If You Think Your Sourdough Starter Is Precious, Think Again

If you know someone with a sourdough starter, it’s very possible that they’ve given it a name. Perhaps it’s Lionel the Leavener, or Franny the Ferment. Both home bakers and professional bakeries alike take pride in their proprietary sourdough starter, and some establishments stake their claim to fame on its age, like Boudin Bakery in San Francisco, which has a starter dating back to 1849.

Although it’s common to be attached to your starter, one sourdough expert is suggesting something controversial: you shouldn’t be. Cookbook author and sourdough aficionado Richard Hart, who served as the head baker at Tartine for seven years and co-founded the Copenhagen bakery Hart Bageri with Noma chef Rene Redzepi, appeared on a recent episode of the podcast This Is TASTE to talk about all things bread. 

While chatting with host Matt Rodbard, Hart reveals that he doesn’t subscribe to the belief that your sourdough starter is precious. Instead, he emphasizes that “If you chucked out your sourdough and then you mix flour and water together, it will start fermenting again. You know? And that’s all it is. There’s yeast and bacteria living in this happy bucket of sourdough starter.”

It’s not the first time Hart has tried to debunk this myth. Back in January, he stirred up some controversy on Instagram by posting a clip of his interview on Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio, where he and the podcast’s eponymous host decried the tendency to treat your sourdough starter like it’s your child. Users quickly chimed in with their dissent, leaving comments such as, “I consider mine to be my pet! Doesn’t need to be taken for a walk twice a day though it does need to be fed and doesn’t cry if I miss a feeding.”

It’ll be hard to convince someone who cares so much about their sourdough starter to start caring a little less. However, if someone accidentally throws yours out, perhaps Hart can offer some consolation. And if you’re new to the sourdough journey, his argument proves that you shouldn’t worry about your young starter being inferior or stress about needing to create a new one if your first try fails.

What is a sourdough starter?

To understand why a sourdough starter isn’t a precious and irreplaceable ingredient, you first need to grasp what it is. In a nutshell, sourdough starter is fermented flour and water. More specifically, it is a mixture of flour and water that hosts a live culture of wild yeast and bacteria. When baking bread, the starter is essential for two reasons: it helps your dough rise naturally, without the addition of packaged yeast, and it imparts the signature sour flavor you expect.

A sourdough starter begins fermenting because there are naturally occurring microbes (yeast and bacteria) all around us, including in the air, on your hands, and in flour. These microbes feed on the flour and water, enabling them to thrive. However, the yeast and bacteria require a consistent source of food, which is why you must regularly “feed” your sourdough starter with more water and flour.

When feeding a sourdough starter, you typically remove part of the existing starter, then add equal parts of fresh flour and water. After feeding, you’ll have a ratio of 1 part starter, 1 part flour, and 1 part water. Essentially, you are constantly replacing most of the flour and water in your starter — so a starter that is 100 years old does not literally contain the same flour it did a century ago, even though it is one culture that has survived for an extended period of time.

Does ancient sourdough starter make better bread?

Depending on what your starter is exposed to, it can cultivate a myriad of different yeast species and bacteria. The distinct combination of yeast and bacteria in each starter imparts its own flavor, so it’s understandable that someone may feel attached to the flavor profile their starter produces. However, most starters tend to adapt to the microbial environment of their surroundings. For example, sourdough from San Francisco is renowned for its particularly tangy flavor, which is attributed to the naturally occurring wild yeasts and bacteria present in the area — Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, in particular, is frequently cited as a bacterium in the Bay Area that contributes to its exceptional sourdough.

Growing a starter in a specific location or relocating it and allowing it time to adjust is more likely to influence the types of yeast and bacteria present (and, consequently, the flavor of your bread) than how long it has been alive. Although the unique mix of bacteria and yeast in your sourdough starter, along with the effort you’ve invested in it, may lead you to feel attached to the culture, it’s really not that important.

“The truth is… sourdough is just fermented flour. It really is,” Hart explains. “If you put flour and water together, it ferments…. If you chucked out your sourdough and then you mix flour and water together, it will start fermenting again. You know? That’s all it is. There’s yeast and bacteria living in this happy bucket of sourdough starter.”

There is some disagreement with this opinion among other sourdough aficionados online, but what Hart highlights, and what is undeniably true, is that all you need to make good sourdough is a happy starter. As long as it’s active and has been fed regularly, you can make tangy, airy loaves of bread to your heart’s content.