Barb at King Arthur

January 27, 2024 at 10:02am

In reply to by Nadin (not verified)

Hi Nadin, normally you wouldn't need to maintain quite so much starter. For our starter routine the maintenance amount is 339g of starter, which fits nicely in a quart-sized jar. Ideally you want to maintain enough starter to keep it active and healthy, but this doesn't have to be a large amount and can even go as low as 60g of starter in an 8-ounce canning jar. Keep in mind that it isn't difficult to build the quantity of starter you need for baking over the course of a few feedings. The important thing to remember about storing your starter in the fridge is that while it survives in there very well, it isn't necessarily thriving. Often a few room temperature feedings will do much to improve the activity level of your starter and, when maintaining a smaller starter, these can be combined with building the quantity of starter in order to avoid too much discard. It's important to keep the ratio of ingredients in the starter relatively consistent in order for the starter to be able to function at its best. Adding more flour and water without discarding (or using part of the starter for baking) will ultimately cause your starter to become sluggish and weighed down with sourdough waste products. 

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