How to Feed & Maintain your Sourdough Starter (2024)

FAQs

How do I maintain my sourdough starter? ›

Maintaining A Sourdough Starter:

Leaving it out on the counter, it will need to be fed equal parts water and flour every 12-24 hours. Warmer homes or frequent baking will require more frequent feeding (around every 12 hours), while colder homes every 24 hours.

In the Fridge: if you bake only once a week or once a month, store your starter in the fridge. Feed it (1x) per week to maintain it's strength. You do not need to bring it to room temperature first before feeding it; just remove it from the fridge, feed it and put it back.

You must discard some of your sourdough starter each time you feed it. You'll discover that discarding is necessary to build a healthy and thriving sourdough starter - but it's not actually as wasteful as you might think.

If you plan to use it often, you can store it for up to two months without feeding. When you want to use the starter again, remove it from the fridge for a few hours, then feed it every 12 hours for 36 hours before you make bread with it.

It will need a lid or cover, but not something airtight: Sourdough starter emits gas, and a sealed canister can explode. If you have intermittent baking plans, you may want something that can be lidded more tightly and stashed in the refrigerator.

Sourdough Starter Feeding Chart

Maintain your sourdough starter in an ideally warm environment (75-80ºF) and feed it twice a day for best results. You can choose to feed your sourdough starter once a day or let it ripen and put it in the refrigerator in between bakes. Feed it once at room temperature before using.

Because, yes, you can overfeed your sourdough. The explanation is quite simple: if you add too much water and flour, you're basically diluting the natural population of yeast and bacteria. This means that your sourdough starter will not rise much and will not be very bubbly.

If you don't feed it often enough, the sourdough starter starts to smell like alcohol. You may also find that the starter loses its vibrancy and doesn't get too bubbly and active after a feeding. Don't worry, you can always get the starter to recover.

The answer appears to be Egyptian sourdough. Scientists have revived yeast microbes from 4,500 years ago to make a loaf of bread unlike anything on the grocery store shelves today, as part of an experiment to better understand the gut bacteria of ancient humans.

The discard is just the sourdough starter you're not currently feeding or baking with. It's called discard because it often gets "discarded" during feeding. If you don't "discard" some starter during feeding your starter will just grow and grow and grow until you're staring in a remake of The Blob.

How do you store sourdough starter long term? ›

You will need to 'feed' it every day (at the same time, if possible). A sourdough starter stored at room temperature and fed everyday will have a milder flavour than one kept in the fridge and fed once a week.

Yes. A more mature starter will have a better established colony of lactobacillus (the good bacteria that give you the distinctive sourdough flavor). So as your starter matures and ages, it will develop a much stronger sourdough flavor.

SEVERE NEGLECT: If you neglect your starter long enough, it will develop mold or signs of being overtaken by bad bacteria. Mold can appear in various colors and is typically fuzzy in appearance. Bad bacteria is generally indicated by an orange or pink tinge or streak.

Fill a glass bowl or cup with room-temperature water, and drop a small scoop (a teaspoon or less) of the starter into the water. If it floats, it's ready to use. If it sinks, your starter will need more time to develop, either with another feeding or simply more time to sit and develop air bubbles.

I prefer to use wide mouth glass jars, as the are easier to see the fermentation bubbles of the starter, easier to clean, and the wide top makes stirring simpler. You can use large mouth Mason Jars or Weck Glass Jars to house your starter.

Glass and plastic are both excellent choices for sourdough starter containers. They're clear, durable, and dishwasher friendly. So while ceramic sourdough crocks are absolutely gorgeous, I don't find them to be as functional as glass or plastic.

Add 1 scant cup (113g) flour and 1/2 cup (113g) lukewarm water to the 1/2 cup (113g) starter in the bowl. Mix until smooth, return to its jar or crock, and cover. Repeat this process every 12 hours, feeding the starter twice a day.

You use the right flour to feed your culture. Organic whole grain wheat and rye and spelt will work best because these grains will have enough yeast spores to keep your culture going. You use the right water too. A sourdough culture does not like chlorine, so if your tap water has too much of it, use bottled water.

You want to cover it mostly to prevent anything from inadvertently falling inside the jar, but it also helps prevent the mixture from drying out.

Should I add sugar to my sourdough starter? ›

Should You Add Sugar to Your Sourdough Starter? Short answer - no! You don't need to add an additional food source to your sourdough starter. Flour and water are truly all you need.

Your starter needs to be fed about 1x per week if refrigerated, and every day if left at room temperature. Generally, about 5-6 hours after feeding my starter is ready. The time may vary based on room temp, dough temp, etc. The starter should have doubled in volume and started to recede and/or pass the float test.

Feeding Schedule:

If you store the starter at room temperature, you need to feed it twice a day. Don't wait for the risen starter to collapse before the next feeding, because it messes with the ph levels and can make the yeast and bacteria less active. Every 12 hours, feed it.

Continue feeding your starter every 12–24 hours until it doubles in volume every 8–12 hours, has a pleasant, yeasty smell, and passes the float test (see note). Once it passes the float test, your starter is ready to be baked with! The whole process of getting your starter established can take anywhere from 5–10 days.

Sourdough discard is unfed starter. It's the portion of the starter you remove before you feed your sourdough starter. You should toss the sourdough discard from your starter for at least the first 7 days. In this early period, the discard will contain bad bacteria which can potentially be unsafe for you to consume.

It is a very good combination and one worth exploring. The yeast contained in the beer marries well with the yeast in your sourdough starter and produces a rich and complex sourdough flavor.

You can use stainless steel utensils to stir sourdough starter. Reactive metals you'll want to avoid are aluminum and copper.

Any flour containing starch is suitable for a sourdough starter, since it is the sugar that the microbes feed on. Glutenous flours, such as spelt, einkorn, rye, and wheat, tend to work best.

As part of the feeding process, most bakers discard some of their sourdough starter before adding fresh flour and water to the jar. This is done to refresh the acidity levels (think sweet vs. sour smell) and to manage its overall growth in size. This technique is crucial for successful sourdough bread.

Yes, you can feed sourdough starter straight from the fridge. If you've stored your sourdough starter in the fridge, you will need to discard first and then feed as per normal. For example you would discard all but 50g of starter and then feed 50g of flour and 50g of water.

How do you make a sourdough starter stronger? ›

In order to strengthen your sourdough starter try and give it flour only for one or two feeds. This will make the mixture stiffer. If your starter is quite runny, it should be easy to stir the extra flour into the mixture. If it seems a little stiff, it will loosen up as it eats and ferments the flour.

If at one point your starter was all bubbly and happy, and now it's not rising anymore, it's possible that it needs a few extra feedings to boost the yeast development. Assuming you understand how temperature and ingredients can effect the rise of your starter, try feeding it 2x per day and see what happens.

Sourdough starters, often referred to as mother dough, have a nearly 6,000-year history that spans the globe and are responsible for feeding the planet millions of times over.

Sourdough is the oldest form of leavened bread.

Hooch is harmless but should be poured off and discarded prior to stirring and feeding your starter. If a hooch is forming on your starter regularly, increase the feeding frequency and/or move the starter to a cooler spot (70-85ºF), to slow things down.

If you do not plan to bake with the starter on the day it is fed, refrigerate 3-4 hours after feeding. Feed refrigerated starter weekly. If you go longer than a week without feeding, you may want to give the starter two feedings before using.

So can a starter really be over 100 years old? Well yes, it can. Maybe it has come from a bakery that has been using (and therefore feeding) their sourdough starter for 100 years or more (like Boudin Bakery). Maybe someone dried a sourdough starter many moons ago and has kept it cool and dry.

Because, yes, you can overfeed your sourdough. The explanation is quite simple: if you add too much water and flour, you're basically diluting the natural population of yeast and bacteria. This means that your sourdough starter will not rise much and will not be very bubbly.

Ideally, you should use a medium sized, clear glass jar with a lid that can be loosely rested or screwed on tight. At a glance, the best sourdough starter jar should be: Medium sized. Clear or transparent.

Find the Peak, Feed at Peak

The best way to ensure a healthy and thriving starter is to feed at peak—the point at which yeast activity is high but the starter isn't yet proteolytic and gluten-weakening. For instance, at a feeding ratio of 1:3:3 or 1:4:4, a healthy starter should peak in at most 8-12 hours.

How do I feed my starter daily? ›

Add 1 scant cup (113g) flour and 1/2 cup (113g) lukewarm water to the 1/2 cup (113g) starter in the bowl. Mix until smooth, return to its jar or crock, and cover. Repeat this process every 12 hours, feeding the starter twice a day.

Feed the starter 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 113g) water and a scant 1 cup (4 ounces, 113g) all-purpose flour twice a day, discarding all but 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 113g) of the starter before each feeding. It should soon become healthy, bubbly, and active.