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Comment by iainmerrick | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to add one piece of advice that I don't see very often.

You tend to see pictures of sourdough starters in big jars. But you don't need a big jar! A tiny amount of starter is enough to get going.

Each time you feed it, the size multiplies, so you can start with a teaspoon of starter and make enough for a big loaf in just a day or two. When I'm in a bread-making routine, I keep like 10g of starter. One feed brings it up to ~50g, another feed to ~150, and that's enough for a loaf (saving 10g for next time).

If you keep your starter in a big jar, it'll just go to waste. Keep it small and you'll never need to throw any away.

On more than one occasion, I've made sourdough pancakes or something, and forgotten to save some of the starter. The tiniest scraping of uncooked batter from a leftover spoon is enough to keep it going -- just mix it with flour and water and the magic happens.

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Totally this! I was using huge jars when I first started and making massive levain - now just 10g in a jar, 50g water and flour as you say and it is good to go.

> If you keep your starter in a big jar, it'll just go to waste. Keep it small and you'll never need to throw any away.

I tend to make «sourdough discard crackers» if I have leftovers. It works well timing wise, I'm in the kitchen doing the initial stretching of my loaf anyways.

Those crackers are the absolute best!

My wife makes sourdough discard cookies and they’re amazing.

This is the way. Here's a recipe to get the curious going:

- 1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard - 1 cup (113g) White Whole Wheat Flour or WW Pastry Flour - 1/2 teaspoon salt - 4 tablespoons (57g) butter, room temperature (or 50/50 butter/olive oil) - 2 tablespoons dried herbs, of your choice, optional - coarse salt for sprinkling on top

Mix well and knead briefly. Let sit out for 30min-6hrs. Roll out thinly, cut (deep score) into rectangles, prick w/fork, brush with water and sprinkle flaky salt on top. Bake @ 350 for 20-25 min

Absolutely. When I bake bread I just keep a rest of sourdough starter (~ a tablespoon) and in the fridge for the next time.

It also doesnt need this long amount of resting like some people believe. I can start with the tablespoon old sourdough and add 60g flour + 60g water. After like ~5h it will be 3x in size in a jar. Then I make the dough with all in all 600g flour and 72-75% water (more with more whole wheat flour).

The dough rests ~4h is then formed into a bread and then rests ~3h before beeing baked (assuming around 25°C while resting). The times really depend on the activity of the starter and temperature, but it isnt that hard to learn to "see" the right time. It clearly increases in size the first time and also the second time. Too long is also not good.

If it is too sticky you need to learn to knead the dough. Since the dough has a high water content this is done more in a lift up and folding motion, since classical kneading would stick too much.

The final bread then looks like normal german bread that you could buy in bakeries, before everything went down the shitter. (Assuming you add 20% wholemeal flour). If it is 100% white flour it should be almost as fluffy as toast or you are doing it wrong.

Yeah I just use a wide mouth pint jar. Stays in the fridge until I feel like making something with the starter.

The other thing I'm surprised people (by which I mean makers of youtube videos) seem to worry overmuch about is feeding the starter. Everyone gets out the scale and has some view on ratios - 20g flour to 35.23g water or whatever.

Put a heaping tablespoon of flour in the starter, add enough water to make a paste, stir and you're done. Not enough water? Add a bit more. Too much water? Meh, add a bit less tomorrow.

In addition to youtubers, there's also a bunch of people who have nothing better to do with their lives than frequenting sourdough forums - reddit, facebook groups etc... - insisting to all newcomers that if you don't cultivate your starter with lab equipment in a Clean Room over the course of 6 weeks, you'll absolutely die from botuliusm.

Ive been making sourdough multiple times per week for 7 years and I do as you do - just make a thick paste, in increasingly large quantities over the course of 2-3 days before making the full batch of dough. I do weigh the dough measurements since I have a scale, but I could totally just do it by eye/feel.

I make very large batches and once the dough has started rising while doing periodic stretch and folds, I just put it in the fridge and then take it out and bake a bit over the course of 5ish days. So, I really just make a batch once a week.

you nailed that description. it's the same story no matter what you're fermenting.

I used to be one of those people but after a while I started to realise that most of the time yeast (or lacto) is to the micro world as humans are to the macro. they will absolutely out compete everything if you give them half a chance.

people forget that peasants in the middle ages used fermentation to protect themselves against things like botulism, and they did it without climate control, pressure cookers, silicone seals, starsan, or microbiology.

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