Learn how to feed and maintain a successful sourdough starter in 3 easy steps! Tips shared for choosing the best flour, the right jar, and how to keep it alive (without the stress).

Feeding Sourdough Starter: My Best Tips &amp; Tricks

Sourdough Starter

one)

Digital Kitchen Scale

flour

Water, filtered tap water

Remove and discard half of your sourdough starter from the jar.

Feed what&#8217;s left in the jar with equal parts flour and water by weight (1:1:1 feeding ratio). You need a digital kitchen scale for this. Because we all work with different quantities of starters, this 1:1:1 feeding ratio is best understood by example. So, if you have 60 g of starter in the jar, feed it with 60 g flour + 60 g water. If you have 30 g of starter, feed it with 30 g of flour and 30 g of water. Mix well with a fork, scraping down the sides as needed. Cover the jar with a lid. The lid can be airtight or loosely placed on top- your choice. Note: if the jar is airtight, the pressure will build up fast. Keep an eye on the jar so it doesn&#8217;t burst.

Let your starter rise at room temperature, ideally 75+ F (the warmer it is, the faster it will rise), until bubbly, active and double in size (2-12 hrs). When your starter is at peak height, it&#8217;s ready to use. Eventually it will fall back down, and become inactive again. Then, you&#8217;ll need to repeat the feeding process.

Thanks, Emilie. I'll quit worrying about the starters and go back to worrying about whether or not the trip we're planning actually happens.
Steve

Hi again, Emilie

As I have noted prior, I have greatly enjoyed your book as it has enabled me to ramp up my sourdough baking forays to new delicious levels.  My problem is that I am not a multi-time per week baker and one can only deal w sourdough feeding discards for pancakes, banana bread, etc for so long. For your readers that find themselves in the same situation, especially right now with inflation causing huge upticks in flour prices, I would suggest consideration of  a low maintenance “no discard” sourdough technique.  This is not as radical as putting the sourdough to hibernation by drying into flakes, but utilizes much less water so that interval feeding is not required at all.  I have used this now for over 8 months and I am very pleased.
I would place a few links here in my Comments, but they would likely be bounced by the mods.  An interested reader can just do an Internet search for “NO DISCARD SOURDOUGH STARTER” and the best instructions will pop up in the first half-dozen “hits.”
I especially like this method during the Summer months when my baking may only be once a week or even less.  I left my starter for 2 weeks recently while traveling in Europe, and returned with recipes that I wanted to try.  My no-discard starter was ready and able and did not disappoint!   Thanks again.

I bake a loaf of sourdough about every 4 days. I have two starters that I alternate. I put them in the refrigerator immediately after feeding. When I want to bake I take the one I didn't use last time out of the refrigerator and immerse the the jar in hot tap water for about 30 minutes to bring it to room temperature or a bit higher. I do a float test, which shows the starter is active almost every time. Then I use it to make my dough (your basic sourdough recipe, which is great), feed it and right back into the refrigerator. I've probably made over 200 loaves since I started in April 2020. With this method I don't have to feed the starter and wait for it to double before baking.

Hi Emilie,
It doesn't quite double in the fridge but nearly doubles in the hot tap water. Float test almost always shows it's ready. If it doesn't float I try my other starter and feed the first one and put it back in the fridge. Both starters are 100% hydration. One starter is all AP flour and the other is 50/50 whole wheat /AP. The all AP is a bit more active but both produce fine loaves with your basic recipe. 100 grams starter, 100 grams water, 100 grams flour are my starter feeding proportions.
Steve

Glad it's working for you, Emelie. It has made my life easier, for sure.
Steve

Thank you so much for your teaching:)
I am confused only with one thing -  how to maintain the starter?
If a want to feed it once a week, what is the right ratio?
Let say, I have 100 gm of starter, discarding half - I will have 50 gm of starter  - what will be the right amount of water and flour to feed it each week?
Thank you so much!

Thank you so much Emelie. It does help. My niece, who also loves your book, and I were talking about it and that was her thought. To follow up, do I have to weigh the jar contents each time I feed it and then take out the discard. Today I weighed the contents of my jar because I was wondering if it should be 113 g x 3, flour, water and starter. It weighed quite a bit less than 339 g. I guess that's the science in action. The bacteria is possibly consuming the flour and water.

Hi there, thanks for your post. I have had a sourdough starter for nearly 3 weeks, and I feed it regularly. Each day, it rises and falls as expected. The rise isn’t completely double but it’s very close (probably about 1.75x). However, it does not rise breads. I’ve now tried 5 or 6 loaves, sandwich bread and traditional sourdough loaf, and it will not give them any rise. 

I’ve used the same flour. I don’t have any hooch. I use a scale for precision. I have fed it at the same time every day… still, nothing. Any ideas?

Yes, yes, yes,  This article was very helpful.  Thank you very much

feeding sourdough starter: my best tips & tricks

Prep Time: 5 hours

Total: 5 hours

Servings: 1

Author : Emilie Raffa

Ingredients

Instructions

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