MOTHER STARTER

Mother Starter image

Once you've established a seed culture, you need to convert it into a mother starter. This is the starter you'll keep in your refrigerator perpetually and use to build your actual bread dough. To convert a seed culture into a mother starter, you'll use the seed culture to inoculate a larger batch of flour and water to make a firm piece of starter with the consistency of bread dough. The seed culture is full of wild yeast and bacteria, but its structure has been weakened by the buildup of acids and the ongoing activity of enzymes breaking down both protien and starch. To make the mother starter strong enough to function in a final dough, you'll build it with three times as much flour as seed culture (by weight). This 3-to-1 process will give the mother starter about the same feel as a final dough. A little starter goes a long way, so the following instructions call for you to discard half of your seed culture or give it away. (This is great if you know another home baker who would like to avoid the work of making a seed culture.) Or if you'd prefer to keep a larger mother starter on hand, especially if you bake often or in large batches, you can convert the entire seed culture into a mother starter by doubling the weight of the new flour and water. (Some bakers like to split the seed culture into two mother starters, one wheat and one rye, but unless you are making a lot of rye bread on a regular basis, I think this is unnecessary.)

Number Of Ingredients 3

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups (12 oz / 340 g) whole wheat flour, whole rye flour, or unbleached bread flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (9 oz / 255 g) filtered or spring water (or 8 oz / 227 g if using white flour)
3/4 cup (4 oz / 113 g) Phase 4 seed culture (approximately half)

Steps:

Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on slow speed for 1 minute. Or, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and use a large spoon or your hands to mix until the ingredients form a rough, slightly sticky ball. Transfer the starter to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 2 minutes, until the starter is fairly smooth and all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Place the mother starter in a clean, lightly oiled nonreactive bowl, crock, or plastic container large enough to contain the starter after it doubles in size. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a lid (don't tighten the lid, as the carbon dioxide gas will need to escape). Leave the starter out at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours (or longer if needed), until it doubles in size; the timing will depend on the ambient temperature and the potency of your seed culture. Once it's doubled, the starter should register 4.0 or less if tested with pH paper and have a pleasant acidic aroma.
When the starter is fermented, degas it by kneading it for a few seconds, then form it back into a ball, cover tightly, and refrigerate. After a few hours in the refrigerator, vent any carbon dioxide buildup by briefly opening the lid or plastic wrap. The mother starter is now ready to use and will be good for up to 5 days. To use it after 5 days, you must refresh all or part of the mother starter, as described below.
Whenever the mother starter gets low, rebuild it (also called feeding or refreshing it) using 4 ounces (113 g) of the old starter and repeating the instructions above. You can even start with as little as 1 ounce (28.5 g) of mother starter and rebuild it in increments over a number of feedings, using the same ratios as for a 4-ounce (113 g) batch. For example, after a few weeks in the refrigerator, the protein and starches will break down, giving the starter a structure or consistency of potato soup. This is okay; the microorganisms are still viable, though fairly dormant (and maybe even a little drunk on the alcohol they've produced, which rises to the top and looks like gray water).
To rebuild your mother starter, use 1 ounce (28.5 g) of mother starter and add 3 ounces (85 g) of flour and 2 to 2.25 ounces (56.5 to 64 g) of water. This will produce about 6 ounces (170 g) of starter. You can then build all or part of that into a larger piece using the same ratios: 100 percent flour, 33.3 percent starter, and 66 to 75 percent water. So for 6 ounces (170 g) of starter, use 18 ounces (510 g) flour (6 multiplied by 3) and 12 to 13.5 ounces (340 to 383 g) water (18 multiplied by 66 percent or 75 percent-lower hydration for all white flour, higher hydration for all whole grain flour). As you see, you can build a small piece of starter into a large piece very quickly.