Hi Isabel, congratulations on beginning your sourdough journey! I wouldn’t worry about removing the hooch—just stir it into the starter, and then measure out the amount of starter you need to feed. We don’t recommend using starter discard when you first begin a starter from scratch because the creation process involves gradually weeding out unhelpful bacteria that you wouldn’t necessarily want to consume. It’s best to wait until your starter is rising predictably before using the discard in recipes. Once your starter reaches that point, we do have lots of recipes to put your discard to good use.  

Barb

• Reply