Sourdough Starter
I'm a first time Sourdough Starter maker. I'm on Day 2 - its looking bubbly! I fed it once already and according to my recipe, I will be feeding it everyday for 5 days. My question is: Some recipes say to remove some of the "starter" each day and throw away, and then feed. My recipe doesn't suggest this. What is the difference and is it important to chuck some everyday before the daily feed? Thanks!
Comments
Hi Lori! I think you do, in fact, need to throw away some of your starter every day. I know, it feels wasteful! But, the yeast “eat” all of the fresh flour when you feed it, and they need new food to eat to keep them bubbling, happy, and alive. I think you throw some away because you need a certain proportion of starter, water, and fresh flour (2oz of water and starter, 2.5oz if flour is my go to!) if you don’t throw away some starter, your new pet will just grow and grow until it is huge!!! I would continue to feed it everyday for a few weeks until it seems stable. At that point, it can live in the fridge and you can just feed it once a week. I have also found some recipes that use the starter discard, if you’re worried about the waste of throwing away the exhausted starter. A favorite of my is a crumpet recipe! Good luck with your project!!
Hi Lori - congrats on getting started with sourdough! It's exciting to see so many people diving into baking right now. The main reason that most sourdough care and keeping instructions recommend throwing away some of the developing starter is that otherwise you're going to have a huge amount of starter - far more than you can use as a home baker - and you'll have to use increasingly large amounts of flour to feed it. However, if your care and keeping instructions come from a source you know you can count on, then you should feel free to proceed per their instructions. We're big fans of King Arthur Flour's approach to sourdough; you can learn how they recommend developing a starter here:
Sourdough Starter
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipeHappy baking! - April D.