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scissortail  ·  1467 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: breadcrazy

Hey there! Great to hear you've got a starter going. I am perhaps the laziest, least scientific baker on the continent, but here are my answers anyway:

1. I use glass, but am unsure if it matters or not. I cap it with a clean cloth, attached with a rubber band.

2. I am a discarder, though I haven't done much reading on the opposing perspective (in fact, hadn't heard of it before reading that post). I always use the discarded starter to help me make other things like pancakes, flatbreads, or quickbreads (adding some to a banana bread is my go-to). As I understanding, leaving the starter at room temperature and only feeding it once a week is not feasible. What I do is keep it in the fridge, then pull it out at room temp when I'm thinking about a loaf. I feed it two to three times before making a levain, and toss it back into the fridge after I replace the flour and water from the levain pull.

3. I deal with a fairly runny starter, and use a roughly 1:1 flour:water ratio (by volume). I'll usually do half wheat, half rye for the flour. It ends up the consistency of a thick milkshake--pourable, but still viscous. If you want a more solid starter, I would probably increase it to 1.5:1, then 2:1 if it's still too thin for you. The 1:1 starter has been cash money for me in a fairly warm climate.

Hope that's helpful. I did end up making a loaf last week by the way, but am waiting to post it with today's loaf, which I am coaching my SO through. It's her first time making bread!