Gabby, the importance of discarding starter is twofold. You need to have equal amounts of old starter and new food, to keep the acid level consistent. If you add new food to twice as much old starter, the acid from the yeast and bacteria will be twice as high. The best thing to do is use the discard to make a recipe which doesn't require ripe starter (we have a number of these on the website), or use your discard as the beginning of some pizza dough. If you want healthy, ripe starter that is capable of lifting your bread, it needs to be vigorous and active, with the best conditions for growth. Susan

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