April 24, 2020 - 6:59am
Do you feed the discard?
Sorry if this is a terribly stupid question...I've tried searching online for an answer, but maybe I'm phrasing it wrong.
I have my starting working quite nicely, stored in the fridge. I also have a small jar with discard - waiting for enough to make something with it.
When I take the starter out of the fridge in preparation for baking, I've done the usual discard of some / feed the remaining starter to get it ready for baking.
My question is -- Can I put that discard straight back in the fridge? If that's just to make some crumpets, etc. later on?
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I know there will be naysayers but I've been doing this for 14 years, to make two loaves every 10 days or so. The so-called "discard" is what I use to make my bread. If there is liquor formed, I use that too. Liquor and 290 grams discard are poured into a big bowl. Then I feed the starter typically with 150-160 grams of water, 150-160 grams of flour. The newly fed starter I'll leave that on the counter for a while before replacing it back into the refrigerator where it lives until I want to bake bread again. Returning to the bowl of liquor and "discard" I add approximately 880 grams flour, 560-600 grams of water (and a bit of salt) to mix into bread dough. I cover that dough and let it ferment overnight in the refrigerator until I'm ready to form it into loaves, let it rise for 6-8 hours and bake.
In this way you always have a reasonable amount of starter.
I make pancakes of it and no I don’t feed it.
The evening before I make the pancakes I mix the discard, flour and milk e]and leave it on the counter.
next morning I add egg, warm butter, salt and baking powder.
This results in very tasty pancakes.
Just made pancakes today, with blueberries. Delicious!!
Seems like this is a fiery semantic debate waiting to happen. But without going there: If discard means starter not used for baking bread, I think most recipes (for crumpets, English muffins, pancakes, crackers and the like) call for unfed starter, i.e. pulled straight from the fridge.
Incidentally, Zero-Waste Chef has a great recipe for sourdough crackers! Thanks to this idea I haven't thrown away starter for weeks.
I have another question regarding the 'discard' - I tend to bake infrequently so typically keep my sourdough starter in the frig - so, when I pull the starter out to 'revive' it with 2-3 feedings, I pull off the discard - if I'm not planning to use the discard right away, does it work to just accumulate the discard from multiple feedings in a separate container in the frig for multiple weeks before using it (without feeding) for pancakes, crackers, crumpets, etc.?
Thanks for the pointer to Zero-Waste Chef's sourdough crackers.
I have to admit, I use my excess starter pretty rapidly for crackers by default, or English muffins or pancakes otherwise... so it doesn't last longer than a week in my hands. But the starter in not-bread recipes is more for flavor than leavening, and the microorganisms of a starter are very hardy when stored long-term in the fridge anyway. So yes, I imagine it's fine to accumulate "old" starter and use it at will later. I think at worst you might encounter rather tart flavors and/or have to pour off some hooch before using it.
Try those crackers; we can't get enough of them :D
Thanks for the feedback, SirSaccCer - I had concluded it was likely ok, but thought I'd confirm what others thought - I often just stir the hooch right back into my starter (sourness enhancer-?) - if I did this with the 'discard', and depending on how long it has been dormant in the frig, it might become a little too runny, but I can always adjust when I go to use it for crackers, etc.
I almost never discard starter anymore. And I don't bake things just to use up starter that would otherwise be discarded.
I keep a very small amount of starter, maybe 50-75g on average, in the fridge. Each time I want to bake, I pull off 10-15g and build that bit into 140g (or whatever the recipe calls for) for the dough batch. I just put the remaining starter back in the fridge with no re-feeding of the main starter. This typically goes for a few bakes until my main starter jar dwindles down to the point where I need to build it back up again. At that point, I feed what's left in my main starter jar with an amount of flour and water to top it back up to 75g or so, and maybe let it sit out for a bit before tossing it back in the fridge.
Yes, sometimes I just don't want to (or cannot) bake bread. It works fine after not being touched for many weeks - 6 or 8 weeks isn't unusual for me and the starter always seems to work fine.
This whole approach to me is very much like when I used to brew beer. Yeast that sat months (at room temperature!) in the form of sediment at the bottom of the bottles from previous batches were taken and "cultured up" to sufficient volume to pitch into the new batch of beer. Yeast seem hardy, to say the least. Weeks or months in the fridge are not a problem in my experience.
KAF also has a great recipe for sourdough discard crackers. I skip the "oil for brushing", and just use a roller to press in seeds and salt.
https://cms.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-crackers-recipe
Regarding discard: I'll accumulate and keep discard in the fridge for weeks before using it for waffles, biscuits, bagels, crackers, etc. (as a flavor enhancer, not a leavener). Just stir in the hooch, and bake away.
thanks all - that's really helpful!
I made some delicious waffles with the discard yesterday (KAF recipe).
Still haven't managed a successful loaf though :-( Thought I had cracked it this weekend, but I just went to take it out from it's second proof and it was stuck to the cloth lined bowl. Off to go read more about sourdough...detriment to figure it out!
I collect the discard in a jar and when I have enough to make something I do. There is no need to feed it. I often make sourdough crackers, I’ve posted several recipes for crackers made with the discard in my blog, here’s one of them. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61076/sesame-and-flax-sourdough-crackers
I haven’t made these yet, but plan to, sourdough biscuits. https://www.thekitchn.com/sourdough-biscuit-recipe-23020482
Benny
Hello! I am pretty new to the sourdough baking community, but thought I would post my question on this thread to see if I can get an answer and peace of mind. I recently started collecting sourdough discard in a separate jar (I only did this after I noticed my starter was rising and falling and smelled healthy). I would feed my starter and place the discard in the fridge right after. I probably gave it 4 feedings worth of discard (Saturday night), then just left it in the fridge. I noticed that the discard itself was pretty active so I would stir it down about once a day. Fast forward to today, Tuesday, and I finally had some time to make cookies with it. However, when I took mine out of the fridge, it had a very strong smell. Its a mixture of yeasty smell, maybe nail polish, and def way too much fermentation. I figured this was probably ok, but I only made half a batch of cookies just in case. My question is, can I bake these cookies and eat them with peace of mind? Will I get sick from eating them?
Also, for future reference, I would like to know if this strong smell is common in discard that has not been "fed" for a while. I was so grossed out that I ended up tossing the rest of the discard in my compost bin, but I would like to reduce waste as much as I can. Thank you in advance!