How to Feed Sourdough Starter for Absolute Beginners

Getting Started

At this point, I assume you have sourdough starter in your kitchen right now. Perhaps a friend shared it with you or you bought some from a local bakery.

We ordered our original sourdough starter from King Arthur. It is shipped in a little jar and arrives live and ready to be fed. The package also includes instructions for the first several feedings.

This article outlines the information you need to maintain and feed active sourdough starter. It's the process you'll use for years of delicious sourdough baking. If you need more beginner tips, you'll want to read How to Get Started with Your New Sourdough Starter here.

Why You Feed Sourdough Starter

Sourdough starter is alive and just like a plant needs to be watered or your dog or cat need to be fed, you need to provide the active yeast and bacteria inside the starter with food to sustain itself.

You can bake with either active sourdough starter OR the sourdough discard that comes from each feeding. They are used for different kinds of recipes but both give that amazing tangy flavor to your final baked good.

Tools You'll Need

• Digital Food Scale: Sourdough starter is very difficult to measure using measuring cups. A food scale is essential and will make your life so much easier. This budget-friendly option would work just fine.
• Mixing Bowl: You need one large enough to hold about 3 cups of volume with room for stirring.
• Spatula
• Container for Sourdough Starter: I like a wide-mouthed clear storage jar with measuring marks on the side and a loose fitting lid. I bought mine from King Arthur but there are several on Amazon that would work just fine, like this one.
• Container for the Discard: I use a plastic dough tub with a tight fitting lid. This 2-quart tub would be plenty big enough.

Weigh the Sourdough Starter

Place the empty mixing bowl on your food scale. Turn the scale on and set the Unit to read "Grams".

The scale should read "0" if you had the bowl resting on it before you turned it on. If it is weighing the empty bowl, hit the button that says "Tare" and this will set the scale to "0" so that you are only measuring the sourdough starter.

Use your spatula to scrape some of the sourdough starter into the measuring bowl.

You'll find that the starter is quite sticky and it can be difficult to get a precise amount. I usually shoot for a portion of starter that falls within the 100 - 120 grams range. Unless you have specific plans for the starter, this is a pretty safe amount to feed regularly.

As you can see, I weighed 116 grams and there was still a significant portion of sourdough starter left in my original jar. The starter left in that original jar is now referred to as the "sourdough discard" because you will scrape it out of the storage jar into a separate container: your storage tub.

Store the Sourdough Starter Discard

I use a large plastic tub for storing my discard.

Every time I feed my starter, I add the remaining discard to the collection tub. Sourdough discard will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and is excellent for using to make sourdough waffles, sourdough crackers, sourdough brownies, and many more discard recipes.

I feed my starter and just keep adding more discard to the storage tub until I have enough to use in my discard recipes. You just want to be sure you use up all the discard you've collected every 2 weeks or truly dispose of it and start again.

Once your discard has been transferred to the storage container and put back in the fridge, thoroughly rinse out your original sourdough starter jar so you're starting with a clean container. Set the empty jar next to your food scale.

Sourdough Starter Feeding Ratio

Now that you've measured your starter and stored the discard, it is time to do the feeding.

The most common sourdough feeding recipe is a 1:1:1 ratio of starter to all-purpose flour to water.

So, for every 100 grams of starter you've weighed, you'll add 100 grams of all-purpose flour and 100 grams of water.

Spoon all-purpose flour onto the starter until the scale reads the same amount of grams that you started with for the starter.

I originally had 116 grams of starter so I added 116 grams of flour:

Weigh the Water

You could weigh the water right into the bowl of starter but water is much more difficult to take out if you overpour than flour is.

I recommend moving the mixing bowl of starter and flour off to the side.

Place an EMPTY measuring cup on the food scale and press the "Tare" button so that it reads 0 grams.

Then add about 1/2 cup of water to the measuring cup and weigh it. Add a touch more water or pour a little water out until the measurement reads exactly what you had for the flour and starter.

I had 116 grams of starter, 116 grams of flour, so I measured 116 grams of water.

Pour the water into the bowl of flour and starter.

Mix the Starter Together

Stir the flour and water into the starter until they are thoroughly combined.

The texture will start to feel quite thick and a little bit sticky. You may see some lumps, that's ok. Just keep stirring until you don't see any more dry pockets of flour.

Store the Starter

Scrape your freshly-fed sourdough starter into the now-clean storage jar.

Once it settles into place, you'll see you have about 1 cup of starter in the jar.

On the Counter

If you want to bake with your starter in the next couple of days, store the starter in the jar right on your counter at room temperature. If it is winter time and your house is chilly, you might want to put it in the microwave (NOT turned on!) where it will be a little cozier.

If you keep your starter on the counter, you will need to feed it 1 - 2 times per day.

In the Fridge

If you don't have plans to bake soon, you can put the jar of starter into the fridge for storage. It will need to be fed once every 7 -10 days. You can feed it and put it right back in the fridge.

How to Tell Your Starter is Active

If you plan to bake from-scratch, no-yeast, sourdough breads with your starter, you need it bubbly and active before using.

Feed your starter and store it on the counter. Watch it over the next several hours. It should double in size. My clear storage container has measuring markers on the side.

This is what my 1 cup of fed starter looked like several hours later in the day:

You can see it rose over the 2-cup marking point which means it has more than doubled in size.

You can also see all the happy bubbles rising up throughout the starter and the thinner, looser texture as compared to the original dense just-fed starter.

When to Use Sourdough Starter

If you are baking from-scratch, no-yeast, crusty sourdough loaves with starter, you want to use the starter when it is at the peak of its rising time, before it begins to fall down again.

How long between your feeding and the peak rise will depend on the strength of your starter, the temperature of your house, and the time of year.

It takes some practice and experience with your starter to get to know its personality.

Active Starter vs. Discard

If knowing just how to work around the timing of your starter sounds like a lot of work, I agree. My family and I vastly prefer to use the sourdough discard rather than active sourdough starter to make sourdough recipes.

The discard is filled with that same amazing tangy sourdough flavor and makes baked goods that have an amazing texture.

We love to use the discard in our sourdough bread machine recipes with a little bit of yeast to help the rise along. I also love to make sourdough waffles, sourdough pretzels, and sourdough crackers using the discard.

In my opinion, it is absolutely worth the time it takes to feed my sourdough starter for a few days in a row JUST to get a tub full of sourdough discard that I can use in my baking.

I take just a few minutes to do the feeding every day and then within a week I have enough sourdough discard to make a big double batch of waffles for the freezer or a triple batch of crackers for my girls to enjoy as school snacks during a weekend baking session.

Sourdough Discard Recipes

You can use your sourdough discard to make easy and delicious recipes filled with that signature sourdough flavor. Here are a few of our favorites:

Sourdough Discard Crackers

Sourdough Discard Waffles

Sourdough Discard Brownies

Sourdough Discard Blueberry Muffins

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