Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready When It Does This, According To An Expert Baker

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During the pandemic, people all over took the time stuck at home to learn how to bake (or level-up their baking skills). Even after it ended, a lot of home bakers developed a real passion for making bread, and sourdough remains a favorite. As appealing as sourdough is, it's also challenging. Using a starter can be intimidating and doing so brings a different set of rules for bread baking that you may not be used to. Luckily, there are experts to guide you through it and explain how to know when your sourdough starter is ready to use. 

Tasting Table spoke with Samantha Merritt, creator of Sugar Spun Run, a baking website known for reliable recipes, and asked her to explain how to determine when your sourdough starter is ready to bake with. "An easy way to tell if your starter has doubled is to simply feed it in a clear, vertical container (I use a mason jar) and mark the level of the starter immediately after feeding (use a rubber band around the jar or a dry-erase marker to make a mark)," Merritt told us. "Once the sourdough starter has doubled, or nearly doubled, in size, this is the key indicator that it's ready to bake with. It should be puffy, airy, and bubbly."

You can start your sourdough journey by buying a kit on Amazon. These include jars for your starter that have a band to track both the rise of the dough and the date you started it, helping you follow your starter's progress. Any clear container will do, however, so long as you can see and mark the progress.

There are other signs to look for to determine when your sourdough starter is ready. "Look for the starter to be bubbly and increased in size," Merritt told us. "If your starter is flat, thin, or has a harsh, acidic smell, it is not ready and needs to be fed. If the bubbles are small and the starter is decreasing in size, it's missed its peak and needs to be fed again before using."

Doubling in size is good, but time is an important factor, too. "If you are making your sourdough starter from scratch, your starter will begin doubling in size before it's actually strong enough to use for baking," she explains. "You must have fed your starter a minimum of 8-10 days before it's ready to use, and even then you may need to feed it a bit longer before it's actually strong enough to make bread with."

A sourdough starter can last years so long as it's fed and maintained properly. As long as you don't rush things, pay attention to these sourdough tips, and take care of your starter, it can last for decades. You can start by trying our sourdough bread recipe.