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Maybe a little off-topic, but can you give me some kind of idea for a fridge based starter v countertop since I am in Peru (last week it was over 90 every day dry, this week its 80s and damp.)

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Thank you for the super clear post! A little late to this but wondering whether using colder water is advisable for slowing fermentation? As opposed to adjusting the ratio of culture to added water/flour, as you do here. I've done the former a whole bunch without really considering how it's impacting the resulting levain, but wondering now whether I'm doing my bakes a disservice somehow (e.g., taste, rise, etc.)

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thanks for this--the DDT formula is super helpful.

Question about amounts. It looks like you maintain a much larger quantity of starter than I do. It'd be great if you could walk us through why one might prefer storing (and feeding) a small amount vs a larger amount of starter.

You start with 75g (Do you store that much "asleep" in your fridge?). I usually store, oh, about 40 g. I peel off about 15 g for my first feeding out of the fridge and save the rest for crackers. then I build for a couple days, feeding 2x a day. at each feed I discard about half the starter and feed flour and water 1:1:1. So my starter jar is small and never has much more than 40 g starter in it.

I used to store more-- about a cup and a half of starter in a pint mason jar (this is from before I got my scale!). I have come to prefer this not just to save flour, but also because it seems to keep the acidity under better control.

I'd love to understand better the differences between these two strategies.

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I am coming back to this post, as I have started to fear that limited kitchen time due to a RTO might impact the recipes I make with fresh levain. I have two questions:

1. When making dough with the slow levain, you still use the same amount, correct? Ie. 100 g of the 4-6 h = 100 g of the 12-14 h when used in a recipe?

2. Are there any in between formulas? Like for something I could feed at 8 am before work to be able to use maybe 10 hours later? Like 10:10:1 or 8:8:1?

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Hi! Regarding reactivating your fresh starter. As a beginner who has NEVER worked with starter I want to make sure I understand your instructions correctly. After the first 12-24 hours when you "transfer" some of the starter into fresh water and flour..what do you do with the remaining starter? Throw it out? Am I creating "fresh" starter from each sample until it takes less than 8 hours to triple in volume and using that last batch as my primary baking starter? OR do I keep the primary starter, and each starter I am sampling with fresh water and flour is merely an indicator of when the main batch is ready to use?

Do I never need to feed the initial starter again if I am keeping it in the meantime? Are the "testers" I am feeding to see how long it takes to increase in volume to be thrown away?

Finally, for the dried yeast packet back-up how should I store it until it is ready to be used? Can I freeze it? Thank you.

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I am just re-reading this! Do you use similar timing when you are making a whole wheat flour starter?

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Dec 1, 2022Liked by Andrew Janjigian

Ah that was my next question, whether you use your white flour starter for your whole wheat loaves! Thank you for your prompt reply!

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