Starter Guide.

My feeding routine

I keep about 50g of starter in a straight-sided jar and feed it at 1:5:5 the night before a bake. That is one part starter, five parts flour, five parts water by weight, so 20g of starter gets 100g of flour and 100g of water. At a room temperature around 74 to 76°F it peaks in 8 to 10 hours, which lines up neatly with mixing dough the next morning.

The flour mix is plain bread flour with about 10% rye. The rye keeps the culture lively and adds a gentle depth to the tang without taking over.

Reading readiness

A starter is ready to leaven bread when it has roughly doubled, the dome on top is just starting to flatten, and it smells ripe and tangy rather than sharp like nail polish. Bubbles running up the sides of the jar are a better signal than bubbles on the surface. A rubber band around the jar at feeding height makes the rise impossible to misjudge.

Catch it at or just before peak. A starter that collapsed hours ago will still work, but the loaf will run more sour and ferment less predictably.

Storage between bakes

If I am baking weekly or more, the jar lives on the counter and gets fed daily. For anything less frequent, the fridge is the right home. Feed it, let it sit out for an hour to get moving, then refrigerate. It holds happily for a week or two like that, and one or two feedings on the counter bring it back to full strength before a bake.

Reviving a neglected starter

A starter forgotten in the fridge for a month looks grim: grey liquid on top, flat, smelling like acetone. It is almost certainly fine. Pour off the liquid, discard down to a spoonful, and feed at 1:5:5 twice a day at room temperature. Within two or three days it will be doubling on schedule again. A spoonful of rye in those feedings speeds up the recovery noticeably.

Using it in the recipes here

Every bread formula on this site is written around active starter at 20% of the flour weight, added at or near peak. If your kitchen runs colder than 76°F, expect the bulk fermentation times in the recipes to stretch, and watch the dough rather than the clock. The baking calculator can build the full day's timeline around your schedule.