Trying not to derail the other thread.
I started learning to make sourdough in 2017. I had to make the starter from scratch, which took like 6 weeks of feeding the starter two times a day.
Starter: The stuff that makes the bread rise. Its literally just
50/50 flour/water by volume, but importantly is full of bacteria (that makes the bubbles that rises the bread) , and acid (that gives it the sour taste).
Feeding: I have no idea how much starter you have. But here is how I operate.
- Pour down (like, down the drain, or into the trash) your starter until you have 4oz of net starter (goo) left.
- Add 4oz of water
- Add 4oz of flour
- notice that we keep the 50/50 ratio with this. You can actually do more/less, and its just fine, and sometimes you will choose to do that for various reasons
- like when a recipe calls for more starter to start with... make more here.
- like when you're storing it in the fridge, you may want a smaller container. I store a TOTAL of 4oz, and then the first time i feed it out of the fridge, I don't throw any away, I just add the 4oz/4oz above and let it sit).
- Mix
- Profit/start over at step 1 after 12-24 hours.
Its said that a "healthy" starter grows 2-4x in size within a 3-4hrs of feeding. If your starter can't at least double in volume in that time, you probably need to stick to a 12hour feeding schedule for a while (or your house temp is super low).
You can tell if the starter needs feeding, because it will look... nasty, flat, oily, droopy, with a bit of a liquid showing up on top. It sounds hard to recognize, and then you'll see it one morning after forgetting to feed the starter, and think "oh, thats what he meant". Its pretty obvious. But also... I've gone a few days at room temp, and still recovered it. Sour dough starter is pretty resilient.
Healthy starter looks... really really bubbly/frothy, and frankly, sometimes looks tasty by itself. You'll know it when you see it.
Making Bread: Basically, instead of pouring off/discarding the starter like you would with a feeding, you take the part that you would have thrown in the trash... and throw it in the recipe. This does mean that you need to look ahead for how much starter your recipe needs, and if you need to make more (as mentioned above), to make sure you don't accidentally use it all up. Because if you use it up, it... is gone, and you have to start over/find more starter.
The only other thing I'll mention, is that sourdough bread dough is a bit more fragile. I taught my mother to make it (remotely, like this), and she didn't have good success at first. Later she came to visit, and saw how we did it, and realized that she'd just been punching/manhandling the dough a lot more, because that is how she was used to treating normal yeast bread.
I normally let my bread rise in a bowl/banneton (rising basket), then cook them on a cookie sheet/normal baking tray. My wife prefers to cook her recipe in a pre-warmed enamel dutch oven lined with parchment paper, with about half the time with the lid closed, and half with the lid off. The lid on keeps it moist allowing it to rise more, the lid off gives it a nice crust.
Oh, also, sourdough breads like to be cooked hot. It makes them rise in the oven more (called an "oven spring"). I bake at 500f, my wife does hers at 500f for the first bit, then down to 450f when the lid comes off.
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