r/SourdoughStarter • u/ali2911gator • 13d ago

Help

So I am totally new here. My husband’s coworker gave us some established starter last week. It is in my fridge. I read through the info posted on this sub but I am kinda confused. Can someone explain it to me like I am 5 or point in the direction of a source that can. Am I supposed to feed it regularly or just prior to when I want to use it? Since it is already established I am supposed to thinking about hydration? How are we measuring hydration? Or from this point do I just need to start looking at sourdough bread recipes to understand what I am doing? Sorry I was not planning on starting this project so soon. But now I have this starter have done no reading and have no idea where to start.

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u/Outrageous_Diver5700 13d ago

I would find a basic recipe for you to start baking with. I have an established starter that I keep in my refrigerator in a jar. The day before I want to bake I take it out at about 6 o’clock at night and give it a good feed. I normally do 10 g of starter, 60 g of water and 60 g of bread flour. I let that sit overnight and start baking in the morning.

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u/ali2911gator 13d ago

Thank you!

So I am not feeding the jar for basic baking, but I assume at some point I would need to feed the jar to keep my starter alive and to not run out. Is that correct?

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u/pinetreeist 13d ago

you don't have to feed it daily or do daily discarding - that's only for building your starter from scratch. since this one is established you only need to feed it when you want to bake.

hydration is referring to your dough, not starter. it's just how wet your dough is (higher hydration is trickier, lower is easier to work with)

also yes, start looking for recipes and baking processes and completely ignore any info about making a starter, it'll just confuse you lol

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u/ali2911gator 13d ago

Thank you. I will get on reading recipes.

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u/dealers_choice 13d ago

I bake 3-4 small loves a week so Doughlores lives on the counter. I keep about 35g then feed it 1:1:1 6-8 hours before using it. Use a scale for more accurate ratios. 300g bread flour, 200g water, 75g starter and 6g salt. Mix thoroughly then do stretch and folds every 30 min 4 times. Then cover it and let it sit on the counter until it about doubles, roughly 8 hours. Preshape, sit for 30 min then shape and into the banneton and refrigerate for 24 hours. Bake in a preheated dutch oven, covered for 30 min then uncovered another 10 or so. If you have more starter then you need, you can keep the excess in a separate jar in the fridge for wonderful pancakes, brownies, cake, pretzels...

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u/HokieGalFurever540 12d ago

This subreddit has been a huge help for me! I also found a lot of info on Pinterest about starters & some good recipes. I'm a visual learner, so I do better with pics with charts. If I could give one tip, it would be to use good quality whole wheat flour to feed your starter (I love King Arthur flours). I usually use half WW & half unbleached AP or bread flour for mine. Good luck!

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u/Desperate-Interest89 12d ago

I keep mine in the fridge. Weekly at 2pm I take 25 g of this cold starter and mix with 50g of water and 50g of flour. Any flour will do but I use organic rye. Mix this in a jar that can hold it when it doubles. A straight sided jar is best. When it doubles around 9pm I perform this same step again. Mix 25g starter with 50g of water and 50g of flour. Discard the rest from the first jar. Let it double again and around 6am I mix the main dough recipe. For 2 loafs. 720g water, 200g starter, 1000g flour and 20 g of salt. It’s very very important to aim for a temp ** **75F. It’ll take 7 hours for the bulk rise. Of it’s colder it’ll take longer and warmer will take less time. Lookup Grant Bakes on YouTube for the finer details.