Home»Food & Ferment»Sourdough

Last update on January 31 , 2024

Is your newcomer looking “ sus ” ? Are you enquire if it ’s still workable and active , or if your sourdough starter has gone bad ? If you respond yes to either of these questions , or otherwise have a foetid , crusty , neglected old sourdough starter on your hand , then you ’ve issue forth to the correct place !   interpret along to learn how to tell if your sourdough fledgeling is still good or not , how to feed and renovate an old still starter , prevent mold , and other useful tip . I ’ll share photograph that will aid you state the difference too .

A glass jar with a flip top lid is partially full of old sourdough starter which has a layer of hooch on top.

The dear word is : sourdough starter is far more springy and forgiving than you may think !

Sourdough starter care and feeding frequency

“ Feeding”a sourdough starter is the human action of adding unused flour and water supply , which keeps the beneficial bacteria and yeast alive . A dowry of the subsist starter is unremarkably removed before it ’s fed , either to use in a recipe or discarded . To keep sourdough starter sizeable , active , and awake , it take to be fed on a even basis .

Sourdough starters that are keep out at way temperature may need to be fed as often as daily , or several fourth dimension per week . If you lay in your sourdough neophyte in therefrigerator(like we do ) it should be fedonce every few weeks . Storing sourdough starter in the electric refrigerator is the best way to keep it from going spoilt , especially with long point betweenfeeding .

However ,   life story aim interfering ! I get it . Despite knowing the “ best practices ” , we often go many months between feed our starter … . and she ’s stillplentyalive ! We simply keep up a modified feeding process ( explained below ) to revive the dispatcher after calendar month of disregard . Note that our sourdough starter is erstwhile and establish though . Younger starters may not be so forgiving . So , I do n’t necessarilyrecommendwaiting several months to give your neophyte .

A flip top jar with a white starter on the bottom which is covered with a clear dark brown liquid on the top.

Would you like to save this?

We ’ll netmail this post to you , so you may come back to it later !

I fit in to obtain email updates .

Disclosure : Homestead and Chill is proofreader - supported . When you purchase through link on our site , we may earn an affiliate committal .

The inside of a jar is shown with dark clear liquid on the surface of its contents.

How do you know if sourdough starter has spoiled or gone bad?

The main indicator if a sourdough starter is still in effect or not is if itwill still rise and fallafter feast it fresh flour and body of water . If it does , it ’s still animated ! Yet old overleap sourdough starters are sluggish and require extra time and aid to become fully active again , which we ’ll search more in the “ reviving an old sourdough fledgling ” part below .

If your sourdough starter isobviously moldy , then unfortunately the starter has gone tough and should no longer be used . Moldon sourdough entrant will lookraised and hazy , and can range in colour from white , chicken , fleeceable , puritanical or pinkish place . It will often maturate on the sides of the entrepot container as well as on top of the starter itself .

That good news program is , mold is n’t all that mutual on sourdough fledgeling ! ( peculiarly on an found one ) . The good bacterium and barm in the starter createacidic conditions that help to naturally preserve itand guard off mold . That ’s not to say an old ignore sourdough entrant does n’t appear and smell reasonably stinking though ! But more often than not , it ’s still alive and hunky-dory to use . If you ’re experiencing mold issues , check out the tip about preventing mold on sourdough starter at the end of this article .

The inside of a jar is shown, the old starter is covered in a layer of grey, clear liquid. Reviving a sourdough starter at this stage is paramount to having an active sourdough starter.

Normal characteristics of an unfed, neglected sourdough starter

When a sourdough starter has n’t been maintain or feed in a while , it will develop alayer of dark liquidcalledhooch . Hooch is an acidic alcohol - alike by-product of ferment . It may be brownish , blackish , or evenly slightly pinkish purple . While it ’s totally harmless , it ’s a sure sign that your starter is athirst !

Sometimes there are whitespots or lumpson the Earth’s surface of the starter itself butbelowthe layer of hooch , in all likelihood where air bubbles once were ( not to be confused with mold – see photo below ) . Old starters will alsosmell very firm and acidic – like vinegar , acetone , or even nail polish remover . After many months of neglect , the store container unremarkably looks pretty ill-humoured and sketchy too . All of this is normal , and the starter is still okay to use and revive .

On the other hand , if it smell rotten , gross , putrid or otherwise strange ( not acidic ) the sourdough freshman is likely ball up and should be toss out .

A flip top jar with white material on the bottom of it is covered with a layer of dark grey liquid.

If your sourdough starting motor has gone bad , you could either get a new starter from a friend , learnhow to make sourdough starterfrom scratch , orbuy an constituent sourdough starterfrom our workshop – which is basically unfailing !

How to Revive an Old Inactive Sourdough Starter

revive an old neglected sourdough starter motor is similar to feed a starter under normal lot , with a couple of exceptions . The antic is to be patient andnot feed it too frequently at first . The starter necessitate more meter to easy rebuild the universe of starved microbes inside .   It may also take additional feedings to get as fully active as it once was .

The big mistake people make when trying to revive an old passive sourdough fledgling is to repetitively feed it ( e.g. several time per day ) in an attempt to ignite it up . Doing this can be counterproductive and inadvertentlyremovemore and more of your germ colony before they ’ve had a chance to feed and reproduce , ensue in a weaker newcomer .

Instructions

Troubleshooting Tips

Sourdough starter still not uprise ? These tips may facilitate :

Why did my sourdough starter get moldy?

Mold on sourdough starter is most common withyoung or brand Modern starters . The new colony of bacterium and barm are n’t yet established enough to keep the mould at bay . Then when faced with unfavorable condition ( such as a cold-blooded kitchen , infrequent feeding , or a less - than - clean storage container ) mold is more likely to take over . Therefore , do your best to followrecommended good practicesto feed and maintain your starter to keep it glad – especiallyat first .

Mold is even more common when attempting to make a newsourdough starter from scribble . It ’s definitely potential , but is notoriously more tricky ( and musty ) than starting with an established culture . That ’s really what motivated us to betray sourdough starter on this internet site ! We began our sourdough journey with a homemade newbie , and then learn others how to make one from scratch inthis tutorial . While the cognitive process works for some folks , others would get through out in thwarting as their starter rise mold meter after metre . So , we decided to offerorganic dehydrated sourdough starter(a little piece of our own ) to aid give folks an sluttish parachuting scratch line !

It ’s also possible for an established sourdough starter to molding . For instance , if the storage container or utensil it was stirred with was somehowcontaminated with mold spores . One means to quash mold contamination is to protect and store your starter in a thoroughly houseclean and sealed container , such as aglass snotty-nosed - top container like this . ( Do n’t vex , the cachet is n’t SO tight that the gasses ca n’t escape ) . at last , an established crank may grow molding if it go unfed for so long that the beneficial microbes hunger and buy the farm off totally .

Two flip top jars are shown, the one in the background contained the old starter, its glass is covered in the substance so you cannot see through it. The flip top jar in the foreground has a scant amount in the bottom of the clear glass jar.

My sourdough starter is active! Now what?

extolment ! Now , you may either use your alive starter to bake something delicious , or you may merely put it back in the refrigerator for storage . Going forward , endeavor to feed your starter once every few weeks instead of waiting many months . It should n’t be that laborious to do if you design to bake on occasion ! We only bake a pair metre per month , so our neophyte gets fed then – when we are actuate it to use in a formula .

Most sourdough breadstuff formula call for starter at“peak ” action : when it ’s been fed and full rises , but just before it starts to fall back down again . For instance , we call for participating fledgling in ourno - knead sourdough lucre , simple focaccia , cornbread , orpizza doughrecipes . On the other hand , you could use either active newbie ORdiscard ( unfed)starter in many recipe too – let in our easysourdough crackers , fluffysourdough flapcake , andginger molasses cookies . Enjoy !

Looking for other ways to use discarded starter ? See our list of the15 Best Sourdough Discard Recipes here .

A stainless steel measuring cup partially full of flour, a liquid glass measuring cup, and a flip top jar with a small amount of starter in the bottom of it are lined up one after the next.

And that is how to revive an old inactive sourdough starter.

Do n’t miss these delectable recipes :

How to Revive Old Inactive Sourdough Starter

Ingredients

A flip top jar containing a sourdough starter that has just been fed. The jar has been marked with a red line to show where it started (about 1/5th of the way up the jar). There is some specks of flour dusted around the jar and a stainless steel measuring cup in the background. Reviving sourdough starter can take time and patience.

A flip top jar containing sourdough starter that is about 1/3rd of the way up the jar, there is a red mark on the outside to illustrate where the starter first started. The starter is just over the original line by about an inch.

The inside of a jar containing starter, many small bubbles are forming on the surface.

A flip top jar about 2/3rds full of sourdough starter. There are many small bubbles inside the starter, a red mark has been made on the outside of the jar about 1/5th up from the bottom. The starter has already raised over twice the height of the original mark. Reviving sourdough starter is easy with the right amount of flour, water, and ambient temperature.

A flip top jar sitting on a white plate is overflowing with sourdough starter. It is running down the side of the jar and is pooling on one side of the plate. A red mark is on the jar to show where the starter was first marked, which is only about 1/5th up from the bottom of the jar.

A sourdough starter with five bits of blue mold forming on the surface. They each have a red circle around them to illustrate where they are.

A fresh loaf of sourdough bread, it has scores on the crust that resemble growing wheat, and deep score in the middle of the loaf created and sharp edge or ear that stands up taller than the rest of the bread.

A glass jar with a flip top lid is partially full of old sourdough starter which has a layer of hooch on top.

Article image