Sourdough
'Help—My Sourdough Starter Is Taking Over My Life!'
Food52's Resident Bread Baker, Maurizio Leo of The Perfect Loaf, shows us how to adjust our starter's schedule to our own lives—and not the other way around.
The Perfect Loaf is a column from software engineer-turned-bread expert (and Food52's Resident Bread Baker), Maurizio Leo. Maurizio is here to show us all things naturally leavened, enriched, yeast-risen, you name it—basically, every vehicle to slather on a lot of butter. Today, a guide to making your sourdough starter's schedule work for you—and not the other way around.
So you have a sourdough starter bubbling away on your counter. You’ve made some delicious bread; perhaps you’ve even made some sourdough waffles or sourdough cinnamon rolls. And day after day, you refresh your tangy companion—the daily obligation that slowly becomes yet another chore on the to-do list. I’ve been there—I am there!—and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to waking up at least once in the middle of the night in worry, trying to remember if I refreshed my starter before bed.
But after maintaining the same starter for almost a decade, with countless loaves of sourdough bread cranked out of my oven, I’ve learned to relax some. I’ve learned an established starter is incredibly resilient: the beneficial bacteria and wild yeast that symbiotically inhabit a sourdough culture want to continue living—and they won’t give up easily.
It is important to maintain your starter with some regularity for its optimum health (and to make the most of its natural leavening), but the essential thing a baker quickly learns is to make their sourdough starter work for them, not the other way around. A crucial part of this is getting your starter on a refreshment schedule that revolves around yours, giving it fresh flour and water when you have time and are in the kitchen. And there are a few techniques we can use to keep your starter vigorous while also accommodating just about any work/life schedule (and even a little neglect).
How do I adjust my starter refreshments to my schedule?
Two powerful tools for adjusting a sourdough starter refreshment schedule are the amount of starter left in the jar each refreshment (also called the seed) and the temperature at which you keep your starter. Let’s take a look at each.
Adjust the starter seed amount
Varying the amount of seed left in the jar is my preferred way to sync my refreshments to my work/life schedule. When I leave more starter in the jar, it reduces the time between refreshments (speeds things up). If I leave less starter in the jar, it lengthens the time between refreshments (slows things down).
Let’s take my typical refreshment as an example: I leave 10 grams ripe starter in the jar (discarding the rest), and to that, I add 100 grams of fresh flour and 100 grams of water. I keep my starter at a warm temperature, and after about 12 hours it’s fully ripe: It’s broken down, loose, bubbly, and has a pungent, sour aroma. Because I bake almost every day, I refresh my starter twice a day so it’s ready to use at a moment’s notice, and I refresh it just after breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and then just after dinner at 8:30 p.m. If I wanted my starter to ripen earlier at night, I could increase that seed amount to 15 to 20g and speed things up, perhaps shifting that evening refreshment up to 6:00 p.m.
Adjust the starter’s temperature
Generally, warmer temperatures mean increased fermentation activity, and cooler temperatures mean decreased fermentation activity. Just like leaving less starter in the jar, using colder water to refresh your starter will slow the fermentation down, buying you more time before it needs another refreshment.
I usually keep my starter in a warm spot in my kitchen (or in a proofing box), but temperatures do fluctuate in my kitchen with the seasons. In the summer, when it’s swelteringly hot, I could use cold mixing water to help offset the warmer temperature in my kitchen, preserving my 12-hour refreshment cycle. And similarly, in the winter, I could warm the mixing water or keep it in a warmer spot in my kitchen to speed fermentation.
If you’ve maintained a sourdough starter for at least a year, you’ve surely seen this ebb and flow of fermentation activity through the seasons, speeding up in the summer and slowing down in the winter. Over time, your response to this might become instinctual, noticing how that first hot day of summer you naturally reduce the amount of starter left in your jar at the next refreshment or use colder water to offset the change in temperature.
How do I use the refrigerator to put a pause on things altogether?
Let’s not forget about the mighty refrigerator. Sometimes life interrupts baking completely, perhaps we have travel plans or don’t have time to mess with anything bread for the next week. To put a pause on your sourdough starter, refresh it as usual and let it sit on the counter for 1-2 hours, then pop it in the fridge. It will last in there without any problem for a week or two. When you want to bake, take out your starter, give it a refreshment as you would normally, and it should spring back and be ready for baking.
I see a thin, transparent layer of liquid on top of my starter. What gives?
This layer usually forms when a starter is not refreshed frequently enough. The clear liquid (sometimes called “hooch”) isn’t harmful, but it’s a good indicator that you should try to refresh sooner or use one of the tools listed above to slow the fermentation down, increasing the time between refreshments.
What if I forget to refresh my starter for a whole day?
Don’t worry about it; pick back up with regular refreshments, and your starter will be fine. This only becomes an issue if neglected in this way for an extended period, especially during warmer weather conditions.
How often should I refresh my starter?
I’ve found my starter to work best when I refresh it at least once a day. I make the process quick and easy by keeping the flour, scale, and starter in the same spot in my kitchen. When it’s time for a refreshment, I discard, add flour and water, stir everything together, and go about my day. This refreshment process only takes me 5 minutes in total.
What’s the longest I can go without refreshing my starter?
Your starter would be totally fine not receiving a feeding for one or two days, but I wouldn’t make it a habit—eventually, you might see a decrease in performance. If I can’t refresh my starter once a day, I’ll typically use the refrigerator to store my starter until I’m ready to bake.
What’s the longest my starter can stay in the fridge?
I’m not particularly eager to go over a week without taking it out and giving it a refreshment. If I have no choice, two weeks will work, and in extreme cases, I’ve pushed it three to four weeks without issue.
The key to maintaining a healthy and robust sourdough starter is to be mindful of how it progresses through the day, knowing you can adjust the seed amount or its temperature to keep it on the schedule you want, not the other way around. And if you forget to feed it one night before bed, don’t worry, it’ll be just fine.
| Levain | |
| 24 | grams ripe sourdough starter |
| 60 | grams all-purpose flour |
| 60 | grams water |
| 12 | grams caster sugar |
| Dough for Rolls | |
| 440 | grams all-purpose flour |
| 180 | grams warm water |
| 115 | grams whole milk, cold |
| 75 | grams unsalted butter |
| 23 | grams caster sugar |
| 10 | grams fine sea salt |
| Egg Wash | |
| 1 | large egg |
| 1 | splash whole milk |
| Levain | |
| 24 | grams ripe sourdough starter |
| 60 | grams all-purpose flour |
| 60 | grams water |
| 12 | grams caster sugar |
| Dough for Rolls | |
| 440 | grams all-purpose flour |
| 180 | grams warm water |
| 115 | grams whole milk, cold |
| 75 | grams unsalted butter |
| 23 | grams caster sugar |
| 10 | grams fine sea salt |
| Egg Wash | |
| 1 | large egg |
| 1 | splash whole milk |
Written by: Maurizio Leo
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62 Comments
It survived more than 6 months in my fridge. My son was hospitalized for that long and never got the chance to go back to my house until his discharge. Discarded the top part and started to feed it again.
cheese, not sour but stinky. Is something wrong??
cheese, not sour but stinky. Is something wrong??
I started quite casually and have evolved not realizing most people now weigh and measure everything. I maintain a large starter and use about half of it each time I bake, about twice a week.
Basically 2 cups of starter 2 cups of flour 2 cups of water let it sit overnight add salt and 4 cups of flour. Makes 2 large loaves. I get good texture and flavor and depending on handling and if I am paying attention, nice big bubbles etc.
As I read these reviews and recipes realize that's not the way people do it. Thinking I may need to reconsider my method to take it to a new level. Any feedback? Thanks!
My leaven peaks at four hours but no floating, but floats at six hours though it has already begun deflating at that point. I follow the Tartine proportions for leaven: 1.5 tsp starter + 50g white bread flour + 50g whole wheat bread flour + 100g water.
I'm also envious of hearing about starters that triple in size. Mine doubles at its peak, but never more than that. I use the Tartine 50% whole wheat bread flour / 50% white bread flour mix for both my starter and leaven.
I've gotten good results, but never the enormous open crumb that I see in photos.
Wondering if I need to be using a starter that triples in a feed?
Also, I don't think the crumb in your loaves is necessarily a product of the starter's vigor--in my experience, a high hydration dough, with a longer ferment, and baked at very hot temperatures, will produce that result.
It is contrarian and iconoclastic about all the "rules" you've seen. I've used this approach (which includes ignoring your starter in the back of the fridge for months, if you have to), reviving a "dead" starter, etc. I'm not proposing this as the bible but do take a look and see if it doesn't both liberate you and help you make great breads.
Breadtopia is an excellent resource; they're also the U.S. distributors for all things Mock Mill in case anyone's inclined to grind their own flour.
I'm a moderator for an online group for stand mixer owners and I learned the technique I use from our list mom; she, however, only maintains a teaspoon or so of starter as backup. In fact, I got my bread culture from another member, who got it from yet another member, who got it from her uncle (who'd had it since the '50s, I think). It was popularized by a guy who called himself Sourdough Jack and it makes delicious bread. I passed some along several years ago to a friend and he has been making the family bread weekly ever since.
I do wish the measurements were not in grams!!
Me too.
Having used American measurements for almost 80 years, switching to foreign measurement isn't easy.
I convert recipes using "grams" into tsp-spoons, cups, ounces, etc.
It may not be 100% accurate but am not striving to be a perfectionist baker.
I've received compliments for my sourdough breads and that's good enough for me.
Another easy and delicious thing to do with discard is make crackers--if you eat crackers, then you know that the fancy artisan ones are pretty pricey, but you can make the same thing at home with minimal effort. I've refined my approach over the past few years, but basically use the KA recipe for sourdough crackers as a starting point.
To maintain, dump half of your refrigerated starter, add back a similar amount of flour and maybe a bit less than an equal amount of water. I keep a bottle of Evian on hand just for my cultures because the chlorine in tap water might kill them; they seem to like the minerals. Stir, cover, set aside until it starts bubbling, then stir again and refrigerate (the lid should be a bit loose to allow gases to escape). DON'T dump your culture down the drain--put it in the garbage.
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