Every time you feed a starter you discard most of it first — and new bakers hate throwing it away. The good news: discard is perfectly usable, and with the right feeding approach you can generate far less of it. Here's what discard is, why it exists, how to keep it, and what to do with it.
What discard is, and why you discard
Discard is simply the portion of mature starter you remove before feeding. You discard for two reasons: to keep the culture from becoming too acidic over time, and to keep your feeding ratio accurate — if you fed all of an ever-growing starter, you'd need ever-growing amounts of flour and water, and the ratio would drift.
How to store discard
Keep a separate jar in the fridge and add each day's discard to it. Stored cold, it keeps for about a week or two — give it a stir if liquid (hooch) separates on top; that's harmless and just a sign it's hungry. If it ever grows fuzzy mould or smells genuinely foul rather than sour, throw it out.
What to use it for
- Pancakes and waffles — the classic. Discard adds tang and tenderness; these don't need it to rise (baking powder does the lifting).
- Crackers and flatbreads — roll thin, season, bake crisp.
- Quick breads and muffins — stirred into batters for flavour.
- Pizza and focaccia — some recipes use discard for flavour with added yeast for lift.
How to discard less in the first place
The honest fix for too much discard isn't more discard recipes — it's keeping a smaller starter. If you only keep what you need, you discard almost nothing. Two approaches:
- Keep a tiny maintenance starter. You don't need 200 g sitting in the fridge; 20–50 g is plenty, and you build up to a recipe's amount only when you bake.
- Use the reverse calculation. Work backwards from the levain a recipe needs to the small seed you actually have to start with, so you build exactly what you need with minimal leftover.
The calculator's “I need this much levain” mode does exactly this — enter the amount your recipe calls for and it tells you the small seed to begin with, so you generate the least discard possible.
Sources and method: see our methodology and references.