Fwd: Starter instructions

Copied and pasted from an earlier email. Replace Chuck with your preferred name.

Consistency:

Depending on how liquidy you keep Chuck, he'll need to be fed more or less often. I gave you Chuck in a very non-liquid state (a tough dough). If the starter is very liquidy then it needs to be fed daily. If it's somewhere in between, once every couple days. In its current state, Chuck can go without food for a week or two (if he's in the fridge) I generally keep mine in a very thick oatmeal state and feed it twice a week.

Feeding:

Remove half of Chuck (throw away or bake with it), then add water and flour to get the desired consistency.

Storage:

In general, store Chuck at room temperature. Exception, if you're going away for a while. Get Chuck to a tough dough state, add additional flour, and store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. 

Usage:

Take half of Chuck and add it in place of yeast in a recipe. Sourdough starter has less oomph than commercial yeast. I generally do an overnight rise on most of my loaves. Feed the other half of Chuck.

If you don't want to make bread you can just throw away half of Chuck and feed the other half.

Revival:

Should you get weak results (i.e. not much leavening) Chuck may be a little dead inside. The best way to revive a starter is to get it in a liquidy state and feed it every day for 4-5 days and use warm water when feeding. It should perk up and you should see noticeable bubbling in the starter. This is one reason why liquid state is nice as it's easy to see if the starter is alive.

And how to make bread with Chuck: https://plus.google.com/112786867560140732428/posts/VDe6deRx17Z