Elaine's Sourdough Starter FAQs Answered
Our Sourdough Ambassador, Elaine "Foodbod" Boddy, has been answering our Sourdough Starter questions. This comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions about Sourdough Starters is now available on video and in the accompanying guide below.
We have included the time stamps from the video for each Sourdough Starter FAQ, to help you find the right place. Please note that Elaine goes into more detail in the video than we have been able to record here - so we fully recommend you watch for the most detailed answers!
“Should I throw it away and start my sourdough starter again?” | 01:47
No – never throw away your starter – unless your starter has mould!
“Why doesn’t my sourdough starter grow?” | 02:29
There’s a number of questions that I usually ask in response to this one, to help work out what might be wrong. There’s usually a specific reason why a starter doesn’t grow… Temperature? Consistency and thickness? Water type? Flour quality? Let me show you what I mean…
“Is my starter too thin?” | 06:20
The amount of water in your starter depends on what’s going on in your kitchen, so I can never tell you exactly how much water you need. Give it some flour first, then stir, and give it just enough water to loosen it up.
“Why has my starter got liquid on the top?” | 08:21
This is a hungry starter. It’s not dead, it’s not ruined – don’t throw it away. It may have been left too long in the fridge or on the side, or in heat, and it ferments and ferments and ferments. It produces this layer of liquid.
“What’s starter hooch and what do I do about it?” | 09:00
Often called “Hooch”, it smells strongly, it’s the sign of a hungry starter. You can either pour it off, stir it in and feed it, and you can make the starter stronger and more flavourful or sour at this point.
“How do I make my sourdough stronger or more sour?” | 09:38
Stir in the liquid and you will get a stronger loaf or more sour starter. You can see it will become thinner in consistency – this is a hungry starter.
“I’m going away for 2 weeks, what do I do with my starter?” | 12:55
Nothing – you just put it in the fridge. You can put the clips on the jar to keep the lid sealed, but all you need to do is just leave it in the fridge – nothing special you need to do. You don’t need to get someone to come and feed it while you’re away. If you get back and there’s some hooch on the top, you can pour it away or mix it in and feed it, as we’ve discussed. Have had starters come back to life after months and months.
“Why isn’t it growing?” (Recap and extra solution) | 13:39
Usually it’s because it’s got too cold or too thin, but – if you still aren’t getting any joy with it – you can try adding another flour. Sometimes you can try using a different flour just to see what it’s going to do – split your starter in half, in two different jars, keep feeding one with the original flour and try a different one in the other. See what happens. You can do the same thing with the water too. Split in half, keep one the same and try the other with different water. Always keep notes for everything you do so you can check them later.
“Why aren’t there any bubbles on the surface of my starter?” | 14:41
This is a common misconception – that a starter has to have a bubbly surface, because it doesn’t. It just needs to grow and do the job of making your loaf grow. It’s not about how it looks. The only time you need to be concerned with the surface appearance is if your starter is thin and inactive, as it shows you that you’ve got no texture going on throughout the whole thing. A white flour starter will usually have more bubbles on the surface than a wholemeal starter too, but its all about seeing it grow.
“My starter suddenly stopped doing anything – what do I do now?” | 17:01
Keep going. Starters often go through a quiet phase and you can see this in our full starter video series. They often then come back again. There are times where they might have gotten too thin and become hungry, or become too hot – been stored in a hot place when they didn’t need to be – and done so much work and gotten hungry. In that situation – again remove half, feed it flour only, just enough water to keep it thick – then let it carry on. Always keep on going. You can look at the different water and different flour. A starter needs to be given the chance to carry on. Give it at least seven days to see what it's going to do.
“When will my starter be ready? Can I use it on day 7?” | 18:42
Who knows? Every starter is different. You can’t begin making a sourdough starter and decide you’ll definitely be baking on day 7, because you need growth. There’s no hard and fast answer. You will be able to use your starter once its responded. Once you’ve fed it, stirred it, stuck its hat on and left it to grow for a few hours. If it’s done that 2 or 3 days in a row, then you’re ready to go.
“I missed Day X – is my starter ruined? Do I have to start again?” | 19:28
No – your starter doesn’t know what day it is, or what time it is, so it’s not going to mind if you feed it a different time of day. It doesn’t matter if you miss a day – just carry on. If you have to go away, just pop it in the fridge and let it go to sleep – it’ll wake up when you come back and get it out. It won’t get ruined, in fact it might like it. Sometimes when they’ve had the time to ferment and take on board the work they’ve been doing they come out better. So don’t worry about that!
“My starter seems hungry, should I feed it twice a day?” | 20:23
No – you don’t need to do that. If you’re somewhere warm, or you have a very active starter, and it’s growing to fill the jar within a few hours – just stick it in the fridge. It’ll slow it down. It may still keep growing a bit, but the next day take it out and carry on. The fridge is your friend.
“Can I feed my starter with a different flour?” | 21:11
Absolutely you can! I wouldn’t risk it on all of your favourite starter, just because you don’t know what the response is going to be, but you can certainly split your starter and use the second half in a clean jar to experiment as I explain above.
“Can I use wholemeal flour?” | 21:50
Absolutely! Wholegrain flours are going to do a great job! Ideally you need some gluten in your flour. Making a gluten free starter is a whole other thing… Do play around with the flours you use.
“When I discard can I do it by eye?” | 22:25
You can absolutely eyeball it. When you discard, I always suggest you keep the discard. Put it in a separate jar and keep it in the fridge.
“How long can I keep my starter in the fridge?” | 22:40
It can be in there for ages – weeks, months. So if you’re collecting some sourdough discard to make a new starter, you can use that whenever.
“Do you need to discard on a regular basis?” | 23:00
No you don’t. You only need to discard a couple of times when you’re making a new starter. You don’t need to discard anymore after that.
“Why is my starter surface so dry? What does it mean?” | 23:32
If your starter has a dry surface, it’ll stop it from growing. If you live somewhere that’s quite dry, or it’s being kept somewhere that’s too hot, the surface can get cooked or dry out. In that situation, scrape off the dry surface, feed it, put the lid back on and let it do it’s thing. But don’t then put it back somewhere too hot. If you live in a dry environment, then you may need to keep your jar more firmly sealed to protect it from the dry atmosphere and keep a close eye on it.
“Do I need to use warm water in my sourdough starter?” | 24:47
No, you don’t. Just use it from the tap as it comes.
“What about the float test?” | 24:58
Personally, I don’t recommend it. It’s not reliable. Get to know your starter to understand it. The best way to tell if your starter is ready to use, is to see if it has grown. Likewise, don’t worry about gadgets or things to heat your starter with either. There’ll be somewhere warmer in your kitchen where you can keep your starter warmer if you need it. I have a cupboard where some warm pipes run behind it, where I can sit my starter for an hour or two to help it grow. But if you’re going to use heat with it make sure you only do it for a short time.
General Flour Tips | 26:54
With a white flour starter, look for a flour with a higher protein content. If wholegrain then look for something with wheatgerm in it. I always get the best quality flour for my starter to keep in the home. I feed my starter with a Strong White Bread Flour, but when I’m making dough with it I use something slightly different (Churchill Strong White) because I know that it works. So when you find something that works stick with it.
Tips about temperature | 28:04
Be sure to keep a thermometer in your kitchen as it will help you. Learn about your kitchen and environment, so you can do what’s best for you. When you feed your starter or when your starter responds, always make a note of the time, date and temperature. This will give you a great reference point for future.
Any Other Sourdough Starter Questions | 28:53
- Consistency – it needs to be thick. Appearance – all it needs to do is grow. Try to focus less on how it looks and more on how it works.
- Assuming your starter is dead – please don’t do this and please don’t throw your starter away.
- Humidity – if you live somewhere humid it can affect your starter by putting more water into it, so potentially use less water.
- Soft or Hard or filtered water can also make a difference to your starter. You may need to use more or less.
- Starters smelling strongly – this might be a sign that it’s hungry and that smell will disappear when you feed it.
- Ratios – I don’t use these and I don’t think you need to either. All you need to know is how much starter you want in your dough. I feed my starter based on what I want it to produce. So how ever much you want to get out of it, I always recommend keeping a base of between 50g and 80g as your base amount.
If you want 100g of starter for your dough, feed it 50g of water and 50g of flour. Assuming you don’t need to tweak any of them (see below). You then take out what you need and leave behind your base amount, then this can go back in the fridge. The tweaks will relate to your own starter – whether it needs more or less water or flour to grow – so knowing how your starter works in your kitchen with your flour and water is all you need to succeed.
