Can I give my friend the sour dough "throw away" as a starter to their sourdough starter?

Can I give my friend the sour dough "throw away" as a starter to their sourdough starter? - White Plastic Container With Black Beans

Many sourdough techniques suggest throwing away half your starter further on in the fermenting process. The reason given (in many YouTube videos I've watched) is that it'd eventually take over your kitchen if you didn't.

I guess rather than throw this away I can give it to a friend (or friends) to bootstrap their own starters?



Best Answer

Sure, you can begin a new sour dough starter with the discard from a feeding. However, the reason for discarding isn't simply to reduce the amount. As your starter matures it also becomes much more acidic. Acidity is problematic for yeast and bacterial activity and, ultimately, the rise and flavor of your final product. So, you discard during feeding time to keep the acidity in check, and ensure that your starter is as hospitable to yeast and bacteria as possible. Your friend can get his or her starter going with your discard, but will then want to get into the habit of discarding when they feed.




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Can you use the discard of sourdough starter to make another starter?

For pre-digestion of the grains through fermentation, discarded sourdough can be used as well as fresh starter. The discarded starter is added to additional flour and liquid and fermented for 12-24 hours.

Can I give away sourdough discard?

Don't throw it away! Learn how to use, store and create incredible sourdough discard recipes at home without the waste. As part of the feeding process, most bakers discard some of their sourdough starter before adding fresh flour and water to the jar.

Can you share a sourdough starter?

You can either split your starter into a new jar for your friend and feed both as normal ( about 100g of starter and 100g each of water and flour) or spilt some off and give them the discard to feed up. Generally, you don't need more than about 50g of starter to pass on to really get a new starter going.



What to do with that sourdough starter someone gave you




More answers regarding can I give my friend the sour dough "throw away" as a starter to their sourdough starter?

Answer 2

Absolutely you can. When you use the starter to make bread you make an arbitrary decision of which part of the starter you use and which to feed, the part you scoop out is just as viable as the part you keep. When you discard some instead of using it the same rule applies, so all you need to do is put some in a container and feed it the same way. You can split the starter as many times as you like, that's the beauty of it.

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