Feeding Your Sourdough Starter
Updated: 3d
Whether you started your culture from scratch, bought one, or, like me, had a portion mailed to you by a family member, feeding it correctly is what keeps it alive and active. Here's how I do it.
My starter's name is Susie. My sister-in-law gave her to me and named her that, and it just stuck ever since.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Clear, simple guidance for keeping your starter alive
Real answers for common starter problems
A great reference to come back to anytime
Understanding Sourdough Starter
At its core, a sourdough starter is a living mixture of flour and water that cultivates natural yeast and beneficial bacteria. This dynamic culture is crucial for making a variety of delicious baked goods with that distinctive tangy flavor we love.
Equipment for Feeding Your Starter
Maintaining a sourdough starter might seem daunting, but it’s quite manageable with the right tools:
A Suitable Jar: I recommend a glass jar with ample space for growth, like a 1-liter mason jar. Ensure your container can accommodate the starter as it expands; a jar that’s too small will overflow.
Kitchen Scale: Accuracy is key. A digital kitchen scale is essential for measuring your starter and the flour and water you’ll add. This precision is crucial for consistent results.
Utensils: A good spatula, such as a GIR Skinny Spoonula, is perfect for mixing and transferring your starter. Choose what feels comfortable for you!
Optional Items:
Rubber Band: Use a rubber band to mark the level of your starter after feeding. This visual cue helps track its growth.
Plastic Wrap: Cover your jar loosely with plastic wrap to retain moisture while allowing air to circulate. Avoid sealing it tightly.
When to Feed Your Starter
Once established, the feeding schedule depends on how often you plan to use your starter:
Daily Use: If you bake frequently, keep your starter at room temperature and feed it daily.
Weekly Use: For occasional bakers, store your starter in the fridge. Feeding it once a week keeps it in peak shape, but it is far more forgiving than that. Mine has gone six weeks in the fridge without a feeding and come back completely fine. It may look neglected, with a layer of dark hooch on top, and it will need two or three feedings to get back to full strength before you bake with it.
How to Feed Your Sourdough Starter
Bring to Room Temperature: If your starter is in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for about 2 hours before feeding.
Measure and Discard: For a typical feed, measure out 50g of your starter into a mixing bowl. Discard the remainder, or save it for delicious sourdough discard recipes (never pour it down the sink!).
Add Flour and Water: Add 50g of unbleached all-purpose flour and 50g of warm water. Mix until smooth.
Clean the Jar: It’s optional, but I recommend cleaning the jar to prevent hardened bits from building up.
Transfer and Cover: Pour the fed mixture back into the jar, place the rubber band at the new level, and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
Let It Rise: Allow the starter to sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours to activate (e.g. feed at 8pm, ready next morning).
Feeding Before You Bake
The feeding above is maintenance. It keeps your starter alive and healthy week to week. But when you're actually planning to bake, you need two things: more starter than your jar usually holds, and a starter that's at its peak when you want to use it.
That's what the ratios are for. A ratio like 1:3:3 just means one part starter, three parts flour, three parts water.
1:1:1 (50g starter, 50g flour, 50g water) is maintenance. It keeps things ticking over.
1:2:2 (50g starter, 100g flour, 100g water) builds more, and peaks a little slower.
1:3:3 (50g starter, 150g flour, 150g water) builds the most, and takes the longest to peak.
Here's what that looks like in practice. My Fluffy Sourdough Sandwich Bread needs 250g of active starter. So I take 50g from the jar, feed it 150g flour and 150g water, and that gives me 350g total. I use 250g for the loaf and the remaining 100g goes back in the jar for next time.
Always leave some behind. If I'd used a 1:2:2 there I'd have ended up with exactly 250g and nothing left to keep going.
I usually do this the night before, around 8pm, and the starter is ready to use the next morning.
This is also why you don't need to keep a big jar going year-round. A small starter is less flour to feed and less to throw away, and you scale it up only when you're actually baking.
Insider Tip
Don’t stress too much about precise measurements! While consistency is important, slight variations won’t harm your starter. Just ensure your water is warm; this encourages activity.
Understanding Sourdough Discard
After each feeding, you’ll have leftover starter, known as discard. Here’s what you can do with it:
Discard It: This is the simplest option. Just compost or throw it away (avoid the sink!).
Bake with It: If you plan to bake the same day, keep the discard at room temperature until you’re ready.
Store It: Keep the discard in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks for later baking adventures.
Make More Starter: Feed the discard to create a new starter or share some with a friend to start their own!
Things to Keep in Mind
Resilience: Sourdough starters are remarkably forgiving. Minor missteps won’t usually ruin them.
Temperature Matters: Starters thrive at around 70°F. If it’s cooler, activity slows down; if it’s too warm, you risk killing the yeast.
By following these simple steps, you’ll be well on your way to maintaining a vibrant sourdough starter that will yield delicious baked goods for years to come. Happy baking!
Ingredient Notes
Unbleached flour: Bleaching agents can inhibit the wild yeast and bacteria you are trying to cultivate.
Filtered or dechlorinated water: Chlorine in tap water suppresses fermentation. Letting tap water sit out overnight is enough to dissipate it.
Whole grain flour: A small percentage of rye or whole wheat accelerates activity considerably, since the bran carries more wild yeast.
Consistent ratios: The specific ratio matters less than keeping it consistent, that is what makes starter behavior predictable.
Troubleshooting Tips
My starter isn't rising after I feed it. Make sure you're using unbleached flour and room-temperature (not chlorinated tap) water if possible, and give it more time in a warmer spot before assuming it's not working.
I see fuzzy spots on my starter. That's mold, not hooch, and it means the starter needs to be discarded and started fresh. Hooch is liquid, mold is fuzzy and often colored, don't try to save a moldy starter.
What to Serve This With
Pair this with the Sourdough Starter Recipe to get your starter up and running from scratch.
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