Jon:
I think that most recipes are that way. Someone gives you a recipe
and you change one ingredient or a direction because you don't like
it; you pass it on to a friend that does the same thing and when it
has gone 'round the circle, it is completely different.
Can you imagine the old Sourdough Jack's carrying liquid starter in
their food pack? It was probably a lump, almost as hard as their
rolls probably turned out. But tasty no doubt.
My experience with sourdough is to USE it, feed it at least twice a
week, always feed it when you put it back into the fridge, but if you
feed it at night and leave it on the counter, you might not know that
it did in fact rise and bubble overnight and then collapse.
Mine is pretty firm, it is easier to handle that way for me, personal
preference.=20
I keep a whole wheat starter (course ground white winter wheat flour)
and an unbleached, hi protein starter and treat them both the same
way. The whole wheat flour will get some dark areas on top if I
forget to feed it during the week, the white does not; if it were
more liquid, the black stuff would be the "hooch" you are getting.
If I remember to feed them during the week, they will both be
livelier than if not.
I bake usually once a week, and take my starter out of the fridge
early in the morning, feed it about three times during the day (or
twice if I get involved elsewhere) AND (take about 1-2 T starter
before you add anything else, feed it and put into a clean container
in the fridge for next time you make bread; mix and make up my dough
that night, rise the breads in the fridge in the summer; in my cold
pantry the rest of the year, overnight, and the next morning bake it off.
I use only flour and bottled water in the starter, made according to
Laurel's Bread Book recipe about 10 years ago ( the recipe for desem)
and it has never failed, yet. I have dried a bit and put into cold
storage, also have a bit of starter in the freezer but have not had
to use them.
Easy, effortless, becomes second nature and the bread is so very
good. Hope that this helps.
Anita