How To Feed And Maintain A Sourdough Starter

Sharing is caring!

Learn how to feed and maintain a sourdough starter to keep it healthy and active.  Great sourdough bread and other sourdough recipes start with a healthy sourdough starter.  I get questions everyday about how to properly care for a sourdough starter, so I’m gathering them all here, and hoping this will be a helpful resource for you.

happy and bubbly sourdough starter

My Sourdough Journey

My sourdough journey began over 15 years ago when I first made a starter and began experimenting with how to care for it and bake with it.  I have learned a lot over the years, and I’m excited to share with you the tips needed for success.  

Simple Sourdough

One thing I will tell you upfront is that sourdough is very simple, and does not need to be nearly as complicated as some well-meaning people make it.  Sourdough is something that can fit around the edges of your life, and it doesn’t need to control your whole life.  It is also for much more than just sourdough bread.  

Sourdough For More Than Just Breadmaking

I think a lot of people assume that sourdough is just for breadmaking, but sourdough can be used with almost any recipe that uses flour, and adds important gut health benefits to lots of different recipes.  From sourdough waffles and pancakes, to stromboli and pasta, to donuts and bagels, sourdough will be a game changer in your kitchen.  It’s actually much easier to cook and bake with sourdough than without it, and once you start your sourdough journey you’ll never go back.  I like to have a lot of refrigerated sourdough starter on hand at all times, so I can easily mix up sourdough discard recipes anytime.  

Most sourdough recipes can be made ahead of time, and in fact the gut health benefits are much greater if you allow the sourdough to long ferment for a few hours, or even a few days in the refrigerator.  This makes baking with sourdough as easy as having Pillsbury dough in your refrigerator, because you can literally pull out the dough and make it into something in just a few minutes.  The upside is that it’s more nutritious, less expensive and easier than Pillsbury because you don’t have to leave your house and go to the store to buy it.  A win-win, especially for those with busy lives, which is basically all of us.

stack of pancakes with butter

How To Maintain A Sourdough Starter Video

Be sure to watch the video below, where I show you all the tips and tricks you’ll need to keep a happy sourdough starter.

Find all of our favorite sourdough recipes here – there might be some that you never would have thought of.

Below you will find some Frequently Asked Questions that may help answer some of the questions you have, so be sure to check out that section of this post.  But first, let me tell you how to maintain a healthy sourdough starter.

Understanding The Concept Of How To Feed and Maintain A Sourdough Starter

​How Often Do You Need To Feed Your Starter?

These instructions are for a mature sourdough starter.  If you want to learn how to easily make your own sourdough starter without a scale, you can find the full tutorial here.

sourdough starter jar by egg basket

Sourdough is a living thing made up of flour, water and wild yeasts.  Any living thing has to be fed in order to stay happy and healthy.  It is a good idea to feed your starter at least once a week, but starter that is left in the refrigerator is usually still good even after months of neglect.  Sometimes it takes a couple of feedings before it’s super active again, but that’s okay (see video).

Basics Of Sourdough Feeding

To feed your sourdough starter, you’ll add flour and water to a small amount of starter.  The starter will slowly consume the food (flour and water) it has been given and as it does it will rise and become active (like kids after they’re fed sugar).  This is when it’s called active sourdough starter and this is typically when you will use it for making bread.  

active sourdough starter

You’ll know its active because it will more than double in size, and be bubbly.  After it uses up all of it’s energy from the food you fed it, it will fall back down to it’s original state and be thinner with fewer bubbles.  This is when it’s called inactive sourdough starter or discard. Sourdough discard is just the part of the starter that you discard into a separate container to be stored in the refrigerator before feeding your sourdough starter. (More info below). Sourdough starter and discard are basically the same thing, and the terms can be used interchangeably.

A Bit About Ratios

When you feed your sourdough starter, you want to make sure you’re feeding it more flour and water than there is sourdough starter in the jar.  So if you have a lot of sourdough starter in your jar, you need to either discard some to a separate container before feeding in the original jar, or take out a little bit and put it in a clean jar and feed it there.  You can do it either way.

You’ll here a lot of people talk about feeding their starter with a 1:1:1 ratio, meaning 1 part starter, 1 part water, and 1 part flour.  This only applies if you’re using a scale, because flour and water don’t weigh the same, and different flours will have different weights.  I do everything by measuring in cups, so a 1:1:1 ratio doesn’t apply.  Sidenote, even if you do measure using a scale, your starter will be happiest if you feed it more flour and water than you have starter because it will have plenty of food to consume.  I suggest a 1:5:5 ratio for best results, or 50 grams of starter, 250 grams of water and 250 grams of flour, for example.

feeding sourdough starter from the refrigerator

Sourdough Starter And Discard Are The Same Thing

Sourdough starter and sourdough discard are essentially the same thing.  They are both flat sourdough starter.  Sourdough discard from an established starter should never be thrown away, only discarded into another container to be used in lots of discard recipes.

Why Do You Have To Discard Some Of Your Starter Before Feeding It?

The short answer is to keep it happy.

I like to think of sourdough starter like I think of our cows.  If you have a small number of cows, then you only need to feed them a small amount of hay each day.  But if you have a large herd of cows, then you must feed them a lot of hay or they will be hungry and unhappy (inactive).  It’s the same with sourdough starter.  Every time you feed your sourdough starter, the little bit of starter in the bottom of the jar turns the flour and water you feed it into more starter.  

You might say that it multiplies itself every time you feed it.  (Using the cattle herd analogy, its like the cattle herd gets bigger everytime it’s fed, so you have to feed more and more hay everyday unless you discard some before feeding).  So, if you never discard any starter, and just keep adding flour and water to the same jar, you’ll have to feed it more and more flour and water (food) every time you feed it in order to keep it happy until it’ll take a 5 gallon bucket to hold it all.  Or if you don’t discard, and keep adding just a small amount of flour and water everyday, your starter will eventually starve and choke itself out because it won’t ever get enough food to be happy (active).

Example Of Why You Need To Discard Before Feeding

For example, if I have 2 cups of starter, I would need to feed it several cups of flour and water because if I only fed it ½ cup of flour and water, it would be hungry and unhappy because it would be starving (in other words it wouldn’t rise well).  That would be like feeding cheese and crackers to an army of men, instead of meat and potatoes.  But if I only have a couple of Tablespoons of starter in my jar because I discarded some of it before feeding, then I can feed it a smaller amount of flour and water and it will be active and happy without me ending up with a ton of starter.

bubbly sourdough starter

Don’t Starve Your Starter

One issue I see often, is that people are not discarding enough before feeding.  They discard some, but might keep ½ cup of starter in their jar, and then only feed it ½ cup of flour and ⅓ cup of water, and that’s not enough food for that amount of starter.  If you do that over several days, your starter will get less and less happy, and be starving.  Make sure you’re discarding enough!  Even if you only have 1 Tablespoon of starter or just a little bit left in your container, it will easily take over a lot of flour and water, so don’t be afraid to discard plenty.

What Are Sourdough Discard Recipes?

Sourdough discard recipes are recipes that either do not rely on the yeasts in the sourdough starter to raise them, or they are recipes that are intended to stay flat (unraised) like tortillas.  A lot of discard recipes call for baking powder and/or baking soda to raise them (like muffins).

What Are Recipes That Use Active Sourdough Starter?

Recipes that use active sourdough starter (starter that is at its peak rise) are recipes that rely on the sourdough starter to raise them, like bread.  Most sourdough bread recipes call for active sourdough starter.  When the sourdough starter is active, the wild yeasts in it are also most active and able to raise your bread to it’s highest point.

How to Care For Your Sourdough Starter

I keep my starter in the refrigerator whenever I’m not using it, and that slows down the fermentation so it doesn’t have to be fed as often.  If you leave your starter out on the countertop all the time, you’ll want to feed it every 24 hours or so for best results.  If you happen to forget it on the counter for 2 to 3 days, don’t worry, just discard some and feed it, and once it’s risen and fallen, just put it back in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake again.  

Feeding A Sourdough Starter In The Refrigerator

When your sourdough starter/discard jar in the refrigerator is almost empty, take it out of the refrigerator and fill it half-full with flour.  Then add warm water (about 110 degrees) to it and stir until it’s a thick pancake batter consistency, and won’t fall off the back of the spoon.  I cover it with a loose-fitting lid and let it set out at room temperature for a few hours until it rises and falls.  Then I put it back into the refrigerator so it’s ready to use in any discard recipe.  

lady adding flour and water to sourdough jar

I never measure, but if you want to measure until you get the idea of the consistency, the ratios I use are the same as I use when starting a starter:  3 Tablespoons starter, ½ flour and ⅓ cup water.  You can increase the amount of flour and water as much as you’d like (until your container is half full) as long as you keep the ratios the same.  Note: If you find that you don’t have much starter left in your jar (even less than 3 Tablespoons), you can feed it several cups of flour and water if your container is big enough, and it will still turn it all into sourdough starter, it just might take it a little longer depending on the strength of your starter.

When I’m baking large amounts of sourdough bread for farmers market in the summertime, I often put a small bit of starter in a large bowl, and feed up 15 or 20 cups of flour and the corresponding amount of water so I’ll have plenty of starter for all the bread I have to bake.

Feed Your Sourdough Starter For Bread Making

When you want to make sourdough bread, or a recipe that calls for active sourdough starter, take your starter jar out of the refrigerator, put 3 Tablespoons approximately into a new jar (I use a wide mouth quart jar) and feed it 2 cups flour and 1 ⅓ cups warm water (same feeding ratio as above).  Keep in mind you don’t have to measure, but you want a thick consistency.  Stir it up and leave it covered with a loose-fitting lid in a warm place until it rises.  

How long this process takes will depend on the time of year, and the temperature of your house.  Usually it’s 6 to 8 hours for me on average.  When it’s at it’s peak rise, mix up your bread or other recipe.  If you miss the peak rise, don’t worry, mix up your recipe anyway.  The yeasts will be warm and active and when added to the flour and water in the recipe, will do their work of leavening and you’ll still end up with beautiful bread.  I usually feed my starter at night before going to bed, and then mix up bread in the morning.

feeding sourdough starter (3)

After you take out the refrigerated starter and feed some in a separate jar for making active starter, you can just put the remaining starter in your discard jar back in the refrigerator.

And that’s it…it’s really that simple!  Just keep your jar of starter/discard in the refrigerator at least half full for discard recipes, and if you need active starter, take out a small bit and feed it in a new jar before you want to make bread.

Here are two of my favorite basic sourdough bread recipes:

Artisan Sourdough Bread

artisan sourdough bread recipe

Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread

loaf of sourdough sandwich bread

Top Three Tips For Successfully Feeding And Maintaining A Sourdough Starter.

  1.  Use warm water when feeding
  2. Leave it out on your counter in a warm place when you want it to rise (if your house is really cold in the winter time, you can set your starter on a heat mat, get a bread proofing box, or even set it next to a warm crockpot or coffee pot.  The top of your refrigerator will be a warm place as well.
  3. Make sure it’s the consistency of a thick pancake batter when you feed it

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Shop This Post

Half gallon starter jar for the refrigerator

Heat mat, optional

Sourdough stirrer

Wide mouth mason jar

Flour

happy sourdough starter

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a sourdough starter?

A sourdough starter is simply a fermented mix of flour and water that is used to make all kinds of baked goods.  Because it is a fermented food, it is very easy for your body to digest and is one of the most traditional and healthiest foods on the planet.

Wild yeast

When we make a sourdough starter, what we are actually doing is capturing some of the wild yeast microorganisms that live naturally in the air around us.  The flour and water mixture we call sourdough is where the wild yeasts will live.  Those wild yeasts are the leaven we can use to make our bread rise, instead of using commercial yeast which can be harder to digest because of it’s fungal and chemical elements.

Digestive benefits of sourdough

One of the biggest reasons for making fermented foods like sourdough is because it is easier for your body to digest.  Sourdough breaks down most of the phytic acid that is present in flour which hinders the absorption of certain minerals such as zinc, magnesium, calcium and iron. Since wheat bran is especially high in phytic acid, it is one of the biggest causes of gluten intolerance.  If you or someone you know has experienced gluten intolerance, you should try eating long-fermented sourdough foods.  A lot of people with gluten intolerance have found they can eat sourdough and not have any adverse affects. 

Is sourdough starter gluten free?

No, sourdough starter is not gluten free, but because the phytic acid in it has mostly been broken down, it is much easier for gluten intolerant people to digest.  If you are celiac (which is an autoimmune disease that reacts with gluten), then sourdough won’t be safe for you to eat because sourdough will still have trace amounts of gluten.

stirring sourdough starter

What is active sourdough starter?

Active sourdough starter is discard that has been fed a mix of flour and water and has risen to it’s peak.  It is the state in which the yeasts are most active or sometimes we say “happy”.  If using sourdough to raise bread or other baked goods, it is best to use it at it’s most active state, or before it starts to fall.

What is sourdough discard?

Sourdough discard is just an inactive or dormant sourdough starter and oftentimes the terms discard and starter are used interchangeably.  It is active starter that has fallen back down after the bacteria in the sourdough have consumed all the “food” available to them in the flour and water they were fed, and are therefore no longer as active or “happy”.  Sourdough discard can be used to make lots of wonderful foods that don’t have to rise or are dependent on other things like baking powder for raising them.  Some of these include muffins, pasta, quick breads, tortillas and more.  When replacing some of the flour and water in a regular recipe with sourdough discard, thereby making it a sourdough recipe, you are adding a fermented component to the ingredients, which makes the end result easier for your body to digest

What is “fed” starter?

Fed starter is just discard that has been fed a mix of flour and water but hasn’t fully risen yet and become active.  I use my sourdough discard from my refrigerator in recipes calling for fed starter, as long as it was fed recently.

What is the best flour to feed my starter?

All purpose flour is what I typically feed my starter because it’s less expensive and easy to source.  Any type of flour will work…bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour and the list goes on.  I would not feed it gluten free flour.  If you want to start a gluten free starter, that is a different process.

I like to purchase my flour from Azure Standard, a family run online grocery distributor connecting people directly to their food. When you order from Azure Standard, your order comes once a month to a drop location near you. All you have to do is go to that location and pick up your order, it’s that simple. And the best part is that you get to share the shipping charges with all of the other people from your area that order. Oftentimes, the shipping is free if your order is big enough. You can also purchase in bulk, or in smaller quantities. Our family always purchases in bulk to keep our homestead pantry well stocked. Use the code NEW15 to save 15% off your first order of $100 or more at this link: Azure Standard. This is my favorite bread flour.

How to figure out sourdough hydration?

Some recipes that follow more stringent guidelines with sourdough will call for a 75% hydration starter, for example.  All this means is that the starter was mixed up with 75% water and 100% flour, or 3 parts water and 4 parts flour.  And that will give you a hydration of 75%.  It refers to the consistency of your starter. Some recipes might call for 100% hydration starter, and that just means that it was fed with 100% water, and 100% flour (equal parts), or 4 parts flour, and 4 parts water. An example would be 1 cup of water to 1 cup of flour.  This will be a much thinner starter, and I typically don’t feed mine that way because I prefer a thicker stronger starter.  

I don’t give any thought to hydration, and you don’t need to either, but I want you to know what they mean.  It’s not as complicated as it sounds.  The only reason you might care, is if you make a recipe that calls for 100% hydration (thin) starter, and you use 75% hydration starter (thicker), you might need to add a little less flour to the recipe to get the desired result.  You’ll usually be able to tell if a recipe is way to sticky, or needs a little more or less flour.  

Can sourdough starter go bad?

Sourdough starter cannot go bad unless it has lines of pink mold running through it (this is very rare).  If you leave it in your fridge for months at a time, it will develop a black liquid on top which is called “hooch”.  This is just a result of it being fermented too long.  Just pour off the liquid, discard some or pull some out and feed it in another container twice a day, and in a couple of days it will be happy and active again.

lady showing sourdough hooch on top of jar

Where to keep sourdough starter warm?

If the temperature of your kitchen is less than 68-72 degrees, you may need to find a warm spot to put your starter.  A good place is next to a coffee pot, or on top of your fridge.  My house is fairly warm so mine is just fine sitting out on the counter.

Why sourdough starter isn’t rising?

Most common causes of sourdough starter not rising is it was fed with cold or chlorinated water.  You always want to feed it with warm water.  If you have chlorinated water, just set some water out on the kitchen counter for a few hours first to allow the chlorine to evaporate before feeding your starter.  Another cause of sourdough starter not rising is because it’s too thin.  You want a thick starter especially for making bread.

Which sourdough starter is the best? 

The best sourdough starter is your own sourdough starter that is used to living in your environment.  Even if you purchase a dehydrated sourdough starter from somewhere else, it will have to adapt to the wild yeasts present in your environment to be the happiest.

Where to store sourdough starter

The best place to store sourdough starter when you’re not using it often is in your refrigerator.  If you’re done baking with it for awhile, just put it in your refrigerator and forget about it.  When you’re ready to bake, take it out a day or two before and feed it until it’s happy.  I like to keep a lot of sourdough starter in my fridge because then I always have it ready to use for discard recipes without planning ahead.  The only time I have to plan ahead is when I want to make bread or other items that need to rise.

What sourdough starter should look like?

In it’s active state, sourdough discard should look bubbly and be stretchy or almost stringy.  This is from the development of the gluten in the starter.  Sourdough discard will be flat with few if any bubbles.

bubbly sourdough starter

Does It Matter What Kind Of Utensil I Use To Stir My Starter?

You may have heard that you can’t use anything metal with sourdough and that was true back in the days before stainless steel. But any modern-day stainless steel spoon or container will be just fine to use with your sourdough.

Why Sourdough?

Health benefits 

Sourdough recipes can be made with long fermentation times which gives your body all the benefits of eating a fully fermented food.  This is important for gut health, which is directly related to the health of the rest of your body.  Sourdough bread has a low glycemic level of 54, making it much better for people that are diabetic.  More information on the glycemic level of sourdough bread here.

Unique taste

Foods made with sourdough have a unique taste.  There’s nothing like a fresh slice of traditional sourdough slathered with fresh butter.  You can make sourdough taste more “sour” by letting it ferment longer.  You can also make it taste sweet (so you don’t even know it’s sourdough) by adding sweetener.  

Sustainability and tradition

Commercial yeast wasn’t widely available until the twentieth century.  Prior to that, everyone made all of their baked goods with sourdough because it was all that was available.  In this modern age we have become far too dependent on ingredients in our food that we cannot produce ourselves like commercial yeast.  Sourdough is a sustainable way of baking.  As long as you have flour and water and know how to start a starter, you can have delicious bread without having to depend on the grocery store.   

Flexibility

When you bake with sourdough, you can almost always pause it wherever you are in the fermentation process by just putting the sourdough recipe in the refrigerator.  If I’m in the middle of baking bread and my husband calls me out to help on the ranch with cows or whatever else might be going on, all I have to do is just stick the whole project in the refrigerator.  If I am baking with yeast, I have to pay close attention to the bread to make sure I don’t over raise it or it will be ruined.  Sourdough is much easier once you understand the process.

open crumb on artisan sourdough bread

Old Fashioned Skills

Learning these old fashioned skills of how to make things with fermented ingredients like sourdough starter is so valuable.  You won’t ever have to go to the grocery store to buy yeast or bread again. The same sourdough starter can be kept alive for years and handed down from generation to generation. Let’s bring back these valuable traditional skills that have been lost over time and be proactive in changing our health and our future.


Be sure to watch the full video tutorial below. If you have any questions or if there is anything I can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Cheers to happy sourdough!

Yield: 2 Cups Starter

How To Feed And Maintain A Sourdough Starter

happy and bubbly sourdough starter

Ingredients

  • 3 Tablespoons sourdough starter (can be from your discard jar in the refrigerator)
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/3 cups warm water

Instructions

Add starter, flour and water in a wide mouth quart mason jar.

Stir well to combine

Allow to sit out in a warm place until the starter has doubled and is bubbly and happy.

When the starter is at it's peak rise, mix up bread or other recipe calling for active sourdough starter.

Any leftover starter can be added to your discard/starter jar in the refrigerator.

For sourdough discard recipes, just use sourdough discard directly out of the sourdough jar in the refrigerator.

If your discard jar in the refrigerator starts to get low, fill it half full with flour and enough warm water to make it a thick pancake batter consistency.

Allow it to sit out in a warm place to rise, and once it falls back down, put it back in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 248Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 5mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 2gSugar: 0gProtein: 7g

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *