Hey all, wanted to make my first loaf and got this amount of starter for free from a baker. Wasn’t sure if this was enough or if I needed to “feed” it to create more starter (or how that process works). Any help is appreciated!
by blackiechan99
In Sourdough
39 Comments
You need to feed it. Add flour and water to that and wait until it’a active and ready to bake with.
Feed it a couple times and then you can use your additional discard as the “mother” and you’ll have enough for several loaves. You need at least 150g of starter for most recipes
Not enough for a loaf, but enough to get a starter going. There are lots of good resources online, but I work mostly out of the book “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” by Ken Forkish as my main guide. Good luck!
That by itself is not enough ehivh is why you should feed it. Put all of it into a sealable container and feed it 1 1/2 tbsp unbleached AP or whole wheat (whichever you prefer) and then add 2 1/2 tbsp lukewarm water warm filtered water. Feed it daily. Then watch it activate, chevk its levels and within a week or 2 (usually 12-14 days) in it should be ready and have more than enough to make your own loaf with!!
so what you’ll want to do is start feeding it – you’ll never use all of it for a recipe – because feeding it increases the amount you have, the goal is to always keep some amount as the “mother” and use the other amount for bread making or “sourdough discard” recipes
when you feed it, you’ll combine 1 part starter (for your first feed, use all of the starter you were gifted) with 1 part water and 1 part flour (I use unbleached all purpose flour)
> Wasn’t sure if this was enough or if I needed to “feed” it to create more starter (or how that process works).
I use about 25-30 grams after discarding the rest. That looks like the amount you have here. It’s never let me down.
I’d go home and add 70 grams of flour (with high protein) and 70 ghrams filtered water. If it’s from a good starter, it will provide you a great bubbly new starter in a matter of 12 hours.
Oh how nice! as everyone pointed out, definitely feed it and turn it into your own starter that will bring you more breads to come. I would have loved to get a nice established starter as I’m currently making my own and it’s a process.
Feed that with 50g of flour and 50g of water until the ~100g mixture doubles in size. You can then use a ~100g amount of this mixtures (called leaven) for your recipes.
I’ve been using Tartain method.
highly recommend looking at the pinned posts in this group. lots of great info for beginners
You use that to build a levain then keep a portion for next time
A teaspoon is more than enough. You can clone it to as much as you ever need. Just feed it flour and water, talk to it and make sure it’s loved.
You can feed it and it’ll grow. Have fun!
That’s your mother starter. Here is some info:
https://youtu.be/BKP-2PDVr7w?si=uQlygju6Nko2S1q1
Yeah, that’s really all you ever need to store and feed for future use. Once you decide your baking, you feed it up to slightly more than you need so there’s leftover to continue the cycle.
Add a quarter cup flour and a quarter cup purified water and watch it grow. All you really need is 50 grams of starter for one loaf (I bake sourdough daily)
So lucky!!!
A spoonful is enough to feed and build a robust starter. Weigh it, then add equal amounts of flour and water. If you leave it out on the counter, within 4 to 6 hours, you should notice a doubling (or more) in volume.
Since you started with a healthy starter, the fed starter you now have is ready to go into a recipe. Or if you’re not ready to use it, put it in the refrigerator for up to a week, and feed it before you are ready to bake.
I would suggest two things over the long term, to make things more efficient:
1. If you mostly bake the same recipe, determine the amount of starter you will use each time you bake, and feed your starter so that you have ⅓ more than that amount.
Example: I use 100g of starter in my recipe. When I feed, I add 50g water and 50g flour to the 50g of starter in the jar, for a total of 150g. This method produces very little discard if you bake every few days, or at least weekly.
2. If you bake less regularly, you’ll want to feed your starter at least weekly, so remove 100g, put it in a separate jar, and set it aside until you need to use it for a discard recipe. You can save discard for many weeks in the refrigerator, and it will be just fine for use and recipes. Another benefit of having discard in your fridge is that if you ever kill your starter, the discard can spring to life and become your new starter, with just a bit of feeding. There are many [good discard recipes,](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/collections/sourdough-discard-recipes) so you’ll never have to throw away any of your discard.
It’s more than enough for you to make your own starter. Frankly, you could smear some at the bottom of a container with the tip of your finger, add 50 g of flour and 50 g of water and it should double within least 24 hours. Just remember to keep a little bit in a small airtight container to be placed in the fridge. Personally, I like to keep about 10 g.
You’re going to use the entirety of that container, which is probably between 15g to 20g, dilute the starter given to you in 50 g of warm water thoroughly and then scoop in 50 g of flour. Make sure to by weight (scale) and not by volume (cups). Kitchen scales are so cheap and affordable these days, if you don’t have one, you can buy a really good one for between $4 to $15. This will keep your starter at consistent and accurate feeding levels and will allow you to make any needed adjustments correctly. Measuring by volume can be such a toss-up and is rarely accurate. Depending on how loosely or tightly packed the flour is in a cup, you can be under or over by 100 g. It’s just too much variability with that method.
At any rate, since the starter given to you is already established, feed it once, let it double and go ahead and use, just make sure to keep about 15 g of it in an airtight container and toss it in the fridge. When you’re ready to use the starter again, take that 15 g out and allow it to hit room temperature. Feed it 50 g of flour and 50 g of water and allow it to double and then use. And, again, pull 15 g aside before use and pop it back into the fridge. This is the best method for the weekend baker.
Good luck.
Check out this sub also for starter tips as well(SourdoughStarter)
https://www.reddit.com/r/t5_2inci7/s/m90kBp9RH8
It’s enough to make thousands of loaves!! BUT, you just have to feed it to get the amount you need to bake. You always want to make sure you feed it enough so when you pull what you need for you recipe you have leftover to keep feeding and baking with for eternity!!!!!!!! 😉
Not enough for a loaf but too much for just feeding it, IMO unless you have a big jar.
I used 200g of starter for 1000g of flour
For feed, I start with 20g starer, ~100g flour and equal parts water.
Hope this makes sense.
Hi. You just need to feed I up to your levain weight. Imo, it’s best to feed with a mixed bread flour and whole grain flour, such as whole wheat or rye, in a 80/20 proportion.
You don’t need much starter. I keep just 45 grams in the fridge between bakes (approximately once per week). When I want to bake, I pull out the starter, let it warm, mix it thoroughly, and then feed it 1:1:1. I take out 120g for my levain, leaving me 15g to feed 1:1:1 again, and after it starts to rise, I put it straight back in the fridge until the next bake.
Happy baking
This is so much more than you need for your levain. I start my levain (first step of the process— you mix some starter with flour and water and let it rise, then mix that into your flour water and salt to make the dough) with barely a spoon scraping of starter.
This is perfect! Thanks to your baker friend (:
That’s plenty. If you feed it enough, it’ll fill a bathtub inside of a week.
that’s plenty to build your own starter! if it’s 113g add 113g flour and 113g water
make more so you have a stockpile
So, in general you talk percentages for bread recipes – that way you can scale. My basic recipe is for two loaves – so it’s based around 1000 grams of flour. For that I do 75% hydration – so 750 grams of water. I do 15% starter – 150 grams.
So, long story short – yes. You need to build it up. Equal parts water, starter, flour.
If you don’t have one, get a scale. It’ll really help your baking.
I wonder if this is like where Jesus was able to feed ao many people with only a seemingly small piece of bread. Like maybe Jesus was rocking the sourdough miracle
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2024/02/28/beginner-sourdough-guide
After a good feeding, yep! As others have noted – be sure to set aside at least 10g so you can keep a starter for future bakes. Have fun!
Totally enough, the tartine method to make a ” leaven” only uses ONE tablespoon of starter.
Take what you have, dump it in a jar, add 1/4 cup of flour and 2 tablespoons of water and stir like mad! The next day, dump about 2 forkfuls of the stuff from the jar in the trash then add another 1/4 cup of flour and 2 tablespoons of water…repeat until bubbles form…in the meantime though try to do some research about starters and bread baking..it’s a lot of trial and error and I’ve only given the most basic, non scientific, non “mathy” method just to get you started! Good luck!
Mix that bad boy with warm water and flour of your choice and watch her blow up
Take 30g of starter, looks like you have about that much, feed it 1:5:5. That will give you about 300g. Let it bubble up. Use 150g to bake, take 50g feed 1:1:1 and throw in the fridge for next time, make bagels with the 100g of discard.
Don’t overthink it. It’s not nearly as difficult as most of the people on here will lead you to believe.
Feed it equal weights of flour and water in the amount that you need to make dough.
You can easily grow more overnight by feeding it. You need to keep a supply for yourself!!!
You should ask the giver for some instructions to go along with that starter. LOL
If you’re on X, grok will walk you through it and it’s a lot easier than having a bunch of different opinions because it’s tailored to your specific situation. Here’s mine as an example https://x.com/i/grok/share/G3PB1Ayck6XeGFXdFllz4mVSQ
FEED ME!!!!