Do you think you killed your sourdough starter?
Your starter hasn’t been fed in months and looks awful, but it’s OK — really.
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Love sourdough, but looking for a bit more flexibility and ease when you bake with a starter? In The Casual Sourdough Baker, PJ shows you just how wonderfully stress-free sourdough baking can be, from simple but richly flavored loaves to countless easy ways to use your discard. If you're just beginning your journey, our Sourdough Baking Guide lays out the basics you need for success — whether you decide to become serious or go casual!
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“I think I killed my starter.”
How many millions of sourdough bakers have uttered those devastating words? The starter you coaxed to life, watched grow, then used to bake many delectable loaves — dead. And all because you stashed it in the back of the fridge and forgot to feed it for a few weeks (or maybe even months).
In reality, it’s very difficult to kill sourdough starter — especially through benign neglect. Yes, you can put fed starter in your turned-off oven to stay warm, forget about it, and preheat the oven to 450°F for biscuits. Whoops — killed it.
Or your partner sees what looks like an ancient jar of leftover pancake batter in the back of the fridge and drains your starter down the sink. OK, done.
There’s even the very, very remote possibility your starter becomes infected with bad bacteria or mold, turns pinkish, and smells acrid: time to say goodbye.
But simply forgetting to feed your starter? Hey, that’s not going to kill it; it’s just taking a very long nap. And like Sleeping Beauty, the Prince’s kiss (in this case, flour and water) will bring it back to life.
Your starter will be happiest and healthiest if you feed it twice a day (if it lives on the counter), or once a week if it’s stored in the refrigerator. (If you keep your starter on the counter full time, then you’re probably not forgetting to feed it; so going forward, I’m going to assume you store your starter in the fridge.)
After a week without food, your starter probably has a thin layer of clear to light-amber liquid on its surface. This is alcohol, a byproduct of fermentation (a.k.a. hooch), and is perfectly fine to stir back into the starter.
The hooch atop your starter has grown a bit darker in color. This is a sign the starter has ramped down its activity; the alcohol is old and oxidizing. If you feed your starter at this point, either stir in the hooch or pour it off; it doesn’t matter either way (though it may temporarily turn your starter a bit gray in color).
The layer of hooch on your starter will have gotten darker (almost black); or it may even have dried up and formed a dark gray, corrugated “skin.” While this looks awful, it’s really not; simply peel off (and discard) the skin and you’ll find your liquid, cream-colored (albeit very hungry) starter underneath.
If you weren’t storing much starter to begin with, it may simply have dried up entirely and turned into a darkish chalk-like block. You can try to revive it by pulverizing it and adding water, then feeding it on a regular schedule. But if it doesn’t respond at all (no growth, no bubbles) after three or four days of twice-a-day feedings, you might as well start over. Just be sure to stir some of your old starter into the new — so you can continue to brag about how long you’ve kept your starter going!
Remember: If your starter has a weird color other than in its hooch (or skin) on top — anything beyond cream/amber, in the pink/blue/green/orange spectrum — throw it out. Ditto if it smells off-putting: not just strongly of alcohol or vinegar or even mildly of nail-polish remover, but bad; like, ewww, don’t eat this.
To revive your neglected starter, stir in any hooch (or drain it off, your choice). Measure 113g (about 1/2 cup, about 4 ounces) into a small mixing bowl. Discard the remainder; it’s probably old enough that you won’t want to bake anything with it.
Feed the 113g saved starter with equal parts (by weight) unbleached all-purpose flour (56g) and water (56g). Usually, you’d feed with cool or room temperature water. But since your starter has been in the fridge, warm (not hot) tap water will help get things going.
Stir thoroughly, and transfer the mixture to a clear, straight-sided container; a large (32-ounce) glass pickle or olive jar, the kind you’d get at a club store, is ideal, as is a 2-pint wide-mouth mason jar. Add the jar lid, but don’t screw it down tight.
Loop a rubber band around the jar at the level of the starter. Measure the height of your starter and add another rubber band to the jar at double the starter’s current height. This will allow you to measure the starter’s activity level.
A room temperature of 75°F to 78°F is ideal. But if it’s cooler, no worries; your starter will simply come to life more slowly. And if it’s summer, and warmer? Your starter will wake up more quickly than it might have.
After 12 hours has your starter inched up the jar at all? Is it showing any bubbles — either on its surface or underneath? If so, yes! It’s alive.
At this point you can return your starter to the refrigerator with a renewed vow to feed it every week. But to really bring your starter back to its normal healthy self, continue the feeding process until it doubles in size within 12 hours. This might take another couple of feedings (or several days’ worth), but it’s time and flour well spent.
If after that initial 12 hours your starter looks exactly or nearly the same as it did when it started (no growth, few bubbles) — no worries! Repeat the feeding process (discard, feed) and check it again in 12 hours. Still no activity? Repeat. The longer you’ve let it linger unfed in the fridge, the more time it’ll take to wake up. But eventually it should start to bubble and grow.
Finally, just because you’ve pulled your starter back from the brink doesn’t mean you’re ready to bake a big crusty loaf of naturally leavened bread: Your starter won’t be ready to raise bread on its own (without the added boost of commercial yeast) until it’s doubling in size within six to eight hours of having been fed.
You won’t want to keep the starter you initially discard (it’s probably kind of gnarly), but the discard from subsequent feedings can be used to make all manner of tasty treats; Sourdough Crumpets are a big favorite at my house. If you're not going to use the discard immediately, store it in the fridge.
So what happens if your starter really did die? Begin again with a jar of our fresh sourdough starter, which can have you up and baking within 24 hours of receiving it.
March 1, 2024 at 6:43am
With the second feeding… do you discard before feeding? Or do you just add the water and flour?
March 4, 2024 at 2:27pm
In reply to With the second feeding… do… by Kelly (not verified)
Hi Kelly! Yes, discard before the second feeding. Happy baking!
January 15, 2024 at 7:20pm
Hi, I left my mature starter on the bench for 12 days unfed. 🙃 Yikes, I know! It had a bit of hooch, smelt fine aside from alcohol scent and had zero signs of mold. I fed it last night and it nearly doubled in 12hrs, fed a second time and it's back to double within 6hrs.
Would you consider this starter safe to use?
January 18, 2024 at 10:32am
In reply to Hi, I left my mature… by Leah (not verified)
Yes, I'd say it's good to bake with now!
January 3, 2024 at 7:39pm
My sourdough starter was tragically thrown away during my recent move. I’m working on getting over it! I had a jar of discard in my freezer that I thawed and have been trying to revive! I’m 2 days into the 12 hour feeding cycle and I’m seeing only 4-5 bubbles and no growth yet. Is reviving unfed discard possible? It smells… odd. Not alcoholic, not quite vinegary, not quite rotten. I’m going to keeping working on it but wondering if it will be worth it!
January 6, 2024 at 4:35pm
In reply to My sourdough starter was… by Emma (not verified)
Hi Emma, seeing a few bubbles is certainly promising and means that your starter is still alive! I would continue on with regular feedings (along with discarding each time), you can even incorporate some rye or whole wheat flour to act as extra food for the starter. Hope this helps!
November 3, 2023 at 5:04pm
I have killed mine and I am devastated! I've had it for 6 years and made many, many sourdough items. A couple of weeks ago, I made a dozen round loaves for my freezer, but they are to take to a bake sale next weekend. I thought I would feed today and make one more batch tomorrow - couldn't find it in the fridge! There it was, behind something on the counter where it had been sitting for 2 weeks. All turned pink! Into the trash it will go. I know I can make more, or get more from KA (where this originally came from), but I'm still very sad.
November 4, 2023 at 5:02pm
In reply to I have killed mine and I am… by Sherrill (not verified)
We totally understand, Sherrill! It's hard to let such a reliable baking companion go. We're sorry for your loss!
March 29, 2023 at 3:55pm
"If you're not going to use the discard immediately, store it in the fridge." Even if you don't plan to use it, consider saving some discard in the fridge anyway! Stored discard saved my starter.
Early in the pandemic, I bought some starter on a whim from my local bakery when they started doing grocery delivery. Fast-forward a little over a year, I took a break from baking during the summer, and forgot to feed it. By the time I remembered, it had pink slime, so I threw it away. BUT the container of discard that I also forgot about wasn't tainted, probably protected by the layer of alcohol. After a few feedings, it came back to life, and is still going strong.
I now use the small-batch method (https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/10/30/maintaining-a-smaller-…), so I only have a couple of tablespoons of discard, but I always keep the most recent one in a separate tiny glass jar just in case.
October 7, 2022 at 8:27am
This blog post rings true. I had starter in my fridge that I neglected to feed for several months. I lost track. I kept saying to myself that I really needed to feed the starter and kept putting it off. It took me several feedings at 12-hour intervals, but it's back. I'm making no-knead sourdough bread with the rejuvenated starter.
Pagination