Put a heaping tablespoon of flour in the starter, add enough water to make a paste, stir and you're done. Not enough water? Add a bit more. Too much water? Meh, add a bit less tomorrow.

I tend to make «sourdough discard crackers» if I have leftovers. It works well timing wise, I'm in the kitchen doing the initial stretching of my loaf anyways.

It is one of my life hacks: when I know I can/have to bake in the morning I find it much easier and much more enjoyable to get up at 0500.

(Before I used two alarms, one that could only be defused with a barcode next to the sink on the bathroom + an (un?)healthy dose of self discipline. Now I enjoy it.)

Like you, I find the latter really quite unpleasant (to the point that I really am surprised anyone willing eats San Franciscan sourdough). But wild starters can range from tasting just like ordinary commercial yeasts, to tasting similar but with a richer flavour, all the way to the funk that we both dislike.

I have never had a San Franciscan sourdough in Europe, so I doubt that this sourdough is the nasty (to my taste — many folks love it) kind, but maybe there is some subculture of inedible (again, to my taste) European breads. More likely, I suspect that this is just a good wild starter.

Use baker's yeast instead. That doesn't limit you to basic recipes -- there's a vast range of interesting stuff you can bake. You'll usually need to make a preferment with flour, water and yeast (a "poolish" or "biga") so the overall routine is very similar to sourdough.

I think the main factor for this is how "mature" your starter is.

After feeding your starter it will expand, then collapse, then grow more sour. I generally time it so that my bread isn't as sour.

If I am baking soon -- larger leftover starter and smaller feed. if I am baking tomorrow -- tablespoon or so of starter with bigger feed to get my leaven.

I also prefer less sour breads and since I started using a stiff starter it's much better than more liquid ones. I still haven't found the perfect recipe yet but it is possible.

A good intro into the difference of starters is at the bread code: https://www.the-sourdough-framework.com/Sourdoughstartertype...

My wet sourdough is 1 part flour to 3 parts water. As noted in a sibling comment, this favors the sour parts (lactic acid?), but compared to a dry starter, there are significant advantages the the starter/yeast combo:

1) Feeding the wet starter takes 10s: pour flour and water onto leftovers and stir quickly with a spoon. No sticky stuff to deal with.

2) The starter seems exceptionally stable, maybe because of the water layer: I only wash my starter jar every two or three months, and the 10g or so that I put back in the fridge after starting a dough, will last for weeks and consistently restart overnight when fed

3) Being able to independently adjust yeast-levels in a predictable way, means that I can easily play with sourness levels and adjust leaving times when I have to match the timings with other activities.

There is the downside, of course, that I need to keep bakers yeast in the house as well...

Or bake a basic no-knead loaf. I would mix the dough in the morning and bake it in the evening.

I bake 'normal' bread on occasion but since we all prefer sourdough and it costs so much in the shops for good sourdough, it is my go to.

Try this series from him that is a great intro: https://youtu.be/vmb0wWKITBQ?si=S3MVF8qyKLOuCHmq

I was then inspired by https://youtu.be/ZxCf39G_7pY?si=Mf5dfcZIngyXCuEY

The worked up my own process below through seeing what worked for my flour and starter:

100g sourdough starter 300g water (cold and filtered) 12g fine sea salt 10g olive oil 550g white and brown bread flour mixed (I use 200g brown, 350g white)

Morning of the day before (24 hours), or on the night before (12hours) you will bake: Feed the sourdough starter 50g brown bread flour and 50g water. Make sure that this is at least 12 hours before you plan to make the dough, allowing time to double in size and form a very bubbly starter before using.

Morning: Measure 100g of bubbling sourdough starter into a bowl, add 300g cold water and whisk with a fork for 1min. Add 12g salt and whisk briefly again until the salt is dissolved. Add 10g olive oil and 550g flour and stir until all flour is mixed in, at least 2 mins of mixing. Use your (wet) hand to complete the mix. Leave for at least 5 minutes then gently lift and fold one corner of the dough into the middle, rotate the bowl 1/4 and repeat. Fold the dough 4 times then cover and leave for 15 mins and repeat the folding, before one final folding 15 mins later, before leaving to proof for the rest of the day.

Proofing: Cover the dough, let it proof (rise) for 10-12 hours at 16-19c in the kitchen. It only needs to double in size - you don't want it to over proof.

That evening: Shape. Check your dough, and when it has almost doubled in size, it is ready to stretch, fold, and shape.

Wet your hands, and bring the dough in from the corners of the bowl, then reach in from each side and lift up the dough in the middle, letting it stretch down front and back. Let it stretch for 15 seconds, then fold these two dropping sides over itself, turn the bowl and repeat until folded this way 4 times.

Shape roughly into the loaf you want, onto a lightly floured parchment-lined bowl - if your shaping has formed a seam, put the seam side up and pinch it closed. Cover and this in the fridge overnight.

The next morning preheat the oven to 225c - if you have a cast iron pot add this to the oven to pre heat with the lid off.

Remove the proofed loaf from the fridge, and add any cuts or slashes to the loaf before baking.

Place the loaf (still on the parchment paper) into the cast iron pot, cover and bake for 20-25. Remove lid, and bake 10-15 more minutes, until very deeply golden. For my oven total baking time is 35 mins, 25 covered and 10 uncovered.

Remove from the over and the pan, then remove the parchment paper. Let it cool on a rack for at least an hour before cutting.

If you don't have a cast iron pot you can bake in two roasting trays placed face to face, or you can bake just on a baking tray, uncovered - if so add a small pour (20ml) of boiling water to the base of your oven, every 10 mins for the first 20 mins (at start, at 10mins,and at 20mins).

Iterated from these instructions (with videos of the folds) https://www.feastingathome.com/sourdough-bread/#tasty-recipe...

He has a very simple beginner's recipe on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msqU-ylXWUs

It's the resource I shared the most with friends who asked me how to bake sourdough breads, even though I didn't learn the basics from it I really like his style of teaching, concise and thorough at the same time.