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Quick answer
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Live Ferment Timer
Dough temp — how warm your mixed dough feels (use a probe thermometer for accuracy). Inoculation — starter weight divided by flour weight × 100 (e.g. 100g starter in 500g flour = 20%). The timer updates as you type and shows a ±25% window because every kitchen is different. Open Start time, starter, cold retard to: set when you begin bulk fermentation and get a "ready at" clock; adjust for whether your starter is freshly fed, at peak, or hungry; or model a cold retard in the fridge. DoughRise Coach subscribers can record actual bulk times — after 3 bakes the predictions are calibrated to your kitchen, starter, and flour.
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Start time, starter, cold retard
Start time
Hours since fed
After (h)
Retard temp (°C)
Duration (h)
h
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The sourdough discard calculator
for smarter starter management
Quick answer
Discard hydration sets its flour-to-water split: flour in discard = discard weight ÷ (1 + hydration ÷ 100). Example: 150g of discard at 100% hydration = 75g flour and 75g water.
The sourdough discard calculator above works in two modes. Use Mode A to analyse your discard's hydration and see exactly how much flour and water it contributes to any recipe. Use Mode B to scale discard recipes like pancakes, crackers, and waffles based on however much discard you have on hand.
Every sourdough baker ends up with discard. Each time you feed your starter you remove a portion to keep the total quantity from getting out of control, and that removed portion is your discard. It is not dead starter. It contains wild yeast and bacteria in a less active state, and it adds genuine flavour complexity to anything you bake with it.
The key detail most recipes ignore is that discard has a specific hydration, usually 100% if you maintain equal weights of flour and water. That means adding 150g of discard also adds 75g of flour and 75g of water to your recipe. The calculator accounts for this so your final dough behaves exactly as expected.
New to discard? The sourdough discard guide covers whether it is safe, how long it keeps, and the best things to bake with it. Ready to bake something? The sourdough discard recipes page has full pancake, cracker, waffle, flatbread, and banana bread recipes, each linking back here to scale the quantities to your own discard.
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Calculator modes (analyse + scale)
100%
Standard starter hydration
Zero
Starter wasted
See the full method for each recipe in the sourdough discard recipes guide.
How It Works
How the discard calculator actually works
Every gram of sourdough discard is made up of flour and water in whatever ratio you feed your starter, and Mode A works backwards from that ratio to tell you exactly how much of each you’re adding. At 100% hydration, the classic ratio most bakers use, half the weight is flour and half is water, so 150g of discard breaks down to 75g flour and 75g water. Feed a stiffer starter at a lower hydration and flour makes up a bigger share of every gram, not less, which is why entering your own starter’s actual hydration, rather than trusting the 100% default, matters more than most bakers assume.
Mode B works differently. Instead of breaking discard into its component flour and water, it scales a known recipe up or down to match however much discard you actually have on the bench. Each built-in recipe, pancakes, crackers, pizza base, banana bread, flatbreads, waffles, has a reference discard amount paired with a matching quantity of extra flour. The calculator divides your discard weight by that reference amount to get a scale factor, then multiplies the extra flour by the same factor, so a double batch of discard gets a double batch of flour and the ratio between them stays constant no matter how much you’re working with.
Worked example: using up the jar before it overflows
Say you’ve been feeding your starter daily and the discard jar in the fridge has crept up to 150g, at your usual 100% hydration. You’ve got a rustic loaf recipe on the counter calling for 500g flour and 350g water, a fairly wet 70% dough, and you’d rather fold the discard in than tip it down the sink.
- Flour already in the discard: 150g ÷ 2 = 75g
- Water already in the discard: 150g − 75g = 75g
- Adjusted flour for the recipe: 500g − 75g = 425g
- Adjusted water for the recipe: 350g − 75g = 275g
The final dough still totals 850g, exactly what the original recipe called for, and the hydration still works out to precisely 70% (350g water against 500g flour), whether that flour and water comes from the bag or from the jar in the fridge. You’ve used up a full jar of discard without throwing the dough off balance, and there’s a bit more tang in the crumb than usual, no bad thing on a quiet bake with something good playing in the background while it proves.
Common discard mistakes
Adding discard on top of the recipe, not into it
Tipping a spoonful of discard into a recipe without adjusting anything else feels harmless, but discard is roughly half water by weight, so you’re quietly adding extra hydration on top of what the recipe was designed for. The dough turns slack, sticky, and harder to shape, and it’s rarely obvious why until you trace it back to the unaccounted flour and water sitting in that discard. Run the numbers through Mode A first and reduce the recipe’s own flour and water to match.
Assuming every starter sits at 100% hydration
The calculator defaults to 100% because it’s the most common ratio, but plenty of bakers keep a stiffer starter for flavour or convenience, somewhere around 60 to 75% hydration. Feed a stiffer starter and its discard carries noticeably more flour than water by weight, which throws Mode A’s numbers off if you leave the hydration field on the default. If you keep more than one starter on the go, DoughRise Pro’s starter tracker logs each one’s actual hydration so you’re never guessing which figure to enter.
Treating discard as a substitute for active starter
Discard still has some fermentation activity, but it’s well past its peak rise, which is why it works beautifully in pancakes and crackers but won’t reliably lift a loaf of bread on its own. For anything that needs to rise properly, add a small amount of commercial yeast or baking powder alongside the discard rather than expecting it to do the leavening job by itself.
Frequently Asked
Questions about
sourdough discard
What is sourdough discard and is it safe to use?
Sourdough discard is the portion of starter you remove before each feeding to keep the total quantity manageable. Because it contains live wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, though in a less active state than a freshly fed starter, it is completely safe to use in baking and adds a pleasant mild tang to any recipe. Discard from a healthy, regularly fed starter can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks.
How does sourdough discard hydration affect recipes?
Most sourdough starters are maintained at 100% hydration, meaning equal weights of flour and water. When you add discard to a recipe, it contributes both flour and water, which changes the effective hydration of your dough or batter. The DoughRise discard calculator accounts for your starter's specific hydration so you can adjust the remaining flour and water in any recipe with accuracy.
What can I make with sourdough discard?
Sourdough discard works in any recipe that uses flour and liquid together. Pancakes and waffles are the classic use. Crackers, pizza bases, flatbreads, banana bread, muffins, and pasta all work well. The discard adds subtle sourness and complexity without the leavening power of an active starter. For recipes that need to rise, add a small amount of commercial yeast or baking powder alongside the discard.
What hydration should I enter if I don’t know my starter’s ratio?
Most home bakers maintain a starter at 100% hydration, equal parts flour and water by weight, which is the calculator’s default and a safe assumption if you’ve never measured otherwise. If you feed a stiffer starter, closer to 60 to 70% hydration, or a looser one nearer 125%, enter that figure instead, since it changes the flour-to-water split by a meaningful margin. When you’re genuinely unsure, weigh out your usual feeding ratio once and work backwards from there, or just start with 100% and adjust on your next bake if the dough feels wetter or drier than expected.
Does cold discard straight from the fridge weigh differently, and does that affect the calculator?
Weight is weight regardless of temperature, so cold discard straight from the fridge works fine in the calculator without any adjustment. The one thing to watch is condensation on the inside of the jar, which can add a few extra grams of water that were never part of your starter’s actual hydration. Tare your scale with the empty container first, or give it a quick wipe before weighing, so the figure you enter reflects the discard itself rather than fridge moisture.
Can I use the calculator with a recipe that doesn’t split out flour and water, like a boxed mix?
Yes. Any recipe that lists flour and liquid as separate ingredients works with the discard calculator, even if it was never written as a sourdough recipe. For a boxed mix or a recipe with combined dry ingredients, estimate the flour portion by weight (most pancake and waffle mixes run 80 to 90% flour) and enter that figure, then adjust the liquid the same way. It won’t be perfectly precise, but it gets you close enough that the batter won’t end up noticeably too wet or too stiff.
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