tropit

I've been making sourdough breads most of my adult life and I've never had any starter that had to be discarded. I don't get why you have to throw any starter away, unless it's gone bad, for some odd reason. Now, I'm seeing all kinds of recipes that use "sourdough discard." What is it?

OurWorkbench

Search to the rescue - https://livingbreadbaker.com/sourdou...-1-what-is-it/

toverly

Glad to see that some people are creative enough to use it. I don't have a starter going right now, avoiding carbs. But if I ever get it started again, I may try it. Thanks for asking the question Tropit and thanks for posting the article OurWorkbench.

Murphy224

Back when I had a sourdough starter in a quart jar going in my fridge, You have to take some of the starter out whenever you "feed" it to keep it going if you are not making bread. Usually leaving about half a cup or so of your main starter in your jar, then add fresh flour and water, stir well and return to fridge. This was true if I didn't want to make bread at that time. I followed the King Arthur Flour company directions on sour dough starter which describes how to start and maintain your starter for sour dough breads.. I also used the sourdough cracker recipe that used "discard" and just made those crackers each week or so whenever the base starter needed feeding. Those crackers are simply outstanding and worth maintaining the starter for them alone. I had to give up bread making as my clothes stopped fitting and well......you all understand the issue.lol
The link below is for recipes for using that discard if you aren't making bread..

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/rec...iscard-recipes

tropit

Thanks for the info. I don't feed, or do much of anything with my starter. I use it probably 2, or 3 times a month, but sometimes it may be a couple months before I use it. I keep my starter in a sealed crock, in the back of the fridge. When I do use it, I pour the entire contents of the crock in a large bowl and add white flour to it, to make what looks like thick pancake batter. I stir it and put a towel over the bowl to let the starter grow. I wash my crock in the dishwasher and the next day, I refill my clean crock with the new starter. The rest of the starter goes into my bread that I'm making. Nothing is thrown away, ever. I just don't see the reason behind the discard thing.

Watson

tropit.....I also don't get the discard thing.

I keep my jar of starter in the fridge and may use it once a month. Sometimes, even less. (And, sometimes I can go a lot longer than a month!)
If it gets "hooch"...the grey water on top, I just stir it back in because that is where a lot of the flavour is. It may look ugly, but it isn't bad unless you see mold. (Which has never happened.)
I use the starter and then feed it, let it rest a couple of hours on the counter, then return it to the fridge so I have more for the next time.
There is a great baker on YouTube that agrees with this method and he has a no-knead sourdough which turns out well and takes almost no effort and a chocolate chip cookie that is really good. His name is Ben Starr.

Watson

tropit

I read about what discard is and I have to disagree. Just because it is not bubbling at the time, it does not mean that the starter has died. It's just resting. Unless you've really done something drastic with the starter, it will keep. It will keep frozen, it will keep cold, it will keep dried out into a powder. Maybe if you catch it on fire it won't keep. Yeast is very resilient and is everywhere around us. Yeast will find sugars, even in a tired starter and start to multiply if you give it half a chance.

tropit

Sorry...I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just think the whole thing is silly.

Watson

I agree...I'm not sure where this idea came from that you have to feed it all the time.

Watson