Hello everyone,
I was wondering how you use your discard? Do you bake flatbreads? Do you have multiple discard jars stored in the fridge, each with its own feeding cycle? Do you feed tiny amounts of flour and water to keep your total amount as small as possible? What system do you use?
I'll be baking again tomorrow and just fed my sourdough, but my discard is looking healthy so do not want to throw it out:
Thank you!
Best wishes,
Luisa
With none to make there isn't a problem with getting rid of any. Many have used the "extra" and I'm sure you'll get ideas. Enjoy?
I once met another sourdough hobbyist who did not know was discard was. She was Italian (which might be relevant to this style of baking) and used 100% of her starter in every bread, remembering to save a bit of the sponge/sourdough for next time. Hamelman also mentions this a few times in "Bread" - his directions are to mix the sourdough and don't forget to hold some back for next time.
This scheme works fine as long as you use the same or very similar sourdough/sponge for all your breads (or you have separate starters for each different bread).
I like the flexibility of making different sponges/sourdoughs for each bread (some are rye, some are wheat) with the same starter. And the discard makes nice pancakes, muffins, and cornbread et al.
You can find several plans that just don't make discard.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68585/methods-and-rationale-sourdough-starter-maintenance-and-elaboration Doc Dough really knows his stuff. I've used it and it works great.
Elly Everyday demonstrates the plan I am currently using. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MifPNIYe4dU. Like Elly, I use my starter straight from the fridge.
Bake with Jack demonstrates the inverse of Elly's plan. Instead of feeding, then storing, he stores then feeds.
Gary
I bake one loaf roughly once a week. I keep 120 g of starter in the frig. From this, I use 100 g of starter per loaf, straight from the frig. I refresh the remaining ~20 g back to 120 g, leave it on the counter for an hour or two (until I see some activity), then back into the frig.
This method yields a very active, not particularly acidic, starter, which is my preference. And no discard.
(For what it's worth, my frig is fairly cold, around 36° F.)
…as far as maintaining my starter in the fridge. I do part ways with strict recipe-followers by using all the levain ( generally 300 g +/-) I build every time then adjust additional flour and liquid components for the final dough accordingly. This way I never have to deal with discard. I am rarely trying to engineer a perfect bulk fermentation schedule as I almost always retard my doughs overnight or longer to optimize my personal schedule.
Back in the bad old days when I did store discard, I would occasionally make pretty good crackers with it. Nowadays I need to create a levain to use my cracker recipe.
What food for thought does. I use almost everything in the the little storage jar then build a bit extra for whatever I’m making and put that in on top and stir. Leave out awhile then back in fridge. It stays lovely, active and not sour.
The way I refresh my starter, I create a small amount of discard, which I keep in a small Tupperware container in the fridge. i make no effort to maintain it in any way. When it adds up to two or more cups of accumulated discards I let my wife know that pancakes are available! Within a day or two she'll ask for sourdough pancakes for breakfast. I transfer all the discard to a bowl, and expand it with water, an egg, some salad oil, and some salt. I blend it all with a whisk or spatula, then add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 1/4 cup of warm water and mix it up till the soda (mostly) dissolves. Add that to the batter and mix. It foams up immediately, and I stir it till the reaction is mostly spent, and cook the pancakes on a hot griddle. They are the very best. My grandsons would testify to it. This morning, in fact, I made a batch of waffles instead of pancakes. I just added some home-milled soft wheat and home-milled buckwheat flours and an extra egg to expand the batter to make more than we would eat for breakfast. She froze the rest for her future breakfast treats.
I maintain a small starter compared to a lot of bakers, at 100% hydration. I expand 5 gm of mature starter with 15 gm home-milled hard white wheat flour and 15 gm of filtered tap water each time I feed it (a 1:3:3 ratio). That means I end up with 35 ggm of fed starter, and 30 gm of discard. It amounts to a couple of tablespoons. I keep it in the fridge between bakes, and feed for at least 3 days (6 feedings) to get it ready to bake. Sometimes a couple extra feedings are needed, and sometimes it's ready early. On baking day I take what i need to innoculate a levain, feed 5 gm, and put any leftover into the discard container. I only bake sourdough a couple times a month, so pancakes are only available every 5-6 weeks.
I'd seriously disturb our domestic tranquility if I tried to eliminate discards from my starter maintenance. If momma's not happy, nobody's happy!
Just one baker's opinion :)
OldWoodenSpoon
I have a few recipes using discard in here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F9_WtuDY5QgAXz8nKgQi6OLm_3lU6vc-8SCtTIXC9Qo/edit?usp=sharing I make the pancakes most often, occasionally the muffins or cornbread. When my discard container gets close to full I bake the Bread Code discard loaf; the original formula calls for whole wheat flour but my rye discard works well with rye flour especially pumpernickel. The discard loaf bakes conveniently in a pan in the countertop Breville toaster oven. That discard loaf resembles some of the rye breads we had in Scandinavia - slice it very thin and enjoy with smoked fish or strong cheese.
This thread is most informative for someone who has forever resisted getting involved with sourdough starters, but will soon be succumbing.
Wow thank you so much everyone! This thread is amazing!!