I’ve been playing around with making a small “preferment” using the method from Culinary Exploration.

Philip uses just a small amount of discard, basically the scrapings in the bottom of the jar to make a small “preferment” or starter for his next batch of dough.

I call it a mini biga.

On Thursday, I added less than a tablespoon of discard to two small jars and fed both with 55g of water and 55g of flour.

Left it out on the counter overnight.

Had more than doubled by 4:00 AM.

I decided that I would make bagels today and add one of the starters to the batch.

I then fed the scrapings that remained in the bottom of the jar,

again with 55g of starter and 55g of water. I also weighed out the scrapings, which amounted to 22g.

This method works great for me, because I can either feed the scrapings at night and the starter is ready to use in the morning in a dough, or I can feed in the morning and the starter is ready to use when I get home from work.

Here is a link to his site where you can also find his Youtube video on this method.