If you read this, chances are that you met me on my journey and I gave you a little jar with a sourdough starter. You can read here how to take care of it.

A sourdough starter is a living culture, if it isn’t fed it will die. It is happiest when you feed it every day, but you can also leave it in the fridge and feed it once a week. Don’t worry if you leave it in the fridge longer without looking after it. It will survive, you just have to give it some extra attention if you want to use it again.

To feed it you need water (lukewarm, around 30 degrees, never hot water) and white bread flower (a high protein flower works best).

Temperature will influence how active your starter is.

Feeding your starter:

You can use a ratio of 1:1:1 to feed it. So if you have 10 grams of sourdough starter, add 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flower. Stir well. You can leave it in your kitchen covered with a piece of paper kitchen towel and feed it again the next day (and the day after, etc.) or put it in the fridge and feed it again after 1 week.

You will see that the starter becomes active, bubbly, slowly doubles in size. It depends on the room temperature how long it takes: usually between 4 (warm) and 8 (colder) hours. If it shows too little activity you can always feed it again after 8 hours. If you want to bake bread (or something else), use it when it is on its peak.

Every time you feed your starter you will end up with more (and more and more … ) If you have too much, you can use the “discard” in a different way. I usually collect what I don’t use in a jar (stored in the fridge) until I have a lot and then make crackers or pancakes with it.

You can also feed your starter a different ratio of water and flower, it will just take longer for it to peak and you will have more starter (1:2:2 or even 1:10:10 if you want to bake a lot).

Even with a tiny amount of starter you can make a lbig amount.

And you can also share the starter with others if you have a lot! Some starters have been in the care of families for generations. The Spanish name for it, “masa madre”, stems from the custom of mothers giving their daughters some sourdough starter when they got married and started their own household.

There are a lot of different recipes to make bread. Here’s one I sometimes used, but there are many variations: https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/beginners-sourdough-bread-recipe/

The better you take care of your starter, the better your bread will be. It is a mutual relationship!