What Happens if You Neglect Your Sourdough Starter (2024)

FAQs

What Happens if You Neglect Your Sourdough Starter? ›

Things that Will Kill A Sourdough Starter

Don't worry — everything will be just fine. A sourdough starter is often likened to a pet, but unlike a puppy, if you forget to feed it when you're supposed to, nothing bad will happen. Because even though starters are technically alive, they're incredibly resilient.

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

Most commonly, the issue here has to do with temperature (which is very important). If your sourdough starter is kept at a low temp, even 70°F (21°C), it will slow fermentation activity and appear to be sluggish, taking longer to rise and progress through the typical signs of fermentation. The solution: keep it warm.

As a general rule, the less sourdough starter you use, the slower your dough will ferment - resulting in a more sour flavored loaf. The more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf.

Generally, feeding it once a day is a good rule when leaving your starter on the counter. Feeding it less than this can leave your starter open to mold and harmful bacteria, however you can also overfeed a sourdough starter.

A mature sourdough starter can last for several weeks kept in a refrigerator without being fed.

stir your starter in between feedings - try stirring it twice in between feedings and really give it a chance to get oxygen into the mix. This will help to activate your starter without too much effort.

Method 1: High Feeding Ratio

Sometimes you can remediate a weak, acidic starter with a single high feeding ratio. The most common “high feeding ratios” are 1:5:5 and 1:10:10. These ratios help knock down the acidity of your starter with one large feeding.

If your starter gets completely covered on top with bubbles but does not rise, it is healthy but may just be a wet mix. Try reducing the water in your next feeding and see if you have different results. Also, the type of flour you are using can impede the rise of your starter.

Do you discard every time you feed sourdough starter? ›

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

How to increase a starter. If your recipe calls for more than 227g (about 1 cup) of starter, feed it without discarding until you've reached the amount you need (plus 113g to keep and feed again).

All you need to do is take 20g of the starter you already have and then feed it with 20g of flour and 20g of water (so 1:1:1). Then you'll have a 60g starter, which is considered a smaller amount. You can of course reduce these amounts even further if you wish, but this is a reasonable size to keep waste to a minimum.

Over time it might have a greyish liquid start to collect in it, called hooch. It is a natural alcohol that your starter produces, and it just tells you that it is hungry. You can stir it in the next time you feed or pour it off (this is what I do) and then feed as usual.

If your recipe calls for more than 227g (about 1 cup) of starter, feed it without discarding until you've reached the amount you need (plus 113g to keep and feed again).