September 15, 2015 - 5:50am
Discard accumulation in fridge and recombination to use.
Does it make sense to accumulate each day's feeding discards, store them in the fridge and putting them all together after two or three days?
For example, feeding twice a day a 100% starter with 25g flour, after five days one would have 250g of discards of different "fridge age".
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I keep a mature (actually three) levain in the refrigerator. For the levain I use most frequently, I place any additional levain from a build for a bread into that same container and incorporate it by folding it into the existing goop. I intentionally make more than the formula requires so that I can build up my discard. Eventually when there is enough, I'll use the levain from that discard mix. You can get away with doing this basically "forever". I recently had a three week trip and when I came back I used that same refrigerated levain for my next dough. No issues.
Once it is mature, you can opt to keep it in the refrigerator without daily feeds, but it does need to be refreshed occasionally. The less hydration the longer it can live without feedings. dabrownman uses a stiff levain that he rebuilds once every three or four months, same here.
I can only speak of a levain that is healthy and mature, not one that is in the early stages of life.
You can use your discards in a loaf but there's no guarantee that you'll achieve any great success. I've taken discards from rebuilding the vigor of my starter and utilized them in a flat bread. I plan on doing so again this week. Since they were all at 100% hydration from what was an established starter, it wasn't too difficult to play with the numbers and get a reasonable hydration of around 70% for my project. You will find that there is no way to predict the time factor for the bulk fermentation or proofing.
If you're intent on using your discard, just do it as a learning experience and not to fill a need for a meal or the household loaf of bread.
Postal G,
I've been doing the above for months on end now and get absolutely consistent results, both in timings for bulk fermentation as well as oven spring. If you wish you can review my blog entries and see the results that I get. If I wasn't getting that kind of response from my "discard" levain, I would have abandoned it as a lost experiment months ago.
The caveat is that I don't keep a 100% hydration levain, mine is at 75%, so it is semi-stiff.
alan
although I only used the discard a couple of times before switching to a way of maintaining my starter that doesn't produce any.
Just don't do it with discard from an *immature* starter, no one wants to eat that.
Easiest thing in the world to make but not something modern palates are not used to. A crumpet has a thin pancqke batter consistency that is poured onto a hot frying pan (usually in a ring for height but not always) and allowed to cook until the top is bubbly and dry. They aren't turned.The top is white and full of holes and dry looking.
Crumpets uses only discard,a little salt and sugar to taste and about 1/2 tsp/cup of baking soda for lift. Add some water if your discard is thick but DO NOT add any extra flour as it makes them much like pancakes.They are delicious and sour when freshly made with a little butter and jam or can be toasted if they are a day old.
That sounds good. I have been known to add a little salt to my discard and put them on a pan. I suppose some sugar for sweetness would be good too. The baking soda for lift would definitely make them more airy. I never knew crumpets were not turned (like you do for english muffins). Good info.