Getting started with your starter!
This has been a long requested informational post as I’ve sold sourdough starter over the years. I finally did it! I will collect photos over time to add in to help more- so bear with me in the beginning here as I really wanted to get this post out before the beginning of our 2025 market season. Thank you to everyone who has invited Franny into their homes!
My sourdough journey started in 2020- I don’t know everything and I do still learn new things all the time! But at this point I do have a few thousand loaves under my belt, and being in the community of selling both starter and loaves of bread has helped me pick up extra tips over the years!
I started Franny from scratch in my kitchen. Anyone can start sourdough from scratch- it’s just a matter of adding flour and water together consistently for a few weeks to develop healthy bacteria and yeasts. However, I hear from people all the time that those first two weeks are the hardest to get through. I always say purchasing a starter is like getting a jumpstart. I sell Franny locally as cheap as can (and on our online store, but we have to add in shipping costs!) because I love sourdough and I want everyone else to be able to enjoy it as well! If you can have a little extra hand in healthy development when you’re getting started, it’ll set you up for success in the long run. It’s easier to grow mold than the healthy bacteria you want the first few weeks!
A healthy starter is made up of lactobacillus bacteria and wild yeasts. These yeast vary by location- so sourdough bread made with the same recipe can vary in taste depending on location, your home environment, even the microbes from your hands! Everything that goes into your starter makes it unique- this is part of the reason sourdough isn’t as plain cut as following a checklist of instructions.
This section is for the folks who brought home a Franny!
Our Franny sourdough starter comes as a premeasured package of 10 grams of dehydrated starter. The back of your package outlines your first three days of getting Franny going.
Day 1:
Franny’s instructions will tell you to add the package contents (10 grams of dehydrated starter) to 60 grams of warm water. Think room temperature or slightly warmer, but you don’t want to go above about 105 degrees. You’ll then set that aside and let it start rehydrating. This way, when you add your flour in, all of your starter is equally distributed.
Don’t have a kitchen scale? No problem. 60 grams of water is 1/4 of a cup.
I do use a kitchen scale when working with sourdough, but I am a firm believer of using what you’ve got. “Make do or do without.” Google is your friend for conversions.
I use a scale because measuring cups can be pretty unreliable. Does that always matter? Absolutely not. Honestly I’m a huge sucker for not measuring at all in most of my baking endeavors. Need 1/3 cup of flour? I’m using a 1 cup measuring cup and eye-balling it. It’s fine.
In sourdough- a tiny bit of liquid goes a long way. So when I make my loaves, I use a scale and get as close as I can to the numbers I know I can rely on every time I bake. I tablespoon of liquid can change my dough from too stiff to too soft, and ruin the form. Because I sell a lot of bread (In 2024- I baked 4, 6, and up to 30 loaves of bread EVERY day for 5 months), I NEED reliability, and a kitchen scale gives me that. On the other side of that, people have been baking sourdough for thousands of years before the digital, trusty, kitchen scale. Do what works for you in your kitchen.
After an hour has passed and your dehydrated starter is looking more slurry than granular, add in your 50 grams of flour. That’s 1/3 cup.
You’re going to mix that all together real good and then pop on your bonnet or lid. What you DON’t want to do is close the jar tightly with a screw top lid. We’re dealing with living organisms here- they need to breathe.
One of my favorite things about sourdough is it is such a great introduction to fermentation. It’s forgiving and unlikely to explode in your kitchen (again, don’t close that jar all the way). One you’ve got this down the sky is the limit- ginger bugs, kombucha, sauerkraut, kefir, you can do it all!
Day 2
You want to come back to your sourdough starter between 14-24 hours after you got day 1 started. In my experience, if you can stay in the 14-16 hour range you’re more likely to be successful. Letting your starter go 24-30 will make it weak, and in the beginning you’ll have a harder time coming back from that.
On day two, you’ll open up your jar and just add in more flour and water per the instructions. Give it a good mix, cover it back up and set it on the counter. Super easy, you’re a rockstar.
This is called “feeding” your starter. This is why all us crazy folks name our starters- they’re alive, we feed them daily. Whoever said taking care of a starter is like taking care of a child has never taken care of a child, in my opinion, but there is some daily consistency and commitment involved here.
Day 3
On day 3 we’re going to start fresh with a clean jar and just 50 grams of the starter you’re establishing, and discard the rest. Discard=throw away. This is not suitable in a recipe that calls for discard. We’ll talk a little more about discard in a minute.
You’ll then add your flour and water as usual to the new jar you’ve just set up, give it a mix and cover it back up again. Day 3 is usually when things start getting exciting in my house ( we start seeing good big fermentation bubbles) but there are so many variables in how your sourdough will establish in the climate of your house. You might not see this for a couple more days if your house is on the cooler side.
I live in an older house with 70’s windows, a wood burning stove in the winter and no central air conditioning in the summer- as long as we keep the wood stove going, our house could generally be considered to run on the warmer side. Many of my friends have automatic heating and cooling, get to come inside to an AC controlled, 65 degree house in the summer and cool marble countertops where their starter would live. Their sourdough starter isn’t as happy, as sourdough starters love temps between 70-80 degrees. Learning and understanding the conditions of your house will allow you to help your starter thrive.
Day 4 and beyond
Our Franny instructions “end” with day 3- telling you to repeat day 3 instructions every day until you feel like your starter is good and active, which is sometimes indicated by your starter doubling in size around 6-8 hours after you feed it.
This is where some people get confused. Where do we go from here?
UNDERSTANDING MAINTENANCE AND FEEDINGS
Maintaining your starter requires daily feedings- daily being 14-24 hours. If you feed your starter on Monday morning and don’t come back to it until Tuesday night, it’s likely going to be pretty sluggish. There are SO many variables to feeding your starter, and that’s why it’s so confusing! Let’s break it down:
Feeding ratios:
In sourdough you’ll frequently see recommended feeding ratios. This is usually notated as 1:1:1. This means 1 part starter: 1 part flour: 1 part water (ex- 50 grams starter: 50 grams flour: 50 grams water) . Or 1:2:2, meaning 1 part starter: 2 parts flour: 2 parts water. (ex- 50 grams starter: 100 grams flour: 100 grams water). You can do any variation you’d like, if you’re measuring by grams.
But, think of these ratios as a meal size. You’re hungry, starving. You eat one slice of pizza and one cup of water. How long will that tide you over until you feel hungry again? Certainly not as long as if you, one person, ate 2 slices of pizza and 2 cups of water (this is 1:2:2).
Your sourdough starter is hungry- and the ratio you feed it at will determine how soon it is going to be hungry again. If you feed it at equal parts, 1:1:1, and then you don’t come back to it another 24 hours, it will have used up all its “food” in the first few hours and sat hungry a very long time. This minimum maintenance feeding is slowly starving your starter, and it will be weaker.
But we’re also trying not to be wasteful. If you feed your sourdough starter every day and aren’t baking, you’re also discarding every day into the trash. So, maintain your starter in small quantities if you can. Any tiny amount of starter can grow into a massive starter in just a matter of a few days, so just keep a small cup if your only goal is maintenance. There’s no need to maintain a quart of sourdough starter at a time! I can maintain a half cup of starter all week and then feed it up to 3 gallons for a big market bake.
Feeding up your starter to use it in a recipe is simple- take whatever starter piece you have, and feed it at a higher ratio. So, 1:5:5, or 1:5:3 or such. I like to maintain my sourdough starter as a thick paste. Maintaining a thicker starter also gives you more wiggle room in timing, as it stays at a peak longer than a thin starter- so I do more flour less water rather than equal parts water and flour.
HOW THESE FEEDINGS AFFECT THE TIMING OF YOUR STARTER
If you’re feeding your starter a 1:10:8, it will take longer to peak than feeding it a 1:2:2 or other smaller ratio. A 1:2:2 may only take 2-4 hours to peak in a warm room, where a 1:10:8 might take 10-12 hours. Again, this can depend on the temperature of your home, so looking for signs that is has peaked it what you want to rely on rather than a timer.
What does peak mean?
A active starter at its peak means that it’s risen all the way. The time most people want to use their starter in a bread recipe is just after the peak, when the starter has just barely started to drop back down, or settled out flat on the top.
You can measure your sourdough peak in many different ways. It is helpful to know and recognize signs, but if it’s not perfect- ei: slightly too far past the peak, give it a try anyway! See how it does, and learn from that next time. Most of us aren’t standing around watching for the perfect time when our starter has peaked!
Many people measure peak as when your sourdough starter has doubled in size. You can use a rubber band or dry erase marker to mark on the outside of the jar at where the fed starter began.
But, starters can do more than double- so you may be pulling before peak if you just go by doubling volume.
My favorite way to tell is by looking at the side of the jar at the top of the starter. If the starter is still domed slightly toward the center of the jar, it’s still growing. You’re looking for the starter to have leveled back out, or even just slightly started to drop back down.
Why on Earth are we waiting for this?
When your starter has peaked, the yeasts are at their most active, highly concentrated point. This is what makes your bread rise. The yeasts in your starter feed on the sugar and carbohydrates in the flour and convert them to carbon dioxide bubbles, making your bread loaves grow in size.
If you use your starter when it’s flat (ie: not active and bubbley or at its peak), that will be reflected in your bread. There’s just not enough yeast to go around to make those rising bubbles!
A little on “discard”-
Some people save their discard in the fridge to use in recipes, and everyone’s favorite thing to ask in sourdough is “what discard recipes do you use?” Some people keep jars and jars of discard in the fridge in order to feel like they’re not wasting it.
I’m here to give you permission to throw away that discard, and clear up a few things. I find this word to be very confusing! Discard means to throw it away. It’s wasted, past its peak, and dead. There are minimal living organisms, no more healthy bacteria, everything that you want out of your sourdough starter has died. The word “discard” is used very loosely.
I interpret recipes calling for “discard” as past its peak, but not totally flat coming out of the fridge or days sitting on the counter. I want to be getting something out of my starter- and too far past peak is just dead, soggy flour.
I am not a waster. Again, we’re a firm “use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without” household, and I’m the kind of person that will stay up all night canning, processing, or working just to make sure I’m not wasting. BUT I’m also a believer in not using things that don’t serve you. Are your jars of dead starter serving you?
This is why we maintain in small quantities, like a half cup or less of starter, so you don’t have large quantities of waste each day. If I’m using discard, I’m using whatever is on my counter in whatever state it’s in, but not pulling flat cold starter from the fridge.
Keeping your starter in the fridge
If you’re only baking every couple of weeks, or going on vacation, the fridge is a good place for your sourdough starter to hang out without molding. When in the fridge, the yeast and bacteria are slowed down. They eat more slowly at the sugars and carbohydrates in the flour, and can survive longer between feedings. If you’re maintaining your starter in the fridge you only need to feed it about once a week. If you go longer, don’t sweat, it’s probably still okay!
If you pull your starter out of the fridge and it has a grey or black liquid sitting on the top, don’t be alarmed! This is called hooch- you can dump it off or stir in back in. Hooch is the byproduct of fermentation in your starter. This can also happen on the counter if you leave your starter hungry, but it’s more likely to happen in the fridge. Don’t stress about it.
When you’re ready to use your starter again, take it back out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature before feeding it. You may have to feed it a few times to get it going big and bubbley again.
I always tell people getting started, that after you’ve put in the heavy lifting of a few weeks to get your sourdough starter active, take out a piece and store it in the freezer! This way, if you ever accidentally kill your starter, you have a backup plan. Pull that piece out of the freezer, let it come up to room temperature and start feeding it again.
Do use these methods sparingly if you can- as a sourdough starter is only as strong as its last 5 feedings! This can vary a little bit, a lot of people have great success with storing it in the fridge and then taking it out for use again the next day, but I find I like the strength in my starter when I’ve built up to it over several feedings.
Big no-no’s in your starter
If you’re having a hard time committing to regular feedings, you might find one of these things happening-
Pink stuff on top- this is one of the only indications that your sourdough starter is unsalvageable. Pink or orange hues on the top of your starter is usually an indication it’s developed or been contaminated by a bacteria called serratia marcescen- aka, the pinks stuff that can sometimes grow in your bathroom. If you get to this point, it is dead. Try again!
Other indications of a sourdough starter having a rough time is overly strong smells, or if it smells like acetone (nail polish remover). These are less serious- you can come back from this as long as there is no other signs of mold presence! Increasing your feedings can pull your starter back from the brink of death- you can feed it twice a day rather than just once!
Understanding these different aspects in your starter will help you be more successful. This post could go on for days- there’s so many other opinions and debates on sourdough I get asked about all the time:
Does metal kill sourdough? Short answer- sourdough is acidic and can react with some kinds of metal. Most metal in our kitchens these days is stainless steel, which may not cause problems in your starter. We use wooden utensils and do avoid metal.
Does your bread actually taste sour? The “sour” flavor comes from the development of the lactobacillus bacteria. We bulk ferment our sourdough bread in the fridge overnight- which slows the yeast development so your bread doesn’t over-prove while the lactobacillus bacteria develop. Adjusting your recipe to a longer fermentation will allow your loaves to develop a more sour flavor.
How long does it really take? That’s entirely up to you! Again, this depends on how you want your bread to taste. If you’re using your starter for the natural yeast rather than the bacteria (sour flavor) you can make and bake a same day loaf. Do what you like the taste of!
Sourdough is a deep dark rabbit hole with a lot of folks with a lot of different opinions. The more you know, the better you understand. But this isn’t an overnight process, and you can overwhelm yourself with the amount of varying information out there. Keep it simple, people have been baking sourdough for a long time without the opinions of the internet or any fancy gadgets. What works in your kitchen might be entirely different than what works in your best friend’s kitchen down the street. Do what works for you!
Best of luck on your sourdough journey ❤️
