advice on the climax stage. With the 50:50 flour mix (all King Arthur products) during maturation, I got to the point of tripling in volume in 5 hours, and passing the float test. First attempt at transitioning to cold storage, I switched to all-purpose flour only and cut the percentage of starter to 50% (20:20:10 refreshment mix). By the third 12-hour refreshment, all activity ceased and I had to reintroduce whole wheat - 5 grams didn’t cut it so I took a step back and went back to 20:20:20 ratio of refreshing with 50:50 flour mix. Got back to tripling in volume in 5 hours and this time I slowly weaned it off whole wheat, decreasing whole wheat by 4 grams each time and increasing all purpose accordingly for 20:20:20 refreshments mixes over the course of a week. I got as low as 2 grams of whole wheat in the 20:20:20 mix with the same strong level of activity (tripling in volume in 5 hours). When I completely eliminated whole wheat and used only all purpose, activity slowed to minimal bubbles and very little rise by the third 12-hour refreshments. Any suggestions to help my little starter thrive on only all purpose for cold storage? I’ve been trying to transition to cold storage unsuccessfully for the last 3 weeks.

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Andrew, is it OK to share other recipes when they are on-topic for comments? Sphex and I were mentioning crackers, and I have a recipe I've been enjoying, but I don't want to use your site in a way you didn't intend.

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Hi, Mr. Janjigian. You and I talked on Twitter about this, but I wanted to give you an update on my current high-elevation starter attempt. My starter is currently doubling (or more than doubling) and in full deflation mode at or before the 8-hour mark. Should I wait until the 12-hour point and feed it then, so it's being refreshed twice a day, or should I feed it when I notice it's begun deflating (and thus feed it more than twice a day)? It still doesn't pass the float test, so I know it's not ready for baking yet.

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How Andrew, you mentioned a smaller scale on your video wiith WBUR, that you said was available on Amazon. Can you please send me a link to it. I am going to try your starter recipe.

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I am on day 4 of the final step (Climax). After reducing the amount of starter and using KA AP flour I am not seeing a lot of rise in the jar, not doubled anyway. You mentioned amending with a WW which I did on day 3 but haven't noticed much improvement. Are you saying to add 2 tsp. WW in addition to the 20 gr AP or to replace 2 tsp AP with the WW?

I still have starter in the Maturation stage (as a backup) and it has no problem doubling in 12 hours.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

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