Starter maintenance
Looking after your starter is the most important part of making sourdough. An unhappy starter means no bread, and that’s just no fun!
There are a few different ways you can look after your starter, it’s all about finding what works best for you. What I’ve written down here just so happens to be the routine I’ve fallen into because it works for me!
Looking after Greg
5 years ago I made my sourdough starter and, for no apparent reason, named it Greg. I usually have about 50-60g of sourdough starter in a jar at all times.
Since I really only have time to bake sourdough on the weekends, Greg predominantly lives in the frigde. Here is my basic schedule for baking a loaf on a Sunday morning:
Friday morning: take jar of Greg out of the fridge.
Put half of Greg in a small bowl and add 25g of strong white bread flour and 25g of room temperature water. Mix well with a spoon/spatula, cover with a bowl cover/showercap and leave at room temperature.
Add 25g of strong white bread flour and 25g of room temperature water to the remaining starter in the jar. Mix well with a spoon/spatula, loosely close the lid and return the jar to the fridge.
Friday evening: remove the bowl cover/showercap from the bowl.
Add 40g of strong white bread flour and 40g of room temperature water. Mix well with a spoon/spatula, cover with a bowl cover/showercap and leave at room temperature.
Saturday morning: remove the bowl cover/showercap from the bowl.
*If at this point you find your bowl is a little full, you can discard a few tablespoons of starter. There are lots of great things you can do with sourdough discard, including adding it to your croissant recipe!
Add 50g of strong white bread flour and 50g of room temperature water. Mix well with a spoon/spatula, cover with a bowl cover/showercap and leave at room temperature.
Saturday afternoon: remove the bowl cover/showercap from the bowl.
If you did step 3 at around 9am, your starter should be at peak by around 2:30pm, though this can happen earlier in warmer weather. At this point, you can go ahead and use it to make some sourdough!
If you’re after a recipe, head over to my recipes page and try out one of my sourdough or focaccia recipes!
I like to try stick to a routine of feeding Greg once a week even if I don’t have plans to bake that weekend. Usually, this would mean having to discard half of what’s in the jar. However, a mature and established sourdough starter can survive comfortably in the fridge for 2-3 weeks without feeding, but any longer than that - for example if you’re going on holiday - you might want to think about a babysitter!
If you’re looking for some beautifully formatted sourdough cheatsheets with great tips and tricks, and that are laid out perfectly for printing, head over to Rosehill Sourdough. Founder, Mike, has put together some amazing FREE resources!
