Sourdough - making a 'starter' today. Join me? Who knows what comes next!?

[NorthernGirlie]

Sourdough with a homemade starter that you feed has been all over my socials so now it's all I can think about.

I'm buying strong white flour when I go shopping today. I've already got a jar... what could go wrong?

I'm clueless but keen. Anyone care to join me?

Also clueless but interested!

It’s just flour and water. Mix well. Add 50gm flour and 50 ml warm water every day for a week. Then your starter is ready to use. Store in fridge. Get it out the night before you want to use it and top it up. Sourdoughstarter makes good crumpets too with a bit of salt and bicarbonate. I don’t do the all the faff that the recipes tell you - I use a recipe for my bread machine .

@Rocknrollstar I've been reading about 'discard' and chucking half of it each day. Do you not do that?

Good luck! I always give up on it and then feel guilty - especially if I name the starter.

I haven’t got a stater on the go at the moment due to travel, but when I had one, that lasted a number of years, I used the discard to make pancakes (hate waste!)

It's well worth doing. My starter is now 12 years old. It's pretty much the only bread we eat. I hate waste, so we tend to keep the discard, and I use it to make Naan bread, flat breads, pancakes, English muffins, crumpets, and crackers, etc.
I keep my mature starter in the fridge as I only bake once a week now. This means I can feed it just once a week as the cold slows its activity down. I get it out on the morning of the evening that I want to bake and feed it. If I've not used it for a few weeks (eg, when away), I'll get it out 2 days before I want to bake so that I can feed it twice before use.

Similar, I started mine in lockdown, use any discard to make crumpets or pancakes, keep it in the fridge and sometimes go a few weeks without using it, even after a few months out of use it soon revives.

Best flour to use? Any recommendations?

I had one before we moved 3 years ago. I’m going to try again now.

I use organic plain flour.

Can someone explain the concept of discard to me? I was taught to make sourdough without discard but find the starter becomes less and less active until it’s not working at all. It’s very frustrating. I use rye flour starters.

@AliasGraced not sure how other do it, but I keep mine in a jam jar, when I want to use it I take it out of the fridge, split it in half, feed both halves, one goes back in the fridge and one gets used. No discard. But that only works if it's been used in the last week or so. If it's longer I will do repeat daily feeds for 2 to 3 days until it is really lively (you get a feel for it). Then you end up with too much and have some discard. I use strong plain white flour. I think you have to be flexible, it's a living organism, you have to observe what's happening and do what it seems to need at the time rather than sticking rigidly to a system, a bit like looking after plants.

Ah! That makes sense.

My starter is about 6 weeks old now - my advice would be don't give up too early. There will be a few terrible loaves along the way, but don't quit on a bad day. I have had great success and the bread tastes so good. Its such a fun hobby.

You only need to discard when growing your starter. Once it becomes mature enough to bake with you can use any discard for flatbreads, pancakes etc as already stated on here. To not have any discard watch this guy
https://youtube.com/shorts/wubvuZig840?si=2ZgZIB3_RaDikuug

I use half white bread flour, half wholemeal bread flour to feed mine. It doesn't really show in white loaves and it helps the starter as it's got more to feed on. Mine is about a year old now. I used this guide to start mine. Bin the discard for at least 10 days while the starter works out the bad bacteria and the good can take over.