The sourdough thread

[jeromedawg]

I'd be very surprised if you've killed it.  Mine isn't that bubbly and probably not the best starter ever (and my house runs fairly cold this time of year) BUT it passes a float test, and it makes tasty bread, so I'm happy enough with it (even though I would quite like to have one of those really impressive bubbly over ones from YouTube one day!! :D)

It's definitely lost any of the 'vigor' it might have had. I guess I'll just leave it alone and let it sit without feeding for a day or so and continue to observe. The other thing I've been doing is setting it on top of the water heater (with a towel between) every now and then for a few hours. I can't keep it up there too long because the temp gets kinda high (some points it measured over 90F so I took it down immediately). But it's a good way to keep it warm throughout the day if it doesn't seem like it's warm enough.

[turketron]

It's definitely lost any of the 'vigor' it might have had. I guess I'll just leave it alone and let it sit without feeding for a day or so and continue to observe. The other thing I've been doing is setting it on top of the water heater (with a towel between) every now and then for a few hours. I can't keep it up there too long because the temp gets kinda high (some points it measured over 90F so I took it down immediately). But it's a good way to keep it warm throughout the day if it doesn't seem like it's warm enough.

If your house runs cold (which isn't really a problem, it just takes longer), I've found that putting the dough next to a mug of boiling water in the microwave makes a hot (75-80F) environment with a decent moisture level without running the risk of being too hot. I've also read that you can use the yogurt function on an Instant Pot to proof dough at basically the perfect temp.

[birdie55]

You can also keep your sourdough starter i note oven with just the light on.  It produces just a little warmth.  You just need to be sure you don't preheat the oven and kill your starter. 

[jeromedawg]

You can also keep your sourdough starter i note oven with just the light on.  It produces just a little warmth.  You just need to be sure you don't preheat the oven and kill your starter.

I just tried this and my starter is bubbling (not a ton but definitely showing signs of activity). The starter definitely doesn't smell as sour as it did a day or two ago (when it smelled like Greek Yogurt). Now it smells more "bready" and "floury" with a hint of sour - I was under the impression that it would smell more sour though. I wonder if this has to do with the type of flour I initially used and have been using to feed it (strictly KAF bread flour). I hope to pick some wheat flour up soon to try making another starter to compare.

[worms]

Changes in smell will just be down to the overall acidity, which reduces for a time at each feed.  Time to increase acidity again will depend on the volume of old starter, activity of old starter, volume of feed and temperature.  I let my starter just tick over for long periods, sitting on the counter, with a week or two between feeds and this keeps it quite acidic and great for pancakes. I then ramp it up with daily feeds for a few days when I want to use it for bread.

When I first started to make bread, being too frugal to keep buying dried yeast, I was simply keeping about 20% of my risen yeasted dough back to use in the next loaf. After a few weeks it had morphed from a yeast dough to sourdough.  The lactobacilli outcompete any bought-in yeast cultures, especially when the pH drops and it becomes more acidic. 

I reckon that unless you are purist, by far the easiest way into sourdough bread-making is to make a yeasted loaf, keep some of the dough back, then just feed it as you would a sourdough culture.  After a very short time, it will be indistinguishable from any other local sourdough culture.

[Dogastrophe]

I reckon that unless you are purist, by far the easiest way into sourdough bread-making is to make a yeasted loaf, keep some of the dough back, then just feed it as you would a sourdough culture.  After a very short time, it will be indistinguishable from any other local sourdough culture.

To follow on this, if you want to create starters for whole wheat, rye, etc the easiest way is to take some of your existing starter and start feeding it with your flour of choice.  No need to start each from scratch.

[LightTripper]

We've struggled to get bread flour here, so my latest attempt (just under way) is going to be 200g strong white, 100g strong brown and 200g plain white (basically just proportional to what I've got left).  Will be interested to see how it works out.  I keep reading plain flour is fine for bread, but not sure if it matters more for sourdough?

[turketron]

.  I let my starter just tick over for long periods, sitting on the counter, with a week or two between feeds and this keeps it quite acidic and great for pancakes. I then ramp it up with daily feeds for a few days when I want to use it for bread.

oooo, this is good to know. I want to get mine a bit more sour and tangy but wasn't sure if going that long between feedings would be bad for the starter. Gonna give this a try!

[Dogastrophe]

We've struggled to get bread flour here, so my latest attempt (just under way) is going to be 200g strong white, 100g strong brown and 200g plain white (basically just proportional to what I've got left).  Will be interested to see how it works out.  I keep reading plain flour is fine for bread, but not sure if it matters more for sourdough?

Unfortunately there is no global standard for flour.  In Canada, All Purpose has approx 13% protein ... same as Bread Flour from same brand.  In US, AP may be anywhere from 8-12%.  UK Strong flour, I believe, is equivalent to bread flour (US) and AP (Canada).  The bread flour I can buy in grocery store has same protein as AP; however there is a high protein bread flour available to commercial bakers.

About mid-way down this page is a comparison of different types: https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour

[GuitarStv]

We've struggled to get bread flour here, so my latest attempt (just under way) is going to be 200g strong white, 100g strong brown and 200g plain white (basically just proportional to what I've got left).  Will be interested to see how it works out.  I keep reading plain flour is fine for bread, but not sure if it matters more for sourdough?

Unfortunately there is no global standard for flour.  In Canada, All Purpose has approx 13% protein ... same as Bread Flour from same brand.  In US, AP may be anywhere from 8-12%.  UK Strong flour, I believe, is equivalent to bread flour (US) and AP (Canada).  The bread flour I can buy in grocery store has same protein as AP; however there is a high protein bread flour available to commercial bakers.

About mid-way down this page is a comparison of different types: https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour

Huh.  I had no idea that was the case . . . I've always used regular flour for bread . . . but apparently our all purpose flour is bread flour.

[Dogastrophe]

We've struggled to get bread flour here, so my latest attempt (just under way) is going to be 200g strong white, 100g strong brown and 200g plain white (basically just proportional to what I've got left).  Will be interested to see how it works out.  I keep reading plain flour is fine for bread, but not sure if it matters more for sourdough?

Unfortunately there is no global standard for flour.  In Canada, All Purpose has approx 13% protein ... same as Bread Flour from same brand.  In US, AP may be anywhere from 8-12%.  UK Strong flour, I believe, is equivalent to bread flour (US) and AP (Canada).  The bread flour I can buy in grocery store has same protein as AP; however there is a high protein bread flour available to commercial bakers.

About mid-way down this page is a comparison of different types: https://www.cooksinfo.com/flour

Huh.  I had no idea that was the case . . . I've always used regular flour for bread . . . but apparently our all purpose flour is bread flour.

Yup, and our grocery store "bread flour" is pretty much all purpose but with a higher price tag.  Only difference between Robinhood AP and Bread (both white) is:

30g // 1/4 cup
Calories 110 for AP; 100 Bread
Fat: 0.4g vs 0.3g
Carbs: 22g vs 21g

That's it.  Everything else is identical.

[LightTripper]

OK, so this actually prompted me to Google the answer (I hadn't realised protein was what made it strong!)

So my bread flour is 13% protein (12.9 for the white, 12.7 for the brown).
My plain flour is 10% (9.9% to be precise).

So quite a bit lower, but the weighted average for my mix is going to be 12.2% (as I used 125g strong white and brown for the levain, including the contribution from the starter) - so seems like I should be fine, and can even up the plain a bit if I need to!

[jeromedawg]

So I let it sit for most of the day yesterday in the oven at around 80-85F and noticed a lot more bubbles and what seemed to be a fair amount of rise. I didn't let it sit in there overnight though as I had baked brownies last night and the residual heat was way too high. I just fed it another half cup and .25 cup of water but noticed (and noticed this yesterday too) that the sour smell has greatly diminished. I'm not sure I'd even describe it as "sour" at this point. It smells more doughy and like flour which I think I mentioned before but I also feel like I'm smelling a bit of an alcohol smell...? Is that normal? I read/heard that "hooch" is something that can form but usually it develops on the top layer and pours off... I'm assuming that would give off an obvious alcohol smell but in this case I have no hooch. The mixture is probably at less than a 1:2 ratio of water to flour though.

At this point I'm just wondering if I should continue keeping it out or in the oven and feeding it. Not sure when it'll be 'ready' to start using and storing in the fridge.

[turketron]

How often are you feeding it now?  If it's been fed recently, it'll smell more doughy/flour-y, the sour smell grows stronger as it eats through the new flour you gave it. In my experience the visible hooch only forms after a day or two of letting it sit since the last feeding.

[GuitarStv]

Smell is an unreliable indicator.  You want it to be bubbling/rising.  As long as it's rising well it will spit out decent bread . . . at least in my experience.

[jeromedawg]

How often are you feeding it now?  If it's been fed recently, it'll smell more doughy/flour-y, the sour smell grows stronger as it eats through the new flour you gave it. In my experience the visible hooch only forms after a day or two of letting it sit since the last feeding.

Ah makes sense. I read that if you don't feed enough, the alcohol starts building up - I hadn't fed it for at least a full day because I thought I was overfeeding it initially. I guess I'll check in another hour or two to see if it smells 'sour' again. I'm assuming that if it starts smelling of alcohol it's probably not a good idea to use it and to feed it to make sure it smells "right" before using it for baking?

[jeromedawg]

Smell is an unreliable indicator.  You want it to be bubbling/rising.  As long as it's rising well it will spit out decent bread . . . at least in my experience.

Oh interesting... so you've used starter that smells alcoholic (or that you perhaps just removed the hooch from) and it turns out fine?

Curious too but does using wheat flour and whole grain wheat flour (compared to bread flour) almost always result in a more vigorous starter? That seems to be the case based on what I've heard, read and observed overall.

[GuitarStv]

Smell is an unreliable indicator.  You want it to be bubbling/rising.  As long as it's rising well it will spit out decent bread . . . at least in my experience.

Oh interesting... so you've used starter that smells alcoholic (or that you perhaps just removed the hooch from) and it turns out fine?

Curious too but does using wheat flour and whole grain wheat flour (compared to bread flour) almost always result in a more vigorous starter? That seems to be the case based on what I've heard, read and observed overall.

I've always used whole wheat flour to start it going.  Then I switch to white flour mostly because it tastes better.  :P  No idea if it's got an impact on smell . . . generally I just try to get bread that rises reliably and don't care too much about little details like that.  There's often liquid on the top of the starter, but I've never had ill effects after stirring it back in.

[jeromedawg]

Smell is an unreliable indicator.  You want it to be bubbling/rising.  As long as it's rising well it will spit out decent bread . . . at least in my experience.

Oh interesting... so you've used starter that smells alcoholic (or that you perhaps just removed the hooch from) and it turns out fine?

Curious too but does using wheat flour and whole grain wheat flour (compared to bread flour) almost always result in a more vigorous starter? That seems to be the case based on what I've heard, read and observed overall.

I've always used whole wheat flour to start it going.  Then I switch to white flour mostly because it tastes better.  :P  No idea if it's got an impact on smell . . . generally I just try to get bread that rises reliably and don't care too much about little details like that.  There's often liquid on the top of the starter, but I've never had ill effects after stirring it back in.

Interesting! So you stir the hooch back in? I guess it doesn't matter as you continue feeding it, since at that point it just sounds like it's more about 'balancing' things out as far as the starter being fed the right amount of flour.

BTW: Just put a pickup order in for KAF White Wheat Flour - looks like they replenished stock at a couple stores but it's running out pretty quickly too. Figured I'd just get it while I have the chance.

[Dogastrophe]

I typically pour off the hooch if I have more than 1/4" on the surface.  Anything less than that and I stir it back in.  I feed Frank (I was going to rename it Foamy Wan Kenobi but DW said I cannot just rename my child ... ) just before putting back in fridge for the week.  I find that it cuts down on the hooch production

[jeromedawg]

I typically pour off the hooch if I have more than 1/4" on the surface.  Anything less than that and I stir it back in.  I feed Frank (I was going to rename it Foamy Wan Kenobi but DW said I cannot just rename my child ... ) just before putting back in fridge for the week.  I find that it cuts down on the hooch production

Is there a general rule of thumb on when you should put your starter in the fridge the first time? Or is it pretty much an "at your discretion" kind of thing based on usage and assuming you keep feeding your starter, etc?

BTW: is it strange to add wheat flour into the feedings *after* the initial feeding(s)? And does it drastically change the flavor profile? Just wondering if it's worth mixing in different types of flours at this point, being about 4-5 days in.

[Hadilly]

I am in the process of building my starter using the KAF method. My house is pretty cool. I am feeding it twice a day. Luckily I just bought 20 lbs of flour at costco. My brother shared his tip for discards, save them, add chopped green onions and sesame seeds and fry it up as pancakes. Pair with a bit of soy or ponzu sauce. Really delicious.

Also, the NYTimes has a very comprehensive bread baking guide up now: https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/59-how-to-make-sourdough-bread

[Dogastrophe]

I typically pour off the hooch if I have more than 1/4" on the surface.  Anything less than that and I stir it back in.  I feed Frank (I was going to rename it Foamy Wan Kenobi but DW said I cannot just rename my child ... ) just before putting back in fridge for the week.  I find that it cuts down on the hooch production

Is there a general rule of thumb on when you should put your starter in the fridge the first time? Or is it pretty much an "at your discretion" kind of thing based on usage and assuming you keep feeding your starter, etc?

BTW: is it strange to add wheat flour into the feedings *after* the initial feeding(s)? And does it drastically change the flavor profile? Just wondering if it's worth mixing in different types of flours at this point, being about 4-5 days in.

I put mine in fridge after the first week or so (after making my first loaves).  It slows the process so you can get away with feeding once a week or longer. If I plan to bake on weekend I take it out on Friday, feed it, use it on Saturday, feed it, put it back in fridge.

I've never mixed different flours so cannot comment.  I would get your current starter up and going then take a portion of it and experiment with adding different flours.

[jeromedawg]

I am in the process of building my starter using the KAF method. My house is pretty cool. I am feeding it twice a day. Luckily I just bought 20 lbs of flour at costco. My brother shared his tip for discards, save them, add chopped green onions and sesame seeds and fry it up as pancakes. Pair with a bit of soy or ponzu sauce. Really delicious.

Also, the NYTimes has a very comprehensive bread baking guide up now: https://cooking.nytimes.com/guides/59-how-to-make-sourdough-bread

LOL, is this your brother? https://youtu.be/BJEHsvW2J6M?t=136

I saw the same thing and it reminds me of the Chinese green scallion pancakes. I actually fried up some of the dough from my starter and it's quite fulfilling. I can definitely taste the hints of sourdough but it doesn't have that full sourdough taste either. I wonder if the starter, when fried up like that, is *supposed* to taste like how your 'final product' of bread would taste.

[worms]

OK, so this actually prompted me to Google the answer (I hadn't realised protein was what made it strong!)

So my bread flour is 13% protein (12.9 for the white, 12.7 for the brown).
My plain flour is 10% (9.9% to be precise).

So quite a bit lower, but the weighted average for my mix is going to be 12.2% (as I used 125g strong white and brown for the levain, including the contribution from the starter) - so seems like I should be fine, and can even up the plain a bit if I need to!

In UK you need to make sure you read the flour packet carefully every time.  Traditionally we imported high protein wheat from Canada for bread flour and used lower protein British wheat for other uses.  However the last fifty years has seen a revolution in wheat production and we are currently about 80% self-sufficient in wheat.  There is a trade-off between crop yield and protein content and the economics of wheat production in UK mean that there is a much greater need for high yields (UK yields are more than twice those found in North America).  While some farmers chase both high yields and high protein contents, it is a risky strategy and inevitably we still produce much more wheat at the lower protein bands.

I used to use Tesco’s own brand strong flour, which had a high protein content and was very cheap - I found it to be a better bread flour than the Allison’s on the shelf next to it that was nearly twice the price.  About 18 months ago, Tesco changed the formula and the equivalent flour is now proudly proclaimed as being made with British wheat - the downside is that the protein content has dropped a lot and it is now no longer such a good flour. (I still use it, but had to drop the hydration to partly compensate for the softer dough).  Of course the changed formula was accompanied but the introduction of a new “extra strong” flour, which appears to be their old one repackaged at a much higher price!

[LightTripper]

Ha that's so interesting @worms! I love those kind of commercial histories/shifts (it's that kind of thing that first made me want to study economics).

I have seen flour sold as extra strong Canadian, and now I know why!!

[jeromedawg]

So I fed my starter twice today and both times it inflated substantially while keeping it in the oven. It has become quite airy and as soon as I start mixing it, it deflates down a bit. I transferred some over into a mason jar so will keep feeding that one and may transfer the rest into another large mason jar at some point (or just use it up for bread and fried bread). I think for the next feeding I may go ahead and put some of the wheat flour in to see how that turns out. I'm close to having some sourdough-ready starter but the one thing I'm not sure about is the smell - it definitely doesn't have as much of a sour smell as I was thinking it would but it sounds like that may not matter either.

[GuitarStv]

If it's inflating it's good to go.

[jeromedawg]

If it's inflating it's good to go.

It's blowing up super fast. I had to split it into two mason jars and stuck one in the fridge. Strong alcohol smell at this point. I actually took some starter and am proofing a couple of balls of dough using your recipe. Come tomorrow morning I hope to finish them in the oven. Planning to experiment and bake one in my Le Creuset Doufeu

[LightTripper]

Hmmm... so, this loaf is definitely problematic.  I don't know if it's the flour, or the fact I was distracted yesterday and didn't knead/turn it enough early in the batch fermentation, and instead tried to catch up later, but it was very hard to form into a ball as the skin kept tearing....

Anyway, I've done my best, slung it in a basket and will bake it anyway.  I can already tell it's not going to be great but it will be bread and it's all a learning experience!  I might cut back the % of plain flour in the next one and see if that helps... possibly one of the fancy deli-type shops around here will have some (expensive) bread flour still, so might venture into one of those next week.

[jeromedawg]

Definitely not the best look but really hard not to slice into now. I read that you generally want to wait about 6-8 hours before slicing?
I put a pan of water in and baked for about 40 minutes, then removed the pan and let it bake another 10 minutes or so. The crust isn't great looking at all but it smells delicious in the house haha.

The other loaf is currently *stuck* in the stainless steel mixing bowl I proofed it in and decided to just bake it in because it was set in there. Not sure how I'm gonna remove it - I'm currently letting it sit, inverted on a cutting board with a towel underneath to catch the bread if it eventually loosens up and falls down... at least, that's my hope.
I think next time I'll be using a cloth or parchment paper for easy removal. My intention was to transfer the loaves into my dutch oven and doufeu but that didn't go as planned.

EDIT - inverting the bowl with a towel underneath did the trick as I was thinking it might. Although the bottom of the loaf was slightly soft/sogging from the moisture but I'm just letting it sit upside down
to dry out (I just turned it upright for aesthetics for the picture):

[jeromedawg]

Okay, I just couldn't help myself:


SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!

Crumb could be better but the flavor is outstanding.

[GuitarStv]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

[Dogastrophe]

Okay, I just couldn't help myself:


SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!

Crumb could be better but the flavor is outstanding.

To use an East Coast Canada phrase, they look right good. 

I agree with GuitarStv, if your butter doesn't melt you waited to long to cut them.  At my normal room temperature, I let large loaves cool for up to an hour if I can resist - internal temp is still sufficient to melt butter.

[jeromedawg]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

Haha, well the good news is that I did slice into one and the butter melted. The family loves it too :D Unfortunately, the other loaf will have to remain unsliced and possibly put into the freezer since we may be overwhelmed with the size of this first loaf (it's going quick but we are getting really FULL hahaha!)

[erutio]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

Haha, well the good news is that I did slice into one and the butter melted. The family loves it too :D Unfortunately, the other loaf will have to remain unsliced and possibly put into the freezer since we may be overwhelmed with the size of this first loaf (it's going quick but we are getting really FULL hahaha!)

Sounds like a success to me!

[Dogastrophe]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

Haha, well the good news is that I did slice into one and the butter melted. The family loves it too :D Unfortunately, the other loaf will have to remain unsliced and possibly put into the freezer since we may be overwhelmed with the size of this first loaf (it's going quick but we are getting really FULL hahaha!)

The big loaf size is one of the reasons I make 4 smaller loaves.

Sourdough comes back from the freezer very well.  If you want to get the crust crispy again, let it thaw then put it in the oven at ~200F for 20 to 25 mins.  Tastes almost as good as fresh

[jeromedawg]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

Haha, well the good news is that I did slice into one and the butter melted. The family loves it too :D Unfortunately, the other loaf will have to remain unsliced and possibly put into the freezer since we may be overwhelmed with the size of this first loaf (it's going quick but we are getting really FULL hahaha!)

The big loaf size is one of the reasons I make 4 smaller loaves.

Sourdough comes back from the freezer very well.  If you want to get the crust crispy again, let it thaw then put it in the oven at ~200F for 20 to 25 mins.  Tastes almost as good as fresh

Good idea. Next run I'm gonna divide it into 4. Or I may use half of what the original recipe calls for. These loaves are pretty substantial as is.

[LightTripper]

Looks good, glad it was tasty!!

Mine was definitely a bit wrong (you can see the structure is not really there..) BUT still bread, still tasty. Next time I'll try a bit less plain and more attention!!

[GuitarStv]

Not sure if what I'm seeing is right, but it looks like it would have benefitted from a touch longer in the oven.  Not bad for a first go though!

[Dogastrophe]

6-8 hrs?

If it's not warm enough to melt butter on after slicing I'd argue you've waited too long.  :P

Haha, well the good news is that I did slice into one and the butter melted. The family loves it too :D Unfortunately, the other loaf will have to remain unsliced and possibly put into the freezer since we may be overwhelmed with the size of this first loaf (it's going quick but we are getting really FULL hahaha!)

The big loaf size is one of the reasons I make 4 smaller loaves.

Sourdough comes back from the freezer very well.  If you want to get the crust crispy again, let it thaw then put it in the oven at ~200F for 20 to 25 mins.  Tastes almost as good as fresh

Good idea. Next run I'm gonna divide it into 4. Or I may use half of what the original recipe calls for. These loaves are pretty substantial as is.

I do knock the time back about 5 mins when I do the smaller ones.

[jeromedawg]

BTW: quick question but if I tried shaping the dough after doing the first rise and the shaping didn't really work out but I just put the dough into a bowl and into the fridge (for the second rise) is it pretty much too late to 'salvage' at this point if I were to take it back out and try to re-shape? I let the dough rise overnight for the first rise and tried shaping it earlier this AM about 4 hours ago. Since then it's been in the fridge - I gave up on shaping it because it was just too sticky and I got it to the point where it was somewhat of a ball and holding more shape. If I let it sit out though the thing would just flatten back down. So not sure if I just did something wrong and maybe let it proof for too long? I kept it in the oven overnight so it was at between 80-80F...not sure if that's too warm.

EDIT: I couldn't help myself so dumped it out and it slightly deflated. I flattened it a slight bit and then lightly folded it back to try to tighten up. Flipped it back over and rotated it several times (there's a swirl-like patten on the bottom now) and it seemed to hold its shape much better. I placed it back into the mixing bowl w/ cheesecloth and back into the fridge. Hopefully it'll hold its shape. I'm planning to let it sit in the fridge until tomorrow morning before I bake. It's a smaller round (about the size of one of those bread bowls) so hoping it turns out nicely - mostly just experimenting and trying different things now.

https://alexandracooks.com/2019/11/07/easy-whole-wheat-ish-sourdough-bread/

[jeromedawg]

Well, it ended up turning out really nicely. Keeping it in the fridge I think helped keep it firm and hold its shape better. Also, making the cuts was quite easy.

[bbates728]

My wife and I have been taking this opportunity to get a starter going and yesterday we finally got it to a point where it doubled within 12 hours. That is essentially the point at which we can start relying on it to produce good loaves, right? When do you all start making things with your starters when they were newborns?

[chaskavitch]

Not that I don't also have sourdough going, but this seems possible right now...

[LightTripper]

Not that I don't also have sourdough going, but this seems possible right now...

Ahhh, well I'm going to be contributing soon!! My amazing sister is biking me 5kg tomorrow!! V excited. Might even try some hot cross buns...

[jeromedawg]

Not that I don't also have sourdough going, but this seems possible right now...

This is why we have a flour shortage. Not sure what the obsession is with sourdough. All I can say is that this thread started it. LOL!

[geekette]

I started a starter a couple days ago myself - totally surprised it's bubbling away on the top of the fridge right now.  No where near ready to use, but it smells good!

The recipe I used calls for disposing of half the starter, and adding a cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water.  Seems like a lot!  And I'm not sure how I'm supposed to dispose of half the starter and only have a half cup left?

Whatever, now I'm going down the rabbit hole of all the things that can go wrong and all the things I'm supposed to have that I don't have (I've borrowed a cast iron pot, though).

[turketron]

I started a starter a couple days ago myself - totally surprised it's bubbling away on the top of the fridge right now.  No where near ready to use, but it smells good!

The recipe I used calls for disposing of half the starter, and adding a cup of flour and  of water.  Seems like a lot!  And I'm not sure how I'm supposed to dispose of half the starter and only have a half cup left?

Whatever, now I'm going down the rabbit hole of all the things that can go wrong and all the things I'm supposed to have that I don't have (I've borrowed a cast iron pot, though).

Most of what I've read (and what I've been doing myself with mostly successes) is to go by weight- I've been discarding all but 50g of starter, then adding 50g flour and 50g water.

[chaskavitch]

Not that I don't also have sourdough going, but this seems possible right now...

This is why we have a flour shortage. Not sure what the obsession is with sourdough. All I can say is that this thread started it. LOL!

I swear, I made my starter at the beginning of the year, like a month before everyone got all crazy!  It's not my fault!

Also, I'm still running on the 50 lb bag I bought at Costco in Dec, luckily.  I'd never be able to buy flour now.