Making a Stiff Starter

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doughooker on 4 Dec 2025 at 21:00

Whenever I make a sourdough starter I wind up with liquid due to the length of time required for it to mature.

When I try to make a stiff starter by adding some of this mature starter to a quantity of flour, I generally let the mixture "proof" for 8 hours after which interval the stiff starter turns to liquid. Am I possibly using too much of the mature starter? Or letting it proof for too long?

The overproofed starter has a wonderful sourdough aroma and has a great SFSD flavor if I bake it. Unfortunately the baked starter is more like a pancake than a risen loaf.

The question is, how to make a stiff starter, keeping the great sourdough aroma and flavor without it turning to liquid?

I have never gotten a sour result  when the starter is sour. Once I too baked a starter, not a stiff one.  It had 85 - 90% hydration. After refreshing, I put it into a Pullman pan for 11 hours.  It fermented well and had not collapsed. The baked loaf did shrink a little but was still very open and airy.  There was no tang in the taste.

Some ways to keep your starter from turning into a puddle in 8 - 12 hours:

  1. Feed at a higher ratio, such as 1:10 starter:flour;
  2. Use bread flour rather than all-purpose.  It starts out with more protein so lasts longer as the protein is attacked;
  3. Salt the starter (which will slow down its development).  2% (baker's percent) will be fine.  6% used for weeks will eventually drive the lactic acid bacterial levels down to almost nothing;  that will leave you with a flat-tasting bread;

TomP

I'm wondering if your inoculation rate might make a difference here. A year or so ago, my breads went through a period of being tasty frisbees. Over time, I determined that my flour had become finer and, at the timings I traditionally used, my levains had gotten way too acidic and started impeding yeast growth and messing with dough strength no matter how many kneads or folds or stitches or laminations I did.

Maybe, combining less of your mature starter with the same "quantity of flour" (adding water a few drops at a time so the mix will stay together), you could ferment it eight hours without any puddling and the taste would remain sour while the resulting bread would cease to be be so flat.

All I know is, when I dropped my inoculations from 10% to 20% to 5% to 8%, my loaves miraculously rose again.

Rob

If you have variations - when all is the "same" - something must be different. That usually points to a change in the starter. All I can say is work with it. Eventually it will. Enjoy!