This is a happy sourdough starter!
If you don’t have a healthy, happy, vigorous starter, your sourdough bread will be flat and lack that lovely soft, open crumb. In my opinion, caring for your starter is THE most important aspect of making good, springy bread. This one is a rye starter. After baking bread yesterday, I took a tablespoon of my starter and put it into a sterile jar ready for baking today. The rest of the fed starter went into a smaller sterile jar, dated and popped into the fridge as a back-up in case of emergency! I have, on occasion, lost my starter – mostly because I don’t follow my own rules for looking after it 🙈 – so I keep spares so I don’t have to start again.
Eventually, the starter will develop a layer of brown liquid called hooch, which protects the microbes while they’re not being fed. The jar in the 3rd photo is from 9.9.25 and is still good to use if needed. After a while I do end up with several jars though, so when I get too many, I have a clear-out and compost the ones that are no longer viable or smell a bit funky!
Caring for your starter is one of the things I spend time on when you attend one of my sourdough workshops – because this really is the star of the show and the key to successful sourdough bread making. I
f you’d like to join the next workshop on 21st February (10.45–14.45), I’d love to see you there – still places available.
The following one will be Saturday 21st March at 10.45.
Spare starter
Starter with hooch
