Thick vs. Thin Sourdough Starter (2024)

FAQs

Thick vs. Thin Sourdough Starter? ›

Thin starter will be very bubbly, but it will be a little harder to work with. Thicker starter will have only a few bubbles but it will grow much faster. Just remember the ratios you use when you feed your starter and keep them consistent every time you feed it.

Consistency of Sourdough Starter

When starting to build your starter you can leave it a bit thinner but once you start making bread you will want it THICK, You want your sourdough starter to be the consistency of thick pancake batter. if it's too thin add a scoop of flour.

A very strong starter will rise slowly at low temperature, but it will rise rapidly at a warm temperature. A weak starter will not rise rapidly at either cool or warm temperatures. The type of flour used in your starter and the hydration percentage can also impact how much of a rise your starter will display.

Liquid starters have higher enzymatic activity than stiff ones, which means they can confer greater extensibility to a dough. This makes them the better choice for breads that require extensive manipulation during shaping, like baguettes, bagels, or pizza. Liquid starters are quicker to ferment than stiff ones.

Sourdough discard will tend to be more runny than active starter because it's used all of its food and has started to collapse. It will still be bubbly, but not airy like active starter.

It is important that you stir the sourdough starter every day in the morning and in the evening. Feed the starter. Add 60 g flour and 60 g lukewarm water, stir well to combine, and let sit out for 24 hours.

Ideally, sourdough should be the consistency of warm peanut butter. When it's just been fed, it should be quite thick. It's actually ok if it seems a little dry. As the starter ferments, it will absorb the flour and thin out just a little.

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

The stiff sourdough starter will improve yeast activity and reduce bacterial activity. If you are a chaser of a very sour bread and have a very strong wheat flour then you can try to play with a liquid sourdough starter. The key difference between all of the starters is how much water is used in the starter.

With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!

What happens if I forgot to discard the starter before feeding? ›

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

After feeding your starter, it should double or triple in size with bubbles visible on the surface and sides of the jar.

The starter looks lifeless

Other than failed bread and weak dough, you can tell just by looking at a starter that it is weak. It won't have any bubbles and it won't rise very much after feeding. It will look lifeless. An active, bubbly starter, on the other hand, looks alive.

It should look like thick pancake batter. After mixing, I mark the jar with a whiteboard marker or a rubber band and cover loosely. Your starter is ready to bake with once it has at least doubled in size, active and bubbly and slightly tangy aroma.

Yes. The lactic acid bacteria in your starter creates acetic acid, which is essentially a type of vinegar. This odor is very common. Smell your starter routinely.