There are several ways to manage your sourdough starter, each with its own merits! Some take more time than others, but can give higher rise or better flavor. Others take almost no time at all. Here, we'll discuss the differences, and I'll show you how to maintain a tiny starter - which is my method of choice.
Traditional Sourdough Method - Doubling
Chances are that if you have received a jar of starter, that this is the method you were told to use. The doubling method is tried and true, always works, and you almost always have enough starter to bake with, or you will very soon. Here are the basics:
Stir your starter down (it will be very puffy!) and measure it.
However much you have, add the same amount of flour
Add about 2/3 that amount of water.
Stir it up, forming a soft-ish paste (some starters/recipes call for different consistencies, based on the flour type or specific method of sourdough baking)
Cover lightly and rise at room temperature for 12 hours and repeat, which has you feeding twice a day.
Before baking, you may add an additional feeding after 6 hours to make a very active starter, and to help you quickly get enough volume for the recipe you plan to bake.
When you get more starter than you need (which is nearly daily until you're ready to bake) remove around 1/2 the starter and place into another jar in the fridge. Only feed the remaining starter.
The starter in the fridge is now called 'discard' and is basically a hungry starter (because you removed it before you fed). This sourdough can be used up in 'discard recipes' which will usually have additional rising agents and flour added, because the sourdough isn't strong enough to rise bread after not being fed and being stored in the fridge. (for a discard recipe to be THM compliant, you will need to use sprouted flour, because you will be cooking it immediately and NOT giving it 7 hours to sour)
It's purpose is to give a sourdough flavor to quick baked goods, and to find a use for all the extra starter without wasting it.
There are pros and cons to this method.
The most obvious downside to this method is the prodigious amount of discard it generates. With every feeding, the volume of your starter doubles. If you have 1/4C in the morning, you'll double to 1/2C that evening, 1C the next morning and 2C by that evening. At that point, you're absolutely required to remove at least half with every feeding to keep it a manageable size, but then you have a growing jar of discard in your fridge. If you don't use the discard quickly enough, you still end up throwing much of it away.
Another downside is feeding it twice a day. Some will use the doubling method only once a day, which helps, but typically you're told to feed 2x, which means keeping up and always being around to feed both morning and evening.
A benefit to this method is that you are almost always ready to bake any loaf of bread! Most single recipes call for around 1 - 1.5C starter, which was fed 12 hours before. If you decide to always keep 1.5C active in your feeding jar (throwing the rest into discard each time you feed) then you can wake up in the morning, decide to bake today on a whim, and you'll be ready to go with plenty of starter.
Another benefit is that you have LOADS of discard to make other baked items with! The internet is full of sourdough discard recipes, from pancakes and waffles, to crackers. (be sure to use sprouted flour for these recipes to stay THM:E compliant) You can give anything a lovely sour flavor by using up your discard in the recipes. Plus, it's the only way to manage how much flour you're throwing out every day.
Refrigerator Method
This method of managing your starter is really the doubling method in slow motion. Reeeeeally slow motion. When you refrigerate your starter, you slow its growth until it's barely perceptible, and you can go days without worrying about it! This is kind of a hybrid between the doubling method and the tiny starter method.
Prep the fridge jar:
Place your starter in a 16 oz. jar, feed it with about 3/4C flour and 1/2 C water. Adjust the amounts to achieve the soft paste consistency.
Cover with the lid and place directly into the fridge. It will be ready to use in 24 hours.
Your fridge starter will stay ready to use for at least 4 weeks. If it gets older than that it's still alive, but possibly not strong enough to bake bread.
TO BAKE:
24 hours before baking, remove 2T of cold starter from your fridge jar. Leave the remainder in the fridge.
You'll feed 3 times today to re-activate the cold starter and encourage it to eat and multiply and fully incorporate into the flour to make a large starter for baking the next day.
Morning - 2T starter + 2T flour & 2t water
Afternoon - all starter + 1/4C flour & 3T water
Before Bed - all starter + 1/2C flour & 1/3C water
By the next morning, you'll have around 1-1.5C active starter, ready to bake
If you need more starter by the next day, just pull out more cold starter and feed more at each feeding.
After you measure your starter for use in your recipe, any extra can be put back into your fridge jar!
Maintaining the fridge jar:
When your fridge jar gets low, just take a day to make up a big starter just like for baking a loaf of bread. After the last feeding, put it in the fridge and it will be ready to keep going!
Pros & Cons
The major benefit of this method is the flexibility on the feeding schedule and no discard, since you don't feed it while it's in the fridge.
A downside is that you can forget about your starter for too long, and will need several feedings to revive it before it's strong enough to bake with.
You also have to plan at least 24 hours in advance to bring even a healthy starter up to baking size.
NOTE: Any sourdough starter can be placed in the fridge to go on vacation for a while! Whatever method you prefer for active baking, you can feed your starter, throw it in the fridge, and take a break from baking. When you're ready to return to active baking, just bring it out and feed it twice a day until it's good and bubbly, then you can return to however you usually keep your starter!
Tiny Starter Method
Now we come to my method of choice - the tiny starter. If you have a good understanding of HOW and WHY sourdough works, then it makes total sense!
A sourdough starter is just a mass of lactic acid bacteria and wild yeasts, eating the carbohydrates in flour. That's it. A small amount of starter needs a small amount of food, and a large amount of starter needs a large amount of food. We always feed the same volume of flour to starter, because that's how much is NEEDS to survive. 1/4C starter needs 1/4C flour in order to fully feed it for appx 12-24 hours. At that point, it will have eaten all available carbohydrates in the flour and it will need more food! That's why we feed it so often. Your starter needs to eat every day just like you do! (unless it's dormant in the fridge)
The idea behind a tiny starter is that you don't need to keep your starter big to keep it healthy! It is a fully living, active and healthy starter, no matter what size, because it feeds on the flour and expands to spread the yeasts into the entire lump, diving and conquering and creating a larger starter as it grows. It also has no trouble expanding to consume MORE flour than it needs to survive - sourdough just keeps going! Here's how to maintain and bake with a tiny starter.
Maintaining the Starter:
Stir down your starter and discard ALL except just 1 Tablespoon in the jar.
Feed 1T flour and around 2 teaspoons water. You should have a soft paste.
Cover lightly (the jar lid set on top but not screwed down)
Rise at room temperature for 24 hours (only feeding once per day)
Repeat the next day. You'll only discard around 1T per day.
TO BAKE:
For LESS sour bread:
The morning before you want to bake, DO NOT discard any, and instead feed your 2-ish Tablespoons of starter with 1/2C flour, and around 1/3C water - keeping the consistency the same as usual. (you'll want a 1-quart jar instead of the 8oz jar you usually use)
That evening, feed another 1/2C flour & 1/3C water (this pre-bake is the only evening feeding you'll do)
The next morning, you'll have around 1.25-1.5C active starter, ready to bake with.
For MORE sour bread:
The morning before you want to bake, keep the 2T starter and feed 1C flour and 2/3C water, adjusting for the right consistency.
Rise for a full 24 hours. This long of a rise with with fewer feedings will give the sourdough time to consume ALL available carbs, and it will produce more gas and waste, which gives the sour flavor.
If you only think of baking the night before:
The evening before you want to bake, feed the 2T starter with 1C flour and 2/3C water. 12 hours is PLENTY of time for the starter to grow, but it won't become so sour.
BE SURE TO SAVE 1T of starter before mixing your dough to keep active starter! DO NOT BAKE ALL the starter into your bread, or you won't have any left!
Pros and Cons:
It's great to only feed once per day. There are lots of reasons for that:
Easier to fit into your daily schedule
You can feed morning or evening, or mid day - it doesn't matter if your day gets away from you, just feed it when you think about it
I love that you only discard 1T per day, which I don't even save. That only comes up to 7T per week, which is less than 1/2C wasted flour. Even with the rather expensive white whole wheat, that's not enough for me to mind throwing out. Besides, it would take me 2 weeks to get 1C discard to make anything with. I'd rather just feed big the night before I want to make a discard recipe and have a fresh batch of discard to use.
I also think it's incredible to be able to prep for baking at any point the day before. Feed in the morning, afternoon or evening, and still be ready to bake the next morning. The schedule is not so rigid as many I've seen.
Adjusting for your preferred level of sour flavor is also a huge plus.
One down side is that you have to plan the day before you want to bake, to feed your starter up to recipe size. But that's the same for refrigerator starter as well.
Another negative is that you don't GET any discard. But you can use any discard recipe with active/hungry starter as well - you just have to feed it up to size the day before you want it. But, you don't have a jar of discard sitting in the fridge, ready for waffles on a whim.
Here's my video showing you how I maintain my tiny starter.
So there you have it! The 3 basic school of thought on maintaining sourdough starters! Because sourdough is so flexible, you can usually interchange these methods, or even use all 3 at once, to some extent.
The tiny starter still uses the doubling concept, it just keeps it so small that you don't get much discard.
The refrigerator method uses doubling, but goes nice and slow, and then you remove such a small amount to bake that it works just like a tiny starter that has been kept on the counter, you just feed 3x instead of 1-2 times the day before baking.
You can make discard recipes with either the refrigerator or tiny starter method, you just make up a bigger starter the day before you need discard.
And there are lots of alternatives and favorite ways to flex within these broad categories! Some people LOVE feeding 3x per day, because of the resulting rising strength, or flavor. You can try mixing and matching any of the above methods, and your sourdough will still make great bread! Don't lose heart if one way doesn't work for you, or you don't prefer the resulting bread. Just make an adjustment to your starter and keep going!
You've got this sourdough starter thing!! Good luck! Leave me comments or questions below!
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