Sourdough Bread Starter

[LudlowStreet]

MN help me!
I've been given a sourdough starter in a jam jar. I just want to make some sourdough bread and have some starter left for the next loaf.
I've looked online for a recipe but after wadding through so many websites with nonsense lifestyle shit and no sign of the promised sourdough bread recipe with a simple flowchart I've given up.
Please MN, what's the recipe?

https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=bake+with+jack+sourdough

For the starter, you chuck half of your starter away on the day you want to make bread and refresh it. I put in 60g of plain flour and 60g of water. Mix it up with the half of the starter you haven't thrown away. Wait a few hours then make your bread. If you mark the jar you can see how it's grown.

Then, use half of other it in your bread and refresh again. 60g and 60g again.

Not a flow chart, but if you press the 'jump to recipe' button, you'll get taken straight to the steps and ingredients.
Sourdough

Thank you!
But OMG it's so complicated!
I thought you just add a bit of flour, kneed, then bake!

If it hasn't been refreshed for a while you'll need to refresh it about 3 times before it will be ready to use.

I bake a lot so refresh mine every morning and evening but if I'm going away, I'll stick it in the fridge. Then when back I take it out and refresh it evening, morning, evening, and the next morning - and on that day I'm ready to make the loaf (but then it needs to ferment overnight in fridge so I bake it the following morning).

It is complicated compared to making ordinary bread. It tastes so much better though. And it's so much cheaper than regular bread.

Put the starter into a bowl and add 500g bread flour, 350g water, 7g salt and give it a rough mix. Cover and an hour later, with wet hands, slide your hand under the dough to the bottom, grab the dough, stretch it out and fold it onto the top. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and redo. Do that about 8 times and recover. Do this every hour for a few hours and at some point it will have doubled in size. If it doesn't, cover and put into the fridge for the night and redo it in the morning.

Once it has doubled in size, take out a portion to replace the original starter, turn the rest out onto a floured board and fold the top down, the bottom up, and the sides in to make a parcel and then turn over, and place into an oiled pan for baking. It will be a pretty high hydration mix so if you don't like that, use less water in your original mix.

Let it rise back up for another hour and bake, remembering to score the top.

I bake every 3 days so the next day I'll add a teaspoon more flour and some water to the starter, mix and let it rise, then do that again the next day and on the next day, the whole lot will be used to make the next loaf.

Have a read of this, he's very precise but I like his approach:

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/sourdough-starter/

It's been just on the kitchen counter in jar all night. Was given to me fresh yesterday. See picture for amount, milk bottle is for scale. What's my first step?

It's a 340g jar, there's probably 200g in there (assuming it weights the same as jam?)

To refresh the starter:

Weigh 50g flour (I use a mix of plain and wholemeal bread flour), 50g water and 10g starter. Discard the rest of the starter. Repeat this again tonight. You will see it grow nice and fluffy and bubbly.

Do the same tomorrow. You'll then have a nice strong starter. Repeat this everyday but you can drop to once a day.

When you want to make bread you need to refresh the starter to keep some going and then make a levain with the rest - that is your starter for the bread you're making.

I know some just top up and discard as they go but I'm also scared I'll kill it!

Do you have a bread maker? This is a bread maker method -
feed the starter the night before use. Put 60g starter in a pot and add 60g flour and 60g water. Discard any leftover starter. Next morning add 100g of starter to a bowl with 40g olive oil, 20g sugar, 10g salt and 350g water. Add to pan with 600g flour. Put the dough setting on. Remove paddles abd leave to prove for 6 hours. Then bake. Put leftover starter in the fridge until next use.

When you day discard, do you mean put it in the bin?

I don't discard at all. But most people will either discard to someone else, or put it aside for making nans or scones or pancakes, or you are freeze it for if your starter ever dies. Or you could freeze all the discards and when you have enough make a loaf out of all of them. Or a load of rolls.

Never throw it away.

Has it got bubbles in it?

I throw it away. Then I make my sourdough with half of the refreshed starter a the same day.

I don't see any?
It's an old (?) one apparently. I got it from a bread making school/bakery. They give away daily.

Throw in the bin, give away or use to make a recipe designed to use the discard. I bin it personally, I don't bake often enough to use it and I don't know people who would want it. If you keep to 60/60/60 you should barely have any leftover to discard anyway.

These are bubbles. When it's risen and bubbly it's ready to use. If it sinks before you use it you'll have to feed and wait again.

evet baker has their own method.

I store mine in the fridge as I don't bake regularly enough. lid needs to be dlightly open to allow air in. and I stir in a spoonful of flour when I remember once a week or so.

my starter is a rye one.
before I bake I mix my starter with a cup of rye flour & a cup of water. then take out a portion to keep and mix the rest with 500g flour (200g rye/300g wheat or spelt), half a teaspoon salt. knead etc prove knead shape. depending on time I add a little yeast for a faster prove or prove over some hours with the sourdough alone.

Ok, sounds like I have bubbles and an ready to go!
Should I only use half and save the rest (in the fridge... freezer?) for next time?
Tip it into a bowl and add how much flour? I have strong white bread flour.
Thank you all so much! I had no idea it was so hard, it's like I've adopted a pet.

Save it in the fridge. You need to follow a recipe so you get the proportions right.

Agreed try Bake with Jack - sourdough 101. I've been successfully using this recipe since lockdown. He goes quite quickly through it in the video but I've printed out the written instructions.
https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/blog-1/2018/7/5/sourdough-loaf-for-beginners
https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/videos/2019/6/6/bread-tip-101-beginners-sourdough-loaf-start-to-finish
I use 1/2 white and 1/2 wholemeal strong flour in this recipe.

Eventually I went out and bought - a large stainless steel mixing bowl, as I make double quantity, a dough scraper, a couple of proving baskets and a granite slab to use as my baking stone (just peel the stick on feet from the bottom).
https://www.dunelm.com/product/black-granite-work-top-surface-protector-1000009315?defaultSkuId=30073831

The starter is like a pet, especially if it dies and you have to try and grow a new one, it took me three goes last time and now I'm being more careful.

I'm just going to go for it and hope for the best! I'll save half in the fridge. Put the rest in a big bowl, mix in flour, cover with a teatowel leave it for a bit and see what happens.

Picture