How to maintain a sourdough starter

Keep your precious sourdough starter alive with these 5 easy tips

1. Use the ratio of 1:1:2 to feed your starter

That is, 1/2 cup starter, 1/2 cup filtered water and 1 cup flour. Use filtered water only because normal tap water often contains chlorine and will kill the active cultures in your starter. Any type of all-purpose or whole wheat flour will do the trick, although I have also seen people feed it with rye flour too. After feeding it, try to leave it out for 1-2 hours so it can 'eat', before putting it back in the fridge (if that's where you keep it).

2. Store it in the fridge unless you are baking regularly

Sourdoughs are time-intensive endeavors and you might only be baking them once in a while unless you are stuck at home all the time (like the great quarantine of March 2020). If you keep them in the fridge, you slow down it's activity significantly, which means you only need to feed it once every 1-2 weeks. Even if you get lazy and only feed it after a month, they can usually be revived after a few feedings. If you keep it on the counter, you will need to feed it daily.

3. Pour away the hooch before you feed it

Often, a layer of clear liquid called hooch forms on top of your starter, which means it was underfed. Hooch is harmless but should be poured off and discarded prior to stirring and feeding your starter. If hooch forms regularly, increase the feeding frequency and/or move the starter to a cooler spot (70-85ºF), to slow things down.

4. Discard excess starter before feeding

If you keep feeding your starter with the ratio of 1:1:2 without discarding any, you will eventually end up with a giant jar of starter. For beginner recipes, you really don't need more than 30g of starter for each bake. So common sense simply dictates that you should discard part of your starter before feeding it. Simply pour it down the sink, or save the discard in another jar for sourdough pancakes on Sundays!.

5. If your starter passes the float test, it's ready to be used!

Drop 1/2 teaspoon of your starter into a glass of water. If it floats to the top, it is ready to be used. If it sinks, feed your starter again and wait another 1-2 hours before testing. If your starter still keeps sinking, you might need to wait another 12 hours for it to fully recover, especially if it has not been properly fed for a long time. If you want to go ahead to bake without a mature starter, it will still work, but your loaves are likely to be a little flatter and denser than you would like because it may not be able to generate enough gases to rise properly.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/b97311_c01cea37004b4290a5aa0ba020244e58/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

PS: if you are in San Francisco and want to buy a starter, just drop me a message!