I use the method in "The Rye Baker" for feeding my 100% whole dark rye sourdough culture (the one I use for everything not yeasted) - every week if I'm home, all but 7g of the starter goes into the discard container. The 7g + 70g warm water + 70g flour goes in a warm place for ~12 hrs and then into the fridge if I'm not baking with it immediately.
This tends to fill up the discard container, so I have a section in my personal notes Bread Formulas with discard recipes (see the table of contents of the document at the link). The pancakes and bran muffins (both work well with pumpernickel in place of the whole wheat flour) are tasty and easy but they don't use that much of the discard. When the container fills up I use 1000g of discard in the formula at Bread Code Discard Loaf Video, which I transcribed into Bread Formulas in the Discard section. Here are the photos of today's:
Bread Code Discard Loaf Photos. For the 100g of seeds, I used all the caraway I had on hand, some everything bagel toppings (poppy seeds and dried onion mainly), and a bunch of coarsely chopped coriander seeds. This provided a nice bite that I prefer over the turmeric in the original formula. YMMV.
I have also made corn bread and corn muffins and rye crackers (I like them and they are easy and quick to make, but the household is not unanimous).
I know a lot of people avoid the discard problem by feeding their starters out to the weight of the full levain in the next formula they use, plus a little for the starter to continue (I was surprised when I spoke with another home sourdough baker who had no idea what "discard" was). The formulas in "Bread" and "The Rye Baker" use a variety of levains/sponges built with some usually small amount of starter and various hydrations and types of flours. So I follow the books, and try to use the discard.
Any good ideas for the discard, beyond the ones I have already?
louiscohen - I make this on a regular basis.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/76233/sd-discard-english-muffin-toasting-bread
Tony
I don't do discard, just refresh and use as needed, but...
The perfect loaf has a lot of ideas gathered up here: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/category/recipes/sourdough-discard/
This one just came out of the oven: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-discard-clafoutis/
I have been making seeded crackers all summer and have been loving them: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/seeded-sourdough-discard-crackers/
You may be interested in Debra Winks comment to me last year about Hamelman's current feeding regimen. It was in the context of isolating the cause of a white frosting on my firm rye culture. I adopted this advise and have not seen the return of the white frosting.
DW summarized what Jeffrey Hamelman's maintenance was in May of 2024. He no longer uses 20 g of whole rye but has cut it down to 10 g flour to 8 or 8.3 g water (the lesser in summer to slow things down). Culture amounts also vary depending upon the season. He still prefers once a day feeding but adjusts the amount of culture with seasonal temperature swings which can vary a lot throughout the year. So, while he might use 2 g culture in winter, that could go down to .5 g in summer with the goal of attaining ripeness every 24 hours.
I feed my rye culture once a day and it lives on the kitchen bench. I elaborate the discard over two feeds to get enough active levain for two 750g loaves. On the days that I discard, the amount of rye is only 10g per day and is repurposed into the compost.
Here is the link to the related post White frosting on firm rye sourdough | The Fresh Loaf
Gavin
I've been using Hamelman's feeding ratio (albeit at about twice the size) and I find it difficult to judge the ripeness of the culture at this hydration and quantity. I don't always see doubling of the culture and I can't tell if it's overripe because it is so firm.
What cues do you use to determine ripeness of the culture?
Thanks!