How to feed and maintain a sourdough starter with 4 tips

After hours

Dec 4

Written By Rebecca Silus

The basics of feeding your sourdough starter

Feeding a sourdough starter is a simple 1:1:1 equation.

For example:

Start with 100 grams of sourdough starter*
Add 100 grams of water and stir
Add 100 grams of flour and stir

Or to maintain a smaller amount of starter:

Start with 25 grams of sourdough starter
Add 25 grams of water and stir
Add 25 grams of flour and stir

*This is maybe their weirdest thing for a new sourdough baker to wrap their heads around—you don’t just keep feeding your starter. I mean you could but if you fed it and never took any away, your starter would grow and grow and you’d spend a small fortune on flour. The beauty of baking with starter is that you automatically reduce the amount of starter you need to feed when you remove some to bake with it and THAT means a manageable amount of starter to maintain.

2 common sourdough feeding scenarios for me

Scenario 1:
It’s been awhile and I need to feed my starter but I’m not going to bake anything.

I think most bakers have a certain amount of starter they like to maintain based on their regular baking needs, so it’s up to you to determine what amount works for you.

I usually find that the amount I want to feed is 200 grams. That leaves me with enough to make 2 loaves of bread when I am ready to bake (remember: once you feed 200 grams with equal amounts of water and flour it is going to grow and weigh more).

So this is what I would do:

Remove 200 grams from the original starter
Decide what to do what anything that is left over (toss? make sourdough pancakes?)
Add 200 grams of water and stir
Add 200 grams of flour and stir
Cover and put back in the fridge

Scenario 2:
I’m going to bake some bread and will feed my starter at the same time.

This assumes that I’ve figured out already how much starter I need to maintain for my baking needs as I mentioned in Scenario 1 and that I am starting my baking with enough starter to meet the recipe.

My recipe calls for 227 grams of starter and I typically make 2 loaves at a time.

Remove 454 grams (227 x2) of starter and set aside to bake with
Weigh the remaining amount of starter
Say the amount that remains is 187 grams. I would then add 187 grams of water and stir
Then add 187 grams of flour and stir
Cover and put back in refrigerator for my next bake

4 tips for maintaining and using sourdough starter

These are some lessons I’ve learned over the years that make feeding and maintaining my starter easier to keep and use.

Keep it in the fridge.

Starters that live in the fridge only need to be fed every week or two ( as opposed to 1–2 time a day if kept on the counter).

You know your starter is getting hangry when it gets a layer of liquid on top of it—if you see that happening, feed it immediately and return to the refrigerator.

You don’t need to feed your starter before baking with it.

For some reason, common Sourdough Rules say that starter will only ‘work’ if it is incorporated into the recipe at the exact moment it’s at its height in the feeding cycle. I’ve found that this is not true.

When I’m ready to bake, I take my starter out of the fridge and remove the amount I need for the recipe. I typically feed the starter at this point so that it’s ready for me the next time I bake.

The beauty of this approach is that you don’t need to plan ahead to prep your starter before baking.

Maintain an amount that reflects your typical baking needs.

I usually make the same thing with my starter: two loaves of bread. I’ve found it’s easy to maintain a certain amount of starter that provides me with enough starter to bake with and just enough left over to feed and produce enough starter for the next time I bake.

Finding the right amount for me to maintain typically means that I don’t have to throw any starter away when I feed it so it’s just a little more efficient and less wasteful.

This approach doesn’t mean I have an exact number that I maintain—it’s just always about 200 grams more than the 454 grams I need for my two loaves of bread.

Have a few go-to recipes for leftover starter.

No matter how hard you try to not have more starter, there will be times when you do. I always prefer to use extra starter rather than toss it. These are a few of my favorite ways to use leftover starter:

Banana Rhubarb Sourdough Bread

Sourdough pancakes - coming soon

How to use sourdough starter in (almost) any recipe - coming soon

Who’s got something to add? Let me know any other sourdough starter tips you have in the comments!