Where to keep it (not on top of the fridge) and what to write down
Your jar's going. Now for where it lives and how you keep track of it, because both of those things matter more than people expect.
Not on top of the fridge
I have to lead with this one because it's literally how I killed my first starter. Top of the fridge felt like a good spot — out of the way, kids couldn't get into it. Except it's warm up there, warmer than you'd think, because heat off the motor rises right into that spot. My starter got going too fast, I didn't check it for a day, and by day four it had died and gone kind of gray and sad. I decided I'd broken sourdough forever and gave up on the whole idea for about two weeks.
Then I read that you just start over. Second starter took fine.
So: don't put it somewhere warm and out of sight. Counter is fine. Top of a cabinet away from a heat vent is fine. Somewhere you'll actually see it is best, because the biggest killer isn't temperature, it's forgetting.
A normal room temperature, somewhere in the high 60s to low 70s, is what you want. Our houses up here can run cool in winter, especially if you keep the thermostat low, so if things seem sluggish, that's often why. Doesn't need to be precise. Just needs to not be next to the oven, not in direct sun through a window, and not up on the fridge.
The dry air thing
Something else that got me for longer than it should have: the surface of my starter, and later my dough, kept skinning over, getting a dry little crust on top even inside the jar. Our air here is dry, especially in winter, and it pulls moisture out of anything sitting uncovered. A loose lid or a damp towel over the top fixes it completely. Took me embarrassingly long to figure out. It's that simple.
You don't need an airtight seal — the starter needs to breathe some — but a loose-fitting lid, or a piece of cloth with a rubber band, keeps that top layer from drying into a crust that then gets folded into your feedings.
What to actually write down
My opinion, stated as an opinion: get a notebook. I don't care if it's spiral, three-ring, whatever's in a drawer. I keep mine on the counter right by the flour so I'm not hunting for it every time.
I know the apps exist. I know you can track all this on your phone with charts and reminders and I'm sure it's great. I still write it down by hand. Same as my family tree binder — I use the digital genealogy site too, but the binder's what I actually trust.
What goes in the notebook, every time you feed:
- Date and time. Not the exact minute, just morning or evening is fine.
- How much you fed it — flour and water amounts, in grams if you're weighing, which you should be.
- What it looked like before you fed it. Bubbly? Flat? Any hooch (that gray liquid) on top?
- How long until it peaked, if you're around to notice. Doubled in size, tripled, whatever it did.
- Anything weird. Smell changed, color changed, it sat out longer than planned because life happened.
That's it. You're not writing an essay. Some of my entries just say "sluggish again, water too cold?" because that was an actual month-long mystery for me — I was using cold tap water without thinking about it, and our tap water runs cold up here, and the starter just sat there being unenthusiastic for weeks until I finally warmed the water up. Everything changed after that. If I'd been writing down water temp from day one I'd have caught it in a week instead of a month.
That's the point of the notebook. You're building a record so that when something goes wrong, you can look back and see the pattern instead of guessing. Same reason I keep notes on which ancestor was born where and when — one entry doesn't tell you much, but a few weeks of them laid out together, you start to see what's actually going on.
A word on not panicking
If a week goes sideways and you forget a feeding or the starter looks a little off, that's not a crisis. Sourdough is forgiving, not fussy. Worst case you start a new one, and that costs you a cup of flour and a few days. Lower the stakes for yourself. It helps you actually stick with it.
Before next time
Find your starter's spot — somewhere you'll walk past it, not somewhere warm and forgotten — and start a page in a notebook tonight, even if all it says is today's date and "started."
- J