Sourdough bread starter???

My wife got a starter from a close friend in Mississippi that we just fed on Monday. I am a bit confused on how to proceed. The recipe states to feed and take out 1 cup after letting it set for 8-12 hours in 80-85° and return the starter to the fridge. it states that if you do not wish to make bread, either throw away the 1 cup or give to a friend. We are now at Wed. and if I want to make bread, do I need to remove starter from fridge, feed and let set for another 8-12 hours OR can I just pull 1 cup out of the starter from the fridge??? This is my first attempt on bread ... and I am thoroughly confused on where/how to use the starter.

help!

Why not ask the woman who gave you the starter?

90+ year old friend of a friend of a friend's grandmother in Mississippi ... and our friend is in New Zealand with her husband for over a month vacationing & red stag hunting ... I guess I could wait until they return, just wanted to get things rolling

we have a written out recipe with directions regarding feeding starter, making dough, forming to loaf or rolls ... just not clear on where in the process to get going with when to use the starter for sure.

Not sure if this helps or not, wife said check out King Arthur. Saw this link and it does getting your starter going and feeding it.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/feeding-and-maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-recipe

thanks! I will be reading thru that ... I fed the starter this morning and will give this a try to see how it works out this evening for making the dough (to rise overnight)

I'd like to know. I tried and failed with it, the stuff turned pink so I figured I better toss it. It is something I'd really like to be able to do, buying yeast is expensive and sourdough tastes great. I'm always trying to stretch a dollar. In hot weather, I didn't think you were supposed to leave it out that long, not sure.

there is a good thread on this in the recipes /prep section. back a few months. dennis in ft worth (thf handle) has a good recipe. i was successful using it!

Think this is that thread https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/8747952

When feeding for maintenance, I use 40 grams of starter, 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour. You are going to want active starter for bread, so feed it, let it rise and use it then. Before making the dough, drop a spoon of starter in a glass of water, if it does not float, it is not ready.

well I tried pretty much everything I could think of or research but I think my starter was dead, non-revivable ... never got the starter to start forming bubbles, I will wait for my friend to get home from New Zealand next month and get it figured out. I even tried making dough from several of the attempts following resting after feeding the starter, but none of the dough ever rose.

I have seen other methods and recipes, and I might give it a go by creating my own starter from scratch and then following those directions. Thanks for the link kmon, I will read thru it when I have a few minutes.

bread / rolls is something I have had little dealings with over the years. I have tried to duplicate my wife's side family yeast rolls recipe following 3 different recipes I have gotten from her mom and 2 different aunts (all were slightly different) and can get close, just never comes out as sweet as my wife remembers them being ...

Link on making your own starter.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/guides/sourdough/create

We do not bake or eat enough bread to bother with it here but it sure tempts me when I do eat some good sour dough bread.