How to start and maintain a sourdough starter?

Forgot about your starter in the back of the fridge for weeks or months? It can almost certainly be brought back to life. Sourdough cultures are remarkably resilient — the microbes go dormant in cold temperatures but rarely die off completely.

When you need to take a break from baking or want a backup, you can preserve your starter for months or even years using simple drying or freezing techniques.

A healthy starter needs consistent feeding to stay active. Your feeding schedule depends on how often you bake and where you store the starter.

The easiest and fastest way to start baking sourdough — ask someone who already has an active starter. Most sourdough bakers are happy to share, and many artisan bakeries will give away or sell small portions of their house culture.

Purchase a proven sourdough starter culture and rehydrate it at home. This is the most predictable path to a working starter — no guesswork, no false starts, and typically active within 5-7 days of feeding.

Use the live lactic acid bacteria in milk kefir or yogurt whey to jumpstart your sourdough starter. These fermented dairy products contain dozens of beneficial yeast and bacteria strains that rapidly colonize a flour-water mixture, cutting creation time to 3-7 days.

Skip the frustrating false-start phase by using unsweetened pineapple juice instead of water for the first 3 days. The juice's low pH (about 3.5) immediately creates an acidic environment that prevents Leuconostoc bacteria — the organisms that cause misleading early bubbling in traditional starters…

Build a sourdough starter from nothing but flour and water in about 7-14 days. Rye flour is the best starting flour because it contains more free sugars, higher enzyme activity, and more nutrients for wild yeast and bacteria to thrive.