Gifting, Sharing and Sending a Sourdough Starter — Gartur Stitch Farm (2024)

FAQs

Gifting, Sharing and Sending a Sourdough Starter — Gartur Stitch Farm? ›

You can easily share your sourdough starter with friends and family - whether you're gifting, sharing or sending a starter, the easiest thing to do is take 20g of sourdough starter and place into a small jar and then add 20g of flour and 20g of water. You now have a small sourdough starter to gift to your friend.

You can easily share your sourdough starter with friends and family - whether you're gifting, sharing or sending a starter, the easiest thing to do is take 20g of sourdough starter and place into a small jar and then add 20g of flour and 20g of water. You now have a small sourdough starter to gift to your friend.

You want to let the starter sit out for a few hours to feed and be active for a little bit, then cover it and put it back into the refrigerator. Now, at that point, you could pull it out of the fridge the next day and use it for pancakes and sourdough skillet and it has been fed.

Technically, yes you can use sourdough discard to start another starter, however I advise against this unless you have a mature sourdough starter that you are wanting to share with family and friends. Then you can portion off a little discard that they can feed.

Discard a portion of the starter and feed it with fresh flour and water every 24 hours. Twice-Daily Feeding: In warmer environments or if you prefer a faster fermentation process, you can feed your starter twice a day, approximately every 12 hours. This helps maintain a more active and vigorous starter.

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.

Do I have to discard my sourdough starter? It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

How much should I discard my sourdough starter? If you bake regularly you never need to discard your starter. You use half of it to make your dough and feed the remaining half. Keep it in the fridge and it can go 10 days without feeding it discarding any of the culture.

Mature sourdough starter aged more than 6 months old should be able to survive unfed on the counter for around 3-4 days without any risk of mold. The caveat here is if the temperature is very hot, this timeframe would be reduced. A mature sourdough starter will survive unfed in the fridge for months.

Is it better to freeze or dehydrate sourdough starter? ›

For long term storage, dry AND freeze. Freezing a wet sourdough starter will last for about two weeks before it will go bad, but drying and freezing will keep the starter healthy much much longer.

This is not always a bad thing, and sometimes extra flour is necessary to rectify a runny starter or make the starter peak at a later time. Feeding a sourdough starter too much water is worse as the starter won't have enough flour to feed on and it will be runny and less bubbly than it should be.

Once you are able to dry your sourdough starter out you can store it indefinitely. You also reduce the risk of losing your starter to mold or neglect. Whatever happens, you'll always have a back up to reactivate, should the worst happen to your starter.

Feed Your Starter: Before gifting your sourdough starter, feed your starter so it's healthy and active. Take part of that fed starter and stick it in a clear glass mason jar. Seal the jar lightly. Attach some ribbon and a stir stick with a cute tag and you've got the perfect gift!

A clear liquid on top of a starter that has vigorously risen and fallen and was covered with bubbles (which have subsided) is hooch. If you see hooch on your starter, discard and refeed. A clear liquid on top of a starter that has not vigorously risen and fallen is water separation.

You can put your sourdough discard either in the trash. or the compost, or you can use it in recipes. Don't put it down the drain. If you have ever, like, tried to clean out a crusty sourdough starter jar, you know, that stuff turns to, like, basically cement. It's just nuts.

I wipe the top and rim of my starter jar every time I feed, which helps keep most of the jar clean. Transfer your sourdough starter to a new, clean jar whenever your current jar becomes overly crusted with sourdough starter. I typically do this once every two weeks.

If you aren't intending to use your sourdough starter every day, it is best kept in the fridge. To do this, feed it as instructed above, seal the jar and then stand at room temperature for 2-3 hours (to help reinvigorate the yeast) before placing in the fridge to store.

Dried sourdough starter lasts indefinitely, and can be brought back to life with water and flour when you're finally ready to bake again.

You can spread the sourdough starter out on a piece of parchment paper and dry it, or preferably freeze dry it. It should still retain some activity. Then peel the starter off of the paper and crumble it up. Place it in a ziplock baggy and mail in a padded envelope.