\u00a9 2020 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. These are just example amounts. If you’re planning on using it to make bread, feed it a few days in a row to make sure it’s nice and strong. My personal preference is to use some whole grain and some white flour for my feedings at about a 1:2 ratio and pre-mix it. Add the water and flour. *This article may contain affiliate links. Your starter is going to get massive if you never discard it, and it will require a huge amount of flour and water to maintain and for it to have enough food to stay healthy. Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment. This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. For best results, please follow the instructions included with your sourdough starter culture. Use the starter to prepare bread dough within 3-4 hours of being fed, to ensure the starter is at its peak of activity. While this translates to feeding it twice a day, it also implies that your starter will be available at any time you decide you want to bake. If you're a more casual sourdough baker, store your starter in the refrigerator, feeding it just once a week. For my starter that has been fed a 1:3:3 ratio, I typically have about 5 hours where I can use it before it starts falling too much and won’t really be vigorous enough. After you feed your starter and it starts getting really active and vigorous, you will have a few hours when your starter will be powerful enough to leaven your bread. It will likely take a few feedings for it to adjust and it should definitely adjust, but keeping a portion separate is just a little insurance policy.Â. You can do what is called “The float test” where you drop a little spoonful of starter in water to see if it floats. If you only plan on using your starter a couple of times a month, for example, you won’t need to feed your starter nearly as often as you would if you wanted to bake a couple of times a week. % of people told us that this article helped them. (And I never actually measure the amount of flour I use either. For a 1:1:1 feeding you would feed the 10 grams of starter that you kept with 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour. The more of the culture you keep, the more life there is within it and therefore the more food it needs. I hope you found it helpful! Tested. The dome is an indication that it is still rising which means it still has food and has not fully peaked yet.Â, This stage right after it is fed is sometimes referred to as a “young starter.” Though that phrase can also be confusing because “young” can also be used to refer to a brand new starter.Â, Eventually the dome will flatten out and you will see that the top almost starts looking weak, like it could easily collapse. However, I don’t bake with it every single day. And I can use the in all kinds of recipes if I want to- like my sourdough discard muffins. And since I like to keep my sourdough starter process as simple and easy as possible, the question of “how often should you feed a sourdough starter” really translates for me to “how little can you get away with feeding it and have it still survive and work for baking?”. But you will get an even more acidic flavor to your bread if that is something you want.Â, I want to address something that I think people find super confusing when just getting started with sourdough and that is the concept of a leaven. When your sourdough has doubled in size and floats in water, it has peaked, which is a baking term used to refer to the optimal time for working with a yeast or starter. Again, these ratios represent the amount of food you give the amount of starter that you keep. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\n<\/p><\/div>"}, https://www.theperfectloaf.com/frequently-asked-sourdough-starter-questions/, https://www.theperfectloaf.com/sourdough-starter-maintenance-routine/, https://www.acouplecooks.com/how-to-feed-sourdough-starter/, https://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=whywontmydoughrise, https://breadtopia.com/sourdough-starter-management/, https://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-conversation/how-do-i-know-when-my-sourdough-is-ready-for-baking/, https://zerowastechef.com/2016/04/06/sourdough-measurements-by-the-cup/, https://slice.seriouseats.com/2010/12/what-happens-if-you-neglect-your-sourdough-starter.html, consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow.

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