CARING FOR YOUR MAMA
CARING FOR YOUR MAMA...
Caring for your MAMA (sourdough mama)
You need to feed your mama every 1-2 weeks (I’ve defiantly gone longer and its ok if you do… but try not to, there are tricks to brining her back to life if you have gone too long)
If you bake regularly you will deplete her quickly, because you are taking a little bit of her to make your active stater every time you bake.
I leave my mama in the fridge at all times, this preserves her and slows her down from eating the gluten too quickly, once the uses up all the gluten there will be a watery liquid on the top that is called the hootch, when this forms she is telling us she is hungry. Just dump the hootch into the sink and feed her as follows…
If you have a small amount of mother left from your week of baking… feed he in equal parts… starter: water: flour (just like making active starter) but instead of leaving out on the counter to double just cover, mark and put in the fridge, she will still double in the fridge but it will take much longer to do so. (The cold temps slows her down)
If you have a lot of mother left you can do 3 things…
1. Dump some out, then feed w/ equal parts like above.
2. Make a discard recipe (a recipe that calls for inactive starter) such as crackers, biscuits, pancakes, pie crusts, etc… google sourdough discard recipes)
3. Feed just a little each time you take from her
To feed just a little…
Say you take out 100g to use in a recipe.
You can replenish the 100g you took out by adding 50g water 50g flour mix into the entire amount of the mother, cover and put back in the fridge… this is like giving her a snack… when I follow this method I still give her a good feeding (equal part method) once every 2-3wks.