Ray, what is important is concentration of bacteria and yeast to new
food. Just as with pH which is about Hydrogen ion concentration rather
than actual number of ions. Of course it will work if you scale the
other ingredients accordingly. I have activated all but a couple of
SDI's cultures. I quickly learned to only use a teaspoon of bought
starter culture and the appropriate proportion of flour. I also
quickly learned to throw some of the culture away before feeding with
another scaled amount of flour and water. Otherwise you end up with
gallons of starter if you follow the instructions that they used to
send out with starter. If it didn't work and you told sdi that you
didn't follow the instructions to the letter of course they'd not
offer you a replacement. But their instructions are crazy.


I hear that they now recommend to follow the 'wash' instructions from
day one which involves throwing some away. Is that true?

Jim


On 14 Sep, 15:07, "Ray" > wrote:
> Occasionally I order a new culture from SDI, and I always get a packet of
> dried culture measuring around a third of a cup. The instructions tell me to
> mix all of this with flour and water, in a quart jar.
>
> Wouldn't I get the same result if I just used a teaspoon of dry culture?
>
> Then I could save the rest for future use. Mainly I just don't want quart
> jars clutteirng my refrigerator.