HOW TO FEED YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER

If you’re anything like me, you may be intimated with the fact that you now have a sourdough starter. You’re probably wondering what to feed it, how much to feed it, when to feed it, where to store it, and how the heck to keep it alive. I get it!

I’m going to tell you exactly how to feed your sourdough starter and keep it as stress free as possible, because this is fun stuff!

First, let’s start with some basics.

We need to briefly discuss where to store you starter, why you need to feed it, when to feed, and then we can get to how to feed it. Also please understand, there a TON of different ways to do this. I’ll share my favorite ways and what I’ve done in the past. You can decide what works best for you and ask questions along the way if needed.

Wait hold on, you need to do something first…

Name your starter! My starter’s name is Voldoughmort/Tom Riddoughl (if you’re an HP fan, hi!)

Okay, now we can begin.

Where should your starter be stored?

I’m starting here because where you store your starter changes when you may feed your starter and what you may do as far as prep work prior to feeding.

I keep Voldoughmort, my starter, stored in the depths of my fridge in a pretty large mason jar. Any time I am not feeding him or letting him rise, he’s chillin’ in my fridge. Sometimes he’s in there for days and weeks at a time. Keeping him cool in the fridge slows down all enzyme activity and keeps him in his inactive state as Tom Riddoughl.

Some people keep their starter on the counter all the time. Typically those people are baking every day and frequently using their starter – like every single day. Or when they have a young, immature starter that requires daily feeds. I only use my starter about twice a week.

You probably obtained your starter in some sort of glass container which is perfect so you can see how active and bubbly your starter gets once it’s fed.

I’ve stored mine in mason jars and other wider and shorter glass tupperware. I love how wide my large jar is now because it doesn’t get as gunky on the top when I go to feed my starter like my smaller mason jar did.

Whatever container you chose, make sure it has airtight seal!

Why do you need to feed your starter?

Feeding your starter allows for the fermentation process to begin. It’s what helps get the enzymes going and get that nice bubbly look!

Not all recipes call for active starter though, a lot of them actually can use discard starter or inactive starter. This means you would not have to feed your starter prior to making your recipe. You just need to make sure you have enough discard starter for your recipe!

How to prep your sourdough starter for a feed?

Let me first say, there’s really only one wrong way to do this – that’s by not doing it at all.

Your sourdough is much more forgiving than you realize!

Whether you store your starter in the fridge or on the counter, you want to make sure that you’re starting with only a small amount of starter.

In the picture below, the container on the left was an inactive starter container that was sitting in my fridge. I took roughly 2 Tbsp of starter out and placed it the large mason jar which I then fed.

You only need a small amount of starter before you feed it. Otherwise it will require a lot more flour and water to feed, and that can easily get expensive!

To get a small amount of starter to start your feed, you have some options:

1. Throw away some of your starter in the garbage (never put any of your starter down the drain!!)
2. Use some of your inactive starter in a discard recipe – yes please!
3. Take out a small portion and start a feed in a new jar – this is what I did in the photos above and tend to do most often. This allows me to keep a good supply of discard starter in my fridge for discard recipes. And it helps prevent a lot of waste!

How to feed your sourdough starter?

My exact feeding steps:

1. Take your starter out of the fridge. Ensure roughly 2 Tbsp is in the bottom of the container.
2. Add roughly 1 cup of all purpose flour and 1 cup water.
3. Mix starter, flour, water together. Add more water or flour as needed so it is a thick, pancake batter like consistency.
4. Cover with a paper towel or lid.
5. Let rise for a couple of hours on the counter, or overnight, until it doubles in size.
6. Take the amount of active starter needed for your recipe and add it to the other recipe ingredients.
7. OR if you’re not ready to make your recipe yet, put your now active starter in the fridge for up to 3 days and take it out when you’re ready to use.
8. Return starter back to the fridge until ready to be fed again.

Pro tip: If your starter is still young, feed your starter a 1:1 ratio water-flour by weight, not by volume. Water weighs more than flour does. As an example, you would feed it 100g of water and 100g of flour. As your starter matures, you just want to make to sure that your starter is a thick, pancake batter like consistency. I never measure anymore!

You will notice that your starter gets big and bubbly after a feed and that’s exactly what you want!

When to feed your starter?

• For the work week: I feed my starter at night before going to bed. When I wake up, I put my fed starter in the fridge and head to work. When I’m home from work, I use my fed starter for any recipe and make it that night or within the next 2-3 nights.
• For the weekend: I either feed my starter Friday night, and do as stated above. Or I feed it on Saturday/Sunday morning and let my fed starter sit out on my counter until it doubles in size. Then I make my recipe.

If you’re interested in my easy-to-follow Sourdough Starter Feed Schedule, click here.

How long does it take for starter to rise?

This will depend on the temperature of your room, temperature of your starter, and the flour/water ratio. Usually, I would say a couple of hours.

I typically feed it the night before and it has doubled in size by the next morning.

Pro tip: If you’re using a mason jar, you can leave a rubber band around the height of where your starter is after you feed it. Then you can watch to see when it doubles in height. If your jar is too big for a rubber band you can also use a dry erase marker. Your starter should be twice as high in the jar when comparing it to where your rubber band is at. That’s when you know it is ready to use in your recipe.

What if your starter begins to shrink?

Sometimes you can miss your rise time. Meaning that the starter reached the double in height point but the next time you look at it, it’s shrunk back down in your jar. If you’re anything like me and get distracted easily, this will happen I promise you that.

This just means that you missed the full rise. Don’t panic, it’s usually just fine and you can continue to make your recipe as you normally would.

Sometimes if this happens I usually just try to make the recipe pretty quickly.

If I’m not able to get to making the recipe right away, I just count my starter as discard (inactive starter) and repeat the process of feeding. So again, you can either use a discard recipe that does not require active starter and reduce some of your starting point or you can throw some out and feed it again.

What if you don’t use your fed starter right away?

So similar to above, if you have the option to quickly make the recipe, go for it! It’ll be just fine.

If it’s completely deflated back to baseline, I would probably start over. Just remove enough so 2 Tbsp is left like we discussed above.

If for some reason you decide that you just don’t want to or don’t have the time to make your recipe anymore after you fed it, and you got it to rise up double in size, then simply put it in the fridge. You’ll have roughly 3-4 days where you can use it as active starter.

When you’re ready to make your recipe, just take it out of the fridge and you’ll be good to go!

I hope this was helpful! Remember, it’s not complicated as it seems!

Feeding your sourdough starter is one of the easiest parts, now you just have to actually do it!

If you have any questions, drop them below!