Okay, you have either babied your sourdough starter to life, or you have acquired a beautiful happy and hungry starter from a friend. You’re staring at it on your kitchen counter likely overwhelmed and thinking “OK NOW WHAT DO I DO”
I’m here to hold your hand and explain to you the answer you’re hoping for.
If you remember nothing, remember this: Starter MUST be fed at least its weight in flour each feeding
We have two ways we can maintain our starters
One: In the fridge where it will require fewer feedings
Two: On the counter where we need to feed it every 12-24 hours
You might be thinking in your head “why would I not keep it in the fridge all the time?” and you would be valid in that question. So lets discuss the pros and cons of both.
Fridge Feeding
When keeping your starter in the fridge, you need to feed it once a week to keep it fresh and ready for bread. After a week it will become hungry and the yeast will weaken. This is a huge pro as once a week feeding is easier and takes less flour than every day feeding. Unfortunately, fridge maintained starter might not always be ready for bread straight out of the fridge. This starter will take up to 3 days to reach is “peak” and if you have forgotten about it and its been many weeks, you might need to give it 3 or 4 feedings at room temp to bring it back into balance.
Standard Feeding
Keeping your starter on the counter and feeding it every day has many benefits. First, you have fresh starter ready to use every day. Even if its a few hours past it’s peak, it still makes great bread. The flavor profile of the yeasts and bacteria improve and as long as you truly do not forget a day, your starter may be healthier. This starter MUST be fed every 24 hours and in warmer climates, maybe closer to 12 hours. This starter is easier to kill as it will only take a few days of forgetting to feed it for the yeast to become too hungry and die. This method works fantastic for someone who makes tons of bread and who wants to use their starter every day.
So what do I prefer?
A mixture of both, depending on how often I’m using my starter. I like to feed it, leave it out for 4-8 hours, then use it to make bread, and then feed it again and put it in the fridge. If I know I want to make multiple bread things throughout the week, I’ll keep it on the counter for a few days and do the daily feedings. Then when I know I wont use it for a few days, back into the fridge for a nap it goes. As a forgetful person, this ensures I wont forget about it and accidentally starve it to death.
If you’ve gotten this far, you probably would love for me to just get on with it and tell you how to feed the darn thing. Ok, ok, here you go:
Basic Feeding Instructions
You must feed your starter at least it’s weight/volume in flour. If you have 2 tablespoons of starter, it will need 2 tablespoons of flour, and enough water to make it a thick pancake batter consistency. You can ALWAYS feed it more flour. It is next to impossible to over feed your starter.
Discard or use your starter down to what you would like to feed (I try to not let this be more than 1/4c). Spoon in an equal amount of flour, and then slowly add water in stages, stirring in between, until you have a thick pancake batter consistency. Cover loosely with your lid, and let the yeasty beasties do their thing. Put it in the fridge if thats what you would like to do, or stick it somewhere you wont accidentally knock it over and continue on with your day.
This post covers the basics. There are many more things we could discuss regarding starter, and we absolutely will in further posts.
Happy Baking!
Lily