How to care for a sourdough starter: Here are my top tips!

So you have a brand new starter – congratulations! You are on your way to a (hopefully!) long and happy love affair with a yummy and nutritious food. If you have already purchased a starter, I don’t need to sell you on the benefits of sourdough bread. But if you haven’t made the leap yet – do it!! You won’t regret it. Check out my 10 year old organic starter here, then read below for my tips on how to care for a sourdough starter.

Sourdough starter in jar with handmade spoon

So what do you do once you get your new starter? Move your starter to a largish jar (about the size of a can of tomatoes will do), then follow these steps to keep your starter as fat and happy as you like!

Feeding your sourdough starter:

Your starter needs a feed of flour and water each day if you keep it out of the fridge, or week if you keep it in the fridge. I like to keep mine out of the fridge, but I try to bake every day or two. So that is what works for me. If you don’t intend to bake every day, you might prefer to keep yours in the fridge. This will mean taking your starter out of the fridge the day before you want to bake and feeding in the morning.

If you are using my recipe, you will feed as follows:

50g flour – try to use flour that is as whole wheat as possible. White bread flour will work fine, but a feed periodically with wholewheat will benefit your starter. I buy mine here.
50g water – try to use cool boiled water if you can, unless you are sure your tap water is fairly chemical free.

You may think that starting with a large amount of starter is best here, but you want to start with a maximum of 50g in your jar. Less is fine, more is not great. I usually have around 20g in my jar when I feed mine.

Using your sourdough starter:

One of the most important steps in caring for your starter, is to feed regularly. If you keep your feeding schedule up, your starter will be strong and happy, and that means great bread!

I like to feed mine the morning before I mix my dough (per my recipe). As I leave my starter out and bake each day, this means I am feeding once per day. I keep around 20g in my jar, and feed 100g mix of water & flour. This amount is then removed when I mix my dough, leaving the 20g in my jar again.

Things to look out for:

A clear liquid on top of your starter: this is very common, don’t worry! I usually means that you are leaving it too long between feedings. Just stir the liquid in (the liquid is called hooch) and feed your usual 50g each of flour and water. Your starter is slightly weakened in this state, so you may need to feed and discard a few times before your starter will be strong enough to bake.
A strong cheese smell: again, don’t worry. This is another sign that you have left it too long. This will usually be ok, just feed. As with the hooch situation above, you will need to feed and discard a few times before your starter will be strong enough to bake.
Mould: your logical brain might tell you that if your starter gets mouldy you need to throw it out. Prepare yourself: you don’t. Its perfectly fine to scrape out all the mould you can, try to grab a little of the starter that looks fairly mould free, pop it in a fresh jar and continue like it never happened! Again, you will need to feed and discard a few times before your starter will be strong enough to bake.

Keeping a frozen ace up your sleeve:

As you can see above, if you follow all my advice on how to care for a sourdough starter, it’s pretty hard to kill! But, it’s not impossible. You can make sure you always have your starter though, by keeping a little safety net in your freezer. It’s as simple as emptying a little of your starter into a small jar or snap lock bag, and popping in your freezer. This will last for up to a year, and if you kill your starter somehow, just defrost, feed, and pretend it never happened!! I probably don’t need to tell you again, but just for the record, you will need to feed and discard a few times before your starter will be strong enough to bake.