Calling sourdough starter experts!

[stclair]

As I can’t find yeast for love nor money, I’m on day 3 of a sourdough starter (from bbcgoodfood recipe). What I am confused about is the pouring off of half the starter when ready to bake. Is this to be used to add more flour and water to keep the starter going? Otherwise It seems wasteful! If it isn’t, why pour it away?

This was the two thirds left over from yesterday that proved overnight
Also heard it cracking and pinging away yon itself when it was cooling, I have not noticed that before!

i just re potted my starters today....they seem to like being in smaller containers...one is plastic but the lid is just resting and the other is glass, with a clip lid, but not clipped

I am going to get a fancypants kilner jar or two next time i go out to home bargains

I have two starters cos I feel mean throwing it away and the recipe i use is 500g flour and 300g starter so I'd hardly have any left if I just had one on the go.

My starter escaped and took over the fridge today.
I think the problem was I fed it, left it out, and then put only some of the fed starter in some loaves.

My goodness @doctorspouse. did it triple in size????? 😂 How much are you keeping in the fridge?

I really like the King arthur info, pictures, informative, not too waffly. www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/04/08/maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-food-water-and-time

Hi everyone, my dd11 and I started a sourdough yesterday. Fed it for the 1st time today! I'd forgotten there's a flour shortage, but we intend to look after it and eventually make some bread. Using the river cottage method, just bread flour and water. Glad I found this thread!

We re on day 3 of making our starter. Its very dry and sticky....is that right? I feel it needs more water.

We started with 50g flour and 50ml water on days one and 2 and today we discarded 100g and added 100g flour and 100 ml water.

Well we have bubbles so fingers crossed we are going in the right direction!

@thinkfast bubbles are a great sign. Mine went crazy on day 3 then quietened down. I've read this can happen like an initial burst of activity. I think mine stank on day 3 too 😂 but the flavour/scent mellowed maybe day 5. Don't worry too much about the texture as long as you're measuring correctly which it sounds like you are. I use scales and go by weight rather than cups. There are loads of images online where you can see how others look (or video)

It's gone crazy! It's filled the entire (quite large) jar. Should I discard some on case it grows all night?

Wowser 😂 sorry no one replied in time
What did you do. Does the method say to discard. How much do you have at the moment. You either need a bigger jar or a smaller starter I guess

I left it overnight as it seemed to calm down later on. It's now in a bigger jar. I'm excited to see what happens to it today.

Interested to know 😁

What flour did you use

I used strong white bread flour. There are bubbles today, but it hasn't grown like it did yesterday, so I hope it's ok. It has a kind of cheesy smell.....

Have you fed it yet?

@JenaWren Did you use bread flour for this recipe?

First attempt today

Kneading it took an hour! I was in such a bad temper by the end and the the dough was so sticky cleaning the counter drove me crazy. Should I invest in a kitchen aid?

Doesn't look too bad @thinkfast.

My recipe has no kneading. There are sequences of some stretch and folds in the bowl but nothing like you've mentioned. If the loaf is a higher hydration (a high percentage of water), it Makes the dough much harder to work with. The higher the percentage/ratio of water to flour, the harder it is to manipulate.

What were you working towards while kneading - like a certain characteristic? Just trying to understand how you kneaded so long.

What recipe did you use?

Shall we try find you a no knead recipe?

How does it look in the middle?

Did your starter pass the float test to begin with???

Definitely don't buy a machine just yet,no no no.

A no knead recipe sounds good! To answer some questions the starter floated.

When kneading, I was working toward a glass pane effect when stretching the dough. Never quite got there but couldn't knead any longer!

Ps second loaf turned out looking better and is still cooling. Loaf one tastes delicious but is mainly one large air hole!

oooufff an hour!! Buy that kitchen aid!

I weigh the flour and starter directly into the mixer bowl, add salt and honey about two thirds of the water and start the machine going...add the rest of the water if it needs.....it usually does and then let the dough hook have at it for five minutes ...while I gaze in wonder at my lovely kitchen aid.

Awk thats great maybe it was just beginners loaf??? Sure have a look for a no knead recipe or I think there's a few linked to in the thread here. YouTube and Instagram are also great if you knead (sorry) the visual

See above for my recipe - it is a low knead/stretch and fold one.

High hydration recipes are more difficult to handle and instead of kneading, a slap and fold technique works well. I have a spelt recipe which is high hydration and the slapping and folding (literally whip the dough onto the counter like a belt, then fold) for a while turns a wet mess into a smooth, elastic dough. A great loaf to make if you need to get rid of any pent up anger.

If you use a non wheat flour, low gluten, like spelt, rye or kamut\khorasan it never needs much kneading at all! In fact it doesn't do it any good to knead it. You just mix it , leave it for 2 hours then bake!! As I said upthread I haven't made a loaf using the 'sponge' method but usually my loaves turn out ok. I use half rice flour half spelt flour and it's delicious.

Stupid question alert 🚨
Can you over feed it? Mine was great day 3, I fed it then nothing, I fed it again. We're now day 5 and nothing! Few bubbles but no growth.