January 15, 2010 - 11:25am
OK, What to I have and
What can I do with it?
I've been saving some of my starter discard in a couple of Glad bowls. I now have over 1400 grams of rather sour smelling discard that I don't do a whole lot with as far as maintaining. What I have been doing is adding about 40-60g of AP with out adding any water once or twice a day and it just sits there happily bubbling away! I was wondering.... can I just add enough flour to stiffen it up more (already like thick pancake batter) add some salt and bake it?? Would I be wasting my time? Throw it away? I know there are many of you that make pancakes out of the discard but I just don't eat that many pancakes. Gee I just hate the idea of putting it in the trash!
Aloha,
Royall
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http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15584/my-123-bread-using-discarded-starter
Thank you occidental! that will work... I think! One last question from this beginner, If I wanted to make two batards, how much starter would you begin with?
Mahalo!
Edit:
I posted this over on the original blog. It is what I did and hope it turns out!!
123 breadOK, I hope I did this right. Recap:
I used 200g starter (it is on the thick side)
400g of water
600g of flour (AP)
12g salt.
Mixed it in the KA with the paddle until it came together and put it in a flat plastic box I'm using to proof in. It is 15qts. so it is large enough to do the SF.
Is this all good to go so far?? This recipe looks like it could make a good pizza dough too!
Mahalo,
Royall
Hi there,
At the risk to pass for an idiot... I want to say that I never discarded any starter!
I began with the Liquid Kaiser formula and moved slowly to 100% sourdough rye. It look like a thick pancake dough with a brownish color, due to the rye.
When I need to bake I take 1/3 of a cup from it and refresh it with 40gr.rye and 40gr. water. I use the whole quantity to make the bread adjusting the quantity of flour needed for the weight of the starter to make my rye bread. usually I use 450gr white or wholemeal and 50gr. rye. but it seems that I should use 50 to 100gr. more flour because my dough is too slaky after the 20 hours fermentation.
The "mother" sourdough is alive for the last 12 months I refresh it once a week when I take some of it. I always put the same : 25grs of rye and 25 gr of water. I leave the pot outside with the small one until I can see bubble into it then I move it back to the fridge. If I don't bake one week I refresh the "mother" another time in the week with the same quantity of rye flour.
Until now I have only 500gr. of mother starter and it does not bother me in the fridge in its container. This starter never died even when I moved it from one container to another one better.
I would like to know from the experts of this site if they read this post, and there is so many that I cannot name all of them but they will know who I'm talking about, what they think about that. I really don't understand this meaning discard a part of the starter and I'm amazed to read so many of you complaining about having so much discarded starter and you don't know what to do with it. What a waste of flour if people put more flour than necessary to refresh a starter and then throw it to the bin !
So please enlight the idiot...
Bee
As a disclaimer, I'm not answering for the 'experts' and it's acutally rare for me to discard starter. However, depending on how much people bake, how they desire to keep their starter, how 'fresh' they wish to keep it, etc. it is surely possible to have extra that you would either discard or look to do something else with. Myself, being a one person household, there is only so much bread, pancakes, and other sourdough products you can concoct before your stomach or freezer overflows. Especially getting started it's not unreasonable to look for ways to use up the extra you produce.
I'm being very helpfull.... I can't remember the site but I once saw a nifty method to prevent throwing starter away. If I come accross it I'll post.
That's wasteful! Might as well throw away some of the cash in your pocket, after a fe years it amounts to quite a lot. I've never understood the logic of discarding.
There are some great posts around here on frugal sourdough management. It basically comes down to keeping your starter small, and building up to what you need when you need it.
It IS very wasteful to maintain a large starter unless you are fortunate enough to be able to bake and cook enough to use all that up. Not practical for many of us.
I do a weekly bake that requires 120 grams of starter. I keep 180 grams, refrigerated between uses. When it's time for the weekly feeding, 120 grams goes into my bread, the remaining 60 are fed with 60 grams flour, 60 grams water--NO waste. Sometimes I need more, then I will take out my usual 120 grams and build up.
The only time there might be some I can't use is if it's impossible for me to bake for a long while (my starter has been fine unfed for up to 3 weeks in the fridge). If possible I freeze that discard, but sometimes it just has to go. I put it in the compost, fearing clogging our pipes. Truly, with a small starter, this is only pennies worth. And I'm sure that the beasties are good for compost as well.
Newbies who are just starting out need to throw away the starter for those first few days because 1) it probably doesn't have enough yeasties for anything, and 2) the bad beasties may exceed the good beasties in the very early stages before the ph is adequate to keep them in check. See the Pineapple Juice Solution posts. Could be a food safety issue.
Here's an amusing look at why throwing away starter may be necessary: http://yumarama.com/blog/1066/why-discard-starter/ Anyone care for a swim????
And you just might be better off helping your sewage department. Fill up your sink with cold water and dissolve all the left over starter into the water. Soak and clean out the jars at the same time. When dissolved, let it run down the drain. It will give your drains some bacteria to unclog and sweeten the air further down. It's biological! It will speed up the natural flow of things and you won't have to feel guilty about it. Not one little bit.
Try to use your starter more efficiently for less waste.
My discarded starter is never wasted, If it's not used for baking, it does down the drain, as explained by Mini, where it benefits my septic system.
When my compost pile is not frozen (as it is now and will be until May), the discard goes into the compost, which subsequently is added to my garden soil and feeds my veggies, which in turn feed me.
Discarding into the septic system or compost actually saves me money in the long run.