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The other thing I'm surprised people (by which I mean makers of youtube videos) seem to worry overmuch about is feeding the starter. Everyone gets out the scale and has some view on ratios - 20g flour to 35.23g water or whatever.

Put a heaping tablespoon of flour in the starter, add enough water to make a paste, stir and you're done. Not enough water? Add a bit more. Too much water? Meh, add a bit less tomorrow.



In addition to youtubers, there's also a bunch of people who have nothing better to do with their lives than frequenting sourdough forums - reddit, facebook groups etc... - insisting to all newcomers that if you don't cultivate your starter with lab equipment in a Clean Room over the course of 6 weeks, you'll absolutely die from botuliusm.

Ive been making sourdough multiple times per week for 7 years and I do as you do - just make a thick paste, in increasingly large quantities over the course of 2-3 days before making the full batch of dough. I do weigh the dough measurements since I have a scale, but I could totally just do it by eye/feel.

I make very large batches and once the dough has started rising while doing periodic stretch and folds, I just put it in the fridge and then take it out and bake a bit over the course of 5ish days. So, I really just make a batch once a week.


you nailed that description. it's the same story no matter what you're fermenting.

I used to be one of those people but after a while I started to realise that most of the time yeast (or lacto) is to the micro world as humans are to the macro. they will absolutely out compete everything if you give them half a chance.

people forget that peasants in the middle ages used fermentation to protect themselves against things like botulism, and they did it without climate control, pressure cookers, silicone seals, starsan, or microbiology.




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