Tell me about your sour dough starter …

[Footgoose]

… and include a picture if you don’t mind.

I am new to sour dough starters. Mine is 10 days in . I’m interested to know what others do and to see a picture if possible .

i am hoping to make my first pizza dough balls at the weekend.

i am following the Gozney pizza dough recipe , so keep 25g of starter and discard the rest. I then feed it 100g of water 50g rye flour 50g white bread flour and leave it on the side in a clean glass jar which I change everyday . It’s starting to rise about 1/3 of its volume . It floats in water . It does look a little bubbly but I’m still not sure it’s as it should be .

so I’m curious to hear what everyone else does.

Thanks!

My DH makes his own starter, it's been going for a few years now. I can't really offer much other than to say it sounds like what he does with his, drain off the liquor at the top, put some of it into a clean jar with extra flour (not sure how much, and I don't know if he adds water too).

The only thing I can say is - smell it. Ours smells sour. Not exactly like Haribo Sours, but that same tangy smell.

Once you've got it up and running, you can slow down with the rate you discard.

Currently we:
Day before we want bread - get 2 jars. Put 40g of starter, 40g flour (we just use plain) and 40g of water into each. Put one jar in fridge, and one jar on the side. Use jar on side to make dough that afternoon, fridge prove overnight and cook while everyone is having breakfast., so it's ready for lunch.
Jar that went straight into the fridge will happily sit for 2 weeks, unfed.
We just stir the liquid back in rather than decanting.
If I want e.g. sourdough (discard) waffles I'll make up more ie 100/100/100 - or as much old starter as I have - for the side jar, and still keep the fridge jar as is.

We've also frozen a batch of starter incase we contaminate it. Will save starting from scratch!

I started making sourdough a few months ago. It went really well. Then I started having problems. The starter became less and less active. I got some more. Same thing happened. I currently just can’t get it to bubble and it’s dead again. I’m giving up which I’m really upset about as I really enjoy making sourdough. I can only assume it’s the weather. We have a cold house and it just isn’t warm enough. I out it in the airing cupboard and for a while that’s enough, then it just dies a slow death. Any suggestions? I use 50g. Rye flour and 100g water .

200g starter too.

I keep mine in the fridge long term, sometimes don't touch it for a few months, it has a sour smell. When I want to use it I put a few tbsp in a jug with some flour and water (I do it by eye and use strong plain flour). Put it somewhere warm to come back to life, split it, discard the remainder of what was in the fridge and replace with half of it, feed the other half again and make the dough about 12 hours later when it is bubbly, floating, yeasty smelling.

I also froze a portion several years ago, might get that out and see if it's survived one of these days.

@LadyMuckonpancakes try equal amounts of starter, water and flour. I don't think it's the cold - as I say, ours lives in the fridge most of the time. I do wonder if it's not getting enough flour. I've always seen suggestions of more flour/water than starter. Never less.

To get your starter really active you need to make sure it has enough food, and don't discard until it's risen (mark your jar with a Sharpie or an elastic band to track it).
To start with, use 50g starter, 50g water, 50g flour. Wait until it's risen, then repeat. If you start discarding before it's risen it'll get weaker.
If it's getting sluggish, try a higher feeding ration, say 50g starter, 100g flour, 100g water. (That's a 1, 2, 2 ratio.) You can go up to 1, 5, 5 if necessary. But always wait for it to rise before feeding again. Sometimes it takes a while to get going.
If you have a brand new starter and it's very slow, try adding pineapple juice. Just a little (maybe 25-50g). That's how I got mine going and it's 10 years old now and indestructible. I sometimes leave it 6 months (in the fridge) between uses, and it always comes back.
Loads of sourdough FB groups if you want more advice. Or look for Tom Cucuzza on YouTube or his own site, The Sourdough Journey.
Happy baking!

I’m obviously doing something wrong. I never discard as my teacher says it isn’t necessary and I always use rye flour.

I feed using 10g starter, 50g water and 50g flour (mix is standard plain and bread flour) that keeps it ticking over. So I discard as each day. Sometimes I go down to 5,25,25 but more often will just put it in the fridge when I'm not using it.

From the fridge I stir in the black liquid, warm
It up a bit and then feed as above.

I like this website: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/

Serious Eats had a good lockdown https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-ferment-sourdough

Morning , thanks for replies. I always feel like I’m doing something wrong.
Yesterday the starter rose almost 50 percent so I must be doing something right to be fair . I’ll keep going .
Rather than discard all of it this morning I started another jar and have played about with the ratios based on some of the different suggestions I’ve read on line and on here . I look forward to seeing what happens .

My original starter must be a 1.4.4 ratio. As it’s 25g starter 100 water 50/50 white and rye flour.

This morning , I started a jar with ratio 1.1.1

will see what happens .