Using Starters for Commercial Production

Instructions Preparing starter for use in a commercial kitchen, i.e. volume production (use a similar technique for preparing volumes of alternative starter types): - If the starter has not been used in more than 3 or 4 days, you may wish to replenish the starter once to ensure the starter is really fresh before preparing for a bread recipe. - For EACH 2 loaves of bread to be baked: Combine 1 tablespoon starter, 1 1/2 cups 80-85 degree water, and 2 cups BREAD flour in a non-corrosive bowl. Remember to measure the starter and water carefully and then to add enough flour to make the starter the consistency of 'mud'. The amount of flour suggested is a guideline for planning purposes. - Proof for exactly 24 hours at 72 to 77 degrees.With the original starter, - Concurrent to the above proof, replenish the original starter by combining 1 tablespoon (discard most of the rest), 1 1/2 cups warm water, and 2 cups all-purpose flour in another bowl or in the starter container itself. Proof for 24 hours at 72 to 77 degrees. - For maintaining larger amounts of starter, use multiples of the above amounts for replenishing the starter. For example, if you normally use 64 tablespoons (4 cups) of starter to produce enough starter for 128 loaves of bread, then you need to maintain at least 4 1/2 cups of starter, so you'd be best off to triple the above replenishing procedure, i.e. use 3 tablespoons starter, 4 1/2 cups water, and about 6 cups flour. That's a LOT of bread from only 4 cups of starter! (So THAT'S how they do it in San Francisco!)