I realized that my sourdough starter was starving!
Feeding the natural yeast of a sourdough starter is vital to the process of bread-making.
The Yeast
The flour that you start the sourdough starter with, as well as the air in the room, all carry natural, wild yeasts and, for them to flourish, they need food - flour and water.
How do I know if the starter is hungry?
The biggest indicator that a sourdough starter is hungry is that there is a liquid floating on top of the mixture.
Don’t worry - just stir it up, feed it, and carry on.
How much do I feed it?
There are many recipes out there, from wet starters to dry starters.
My advice: Find your recipe and follow it.
Personally, I think that, once you get your starter going, you can be a little less exact with the process but, to get your starter healthy and happy, just follow the directions, to give it the best chance in life.
My Story
BIrth the starter (day 1): check
Feed the starter: check
Repeat (days 2-7): in progress
For the past four days, I had been growing the family of yeast but I have been still feeding it the same amount as on Day 1. I have been starving my starter !!!
This is what I realized: by feeding the starter, you are growing the yeast family and after a couple of days, that half-cup of food that you fed it on day one is not enough for the larger size of starter.
You wouldn’t feed s family of four the same amount of food that you fed a family of one.
That means that you either have to:
- feed the growing starter more, or
- divide it up
With the recipe that I use, a “family of one” is 1/2 cup of starter and you feed it 1/2 cip of food (1/4 cup each of flour and water).
Today, after realizing that my starter was hungry, I divided it up, saving 1/2 cup, my family of one, fed it, and put the rest (the discard) into some homemade, non-sourdough bread that I was making.
And, now, I will continue to divide and feed my starter accordingly, maintaining that “family of one”.
