The Scary Reason To Avoid Pouring Sourdough Starter Down The Drain

Sourdough starter can be a precious commodity. The right one can ensure that you have delicious bread for years to come. When making sourdough bread at home, you may find you have leftover starter that you no longer need, and it gets in the way. So, what do you do? In the process of washing up, you may be tempted to just rinse it all down the drain. Out of sight, out of mind. Unless, of course, it comes back to haunt you. One thing to keep in mind about sourdough starter is that it's also the perfect starter for a serious drain clog.

If you think your sourdough starter has gone bad, you may want to just get rid of it. But how you get rid of it matters. Flour and water make dough, and even though it may seem that running water will wash it away, plumbers know that isn't always the case. Sticky bits of sourdough starter can catch in your pipes, especially where gunk and debris have already accumulated, and create a seriously gooey mass that will only grow over time.

Even the thinnest sourdough starter can cause trouble. It can cling to the interior walls of your drain. Every time something sticks inside your pipes, the opening narrows, leaving less room for water and debris to pass through and a greater chance of a blockage forming. So, while it likely won't cause a clog the very moment you wash it down, it could lay the foundation for one. Then, in a few months, you may find your sink backing up so badly that you need to call a plumber to restore the flow.

The problem with putting sourdough starter (or any doughy substance) down the drain is that it dries out over time. Your pipes only have water in them when you're running the tap. As soon as you turn the flow off, all of that starter begins to dry out. If you've made sourdough before, you know that it can harden like cement. Once it's in the pipes, even running more water won't be enough to soften it so that it can move again. Not even a plunger will be able to dislodge it.

There are plenty of horror stories online about home bakers who discovered the hard way that rinsing old dough and flour down the drain is a bad idea. If you find yourself with leftover sourdough starter that you don't need, treat it like you would any other solid waste in your kitchen. You can either bag it up and put it out with the regular trash or, even better, compost it.

The best option, however, is to find another use for it in your kitchen. Even if you're not baking bread, there are plenty of other recipes that can turn it into a tasty treat. You can thicken soup with sourdough discard, make pancakes or pizza crust, or a whole host of other sourdough options. If you have it on hand, why not do yourself (and your pipes) a favor by finding another way to use it up?