Which makes sense since only people now in their 30s know what a tamagotchi is
My sister has so many freaking starters littering the apartment. She has made more sourdough starters than actual loafs of bread 😬
There’s so such thing as starter “discard”! Add water, oil, sugar, salt, baking soda and you’ve got some vegan sourdough pancakes. Or use any of a number of other recipes — but no sense in wasting it.
I’ve been trying no-discard-micro-starters. I keep 8 g in the fridge, and build over a few days to bake. Not sure how viable it is long-term but it seems to be working so far. Would love anyone’s input if they have more information about long-term viability.
I don’t know about micro but I keep a conventional amount of starter in the fridge and have had it for 5+ years. If I’m out of a bread phase I take it out once every few months, let it come to temperature and feed it. When it gets bubbly and happy again I give it more flour and water till it’s thick and stick it back in the fridge. When my next bread phase kicks in I leave it out of the fridge for a day, feed it again and then use it like normal (once I see it can double in size). Very little waste this way and super-low effort.
I’ve also dehydrated strips of extra-thick starter and have successfully reanimated them years later (just did it recently with 4+ year dehydrated starter in fact).
I’ve been making a loaf every week +/- since March of 2020 with the wild start I cultivated. I don’t understand the idea of discarding part of the colony. I have maintained the same colony in a little 12oz jar this entire time.
- Pull out ~half of the colony and use it to make bread.
- Add 4 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp water into the jar, mix.
- Let it sit for a few hours (Or don’t)
- Put the jar in the fridge until you are ready to make a new loaf.
- If you feel like it, or you skipped step 3, pull the jar out of the fridge and let it sit out for a few hours.
- Go to step 1.
That’s it. So simple, no waste.
Do you build from what’s removed from the fridge, and what portion of your bread does that end up being? Sounds pretty no nonsense, but I was under the impression that the feeding needs to happen somewhere warmer. I guess that’s not true?
The chunk I remove from the jar in step 1 is usually almost the size of a golf ball, and I mix it with 500g flour, 2 tsp sea salt, and ~1.5 to 1.75 cups of water (use about half the water while mixing, then slowly add more until it hits a moist but sticky consistency. If it gets slimy that’s too much, but you can still cook with it.
Kneed it however works best for you, cover it and let it sit for a few hours (or in my case overnight), kneed it again, and after another few hours it should be bubbly and happy and ready to bake.
As for the rest of the colony in the jar - room temperature is fine for feeding it. As long as you give it a few hours to eat the fresh flour/water, it’ll be happy. Once it gets bubbly and expands, you can put it in the fridge and it should be fine for a week or three.
Once again, when you are ready for the next loaf, you pull it out of the fridge, let it get to room temp for an hour or 3, take about half of it for the loaf and repeat.
The important thing to remember is to maintain a routine if you can. It’s a living colony, and even if it doesn’t seem super enthusiastic at first, as you keep going then the yeast cells that survive will be the ones to multiply and eventually the whole colony will be made of a culture literally bred for your care style.
I’ve been trying this method for my last several loaves, and it works well so far. My only complaint is that my bread is so much less sour! Any tips on using a frugal method like this while increasing sourness?
I had thought that a starter kept in cooler temperatures would be more sour, but so far that’s not the case. I guess I could discard some and go through more builds before making dough.
Sounds fun at first, intense period of initial fascination, actually really laborious, time-consuming, and not all that fun long-term.
Yeah, sounds about right.
Someone recently gave me a culture, and it feels like a curse. I’ve kept them before and managed to escape… Here I am, a slave to bread once again.
Can’t you freeze and or dry it?
