San Francisco 150 Year Old Sourdough Starter Review

This San Francisco starter is available in a dried form from Kensington Sourdough based in Canada. This is some information about the starter and my experiences with it. I'm happy to say that if you buy via the links on this page and use code WHATCOOKS15 you will get a 15% discount.

Contents

• What Makes the San Francisco Sourdough Starter Unique?
• What does the Kensington sourdough starter cost, and how does it reach the UK?
• My experience with the Kensington Sourdough Starter
• Caring for your Kensington San Francisco Sourdough Starter
• Creative Uses for Sourdough Starter Discards
• Sourdough Starter Frequently Asked Questions
• Where to buy Kensington San Francisco Sourdough Starter with a discount
• San Francisco Sourdough Starter In Action
• Starter Culture Recipes for the San Francisco Sourdough Bread
• Should you buy this starter or make your own from scratch?
• Use WHATCOOKS15 for a 15% discount
• Your Comments

What Makes the San Francisco Sourdough Starter Unique?

A brief history of the 150 year old starter

The story so far with this particular starter is that it traces its roots back to the San Francisco gold rush. Since then it has been living and mingling with Kensington Markets for the past several years and has now become an enigma of its own! The starter has been in continuous use since 1850 providing people with great tasting bread for all these years.

The starter is over 150 years old and it actually comes from legendary bakery 'Parisian' in San Francisco (whose claim to fame was originating San Francisco sourdough) and survived the huge 1906 California earthquake. California sourdough has an excellent reputation and a history that dates back to gold miners in the California hills carrying the containers of starter from place to place as they mined during the rush.

From then to now

I've been using the Kensington Sourdough 150 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter for over four years and this is my experience with it.

The Miniscule Magic Behind the Flavour

The active part of this starter is a yeast called candida milleri and a local bacteria called lactobacillus. Sounds strange to think it's alive but all bread and yeast is. These cultures are all natural, great for the gut and more importantly help it taste delicious.

What does the Kensington sourdough starter cost, and how does it reach the UK?

The starter ships from Canada as a small packet of dried culture, sent by standard letter mail. At the time of writing it costs around £11.99 before any discount and with code WHATCOOKS15 you take a further 15% off.

Delivery to the UK usually takes 1 to 2 weeks in the post. It is dried and shelf stable, so nothing spoils on the way and there is no need to be in for delivery.

Will I be charged customs or import VAT?

For a low value item like this it is simpler than people expect. There is no customs duty, because duty does not apply to goods under £135, and this is comfortably under that. Any UK VAT is either built into the price you see at the checkout or, occasionally, requested by the courier when the packet arrives. In practice a dried starter sent by letter mail almost always turns up with nothing extra to pay. Check the total at the checkout so you know exactly what you are paying before you order.

My experience with the Kensington Sourdough Starter

Having used this starter for over 4 years I have had great success in baking bread time and time again. The key to success is feeding the starter. What amazes me is how robust the culture is. I can feed daily if left out on the counter but more often than not I feed weekly, keeping the starter in the fridge until needed. I have a full guide around managing and caring for a starter so be sure to check this post out.

Unboxing and Activation Process

The starter arrives in a small freeze dried packet in an envelope along with details of the history of the sourdough starter. Bundled in the envelope there are a list of instructions on how to re-hydrate the starter and (more importantly) how to care for the starter. The care is key because this is a living thing and so regular feeding is a must. Make sure to feed your starter according to the instructions and it will last you for a long time.

I find it helps to give your starter a name (mine is called Prue). Make it a member of the family and you will find it gets more care and attention without being forgotten about!

My baking results over the past 4 years

Following the starter being used, take a look below at some of the breads which I have made over the past 4 years. All of them tasted great and look fantastic too. Depending on how you score your bread will determine the way the crust splits and opens up on the top.

Caring for your Kensington San Francisco Sourdough Starter

Feeding Schedule and Storage Tips

Once you are up and running as per the instructions (which takes around a week in total) then you need to keep good care of the starter. Remember, a 150 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough starter needs extra care and so feeding regularly is the important point. If like me you bake at weekends and every so often in the week, then keep the starter in the fridge. Take it out the night before and feed. You will work out a routine that works best for you eventually. For my, I work regularly and so baking is only a hobby. See my sourdough during the working day post for timings on what works best for a typical 9-5 job.

A feed once or twice a week will keep it happy. Try and keep a regular schedule though for best results. Mine gets fed on Wednesdays & Saturdays and is kept in the fridge the rest of the time. Consistency is key here and I wanted to make sure this worked before doing any Kensington sourdough reviews that I got consistent results.

Day	Action	Storage Location	Notes
Monday	Rest	Fridge	No feed – low activity needed
Tuesday	Rest	Fridge	No feed – still dormant
Wednesday	Feed (discard & refresh)	Counter (then fridge)	Prep for midweek baking
Thursday	Rest	Fridge	Let it chill (literally)
Friday	Rest	Fridge	Optional prep for weekend baking
Saturday	Feed (discard & refresh)	Counter (then fridge)	Prime baking day – starter at peak
Sunday	Rest or optional feed	Fridge or counter	Extra bake or prep for Monday

Troubleshooting common issues (and solutions)

While it is quite a robust starter, there are times when a balance in the environment ambient temperature fluctuates, or the flour composition changes and these little variations can cause issues with the way the starter behaves. Common symptoms include:

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
No rise or bubbles	Starter is too cold or underfed	Move to a warmer spot and feed consistently
Grey liquid on top	Hooch build-up from hunger	Stir it back in or pour off and feed more often
Bad smell (like rotten eggs)	Contamination or over-fermentation	Discard most, keep a teaspoon, and refresh
Mould on the surface	Poor hygiene or old food residues	Discard completely and start fresh
Too sour or tangy	Long ferments or over ripe starter	Feed more frequently and use earlier
Too runny or too thick	Incorrect flour-to-water ratio	Adjust hydration using the bread hydration calculator

Sometimes you just need to keep your sourdough starter warm to keep it active.

As a final backup, keep some of the dried starter in the freezer and restore this if all goes wrong. If it really all fails, you can of course just buy another pack of starter.

Creative Uses for Sourdough Starter Discards

Sourdough Crackers

My sourdough starter cracker recipe uses some leftover discard to make some simple crackers. There are also variants of this recipe to give it a bit more flavour such as my lemon and herb discard crackers.

Pizza Dough with discard

The sourdough tang flavour can be added to a pizza dough and instead of a typical yeast based pizza dough, you can make a sourdough (long fermented) pizza dough. This sourdough discard pizza dough experiment I tried shows that it does work (but you need a bit of planning ahead as it takes a few days to make it).

Batter from sourdough discard

Sourdough discard can be used to make pancake batter with milk and eggs and flour. These can also be put into hot oil in a tray and used to make Yorkshire puddings with sourdough discard.

Storing discard leftovers

If you have some leftovers after each feed and you don't want to make any other recipes at the time, you can freeze the leftovers. So if you don't get enough for crackers in one discard then save it in a box in the freezer adding to it each time you throw away. When you finally have enough discard then you can defrost it all and use it for cooking. REMEMBER! For food safety reasons do not refreeze defrosted items again afterwards).

It's exciting to get experimental with the endless recipes that come from sourdough discard.

Sourdough Starter Frequently Asked Questions

Where to buy Kensington San Francisco Sourdough Starter with a discount

San Francisco Sourdough Starter In Action

Take a look for yourself at the Kensington Sourdough Starter in action. This time lapse footage of my gold rush Kensington Sourdough San Francisco Sourdough Starter is filmed over the space of 5 hours start to finish. It more than doubled in size in that time and was like this after a feed in the morning.

Starter Culture Recipes for the San Francisco Sourdough Bread

For a San Francisco sourdough starter recipe you can check out the breads section of my site and be able to fit making a sourdough in and around your day.

Should you buy this starter or make your own from scratch?

Fair question, and the honest answer is that you can make a sourdough starter at home with nothing but flour and water. I have a guide for that here so why pay for one?

Two reasons, from four years of using this one.

First, time and reliability. A from scratch starter takes a week to two weeks to get going, and plenty of first attempts stall, go mouldy or never build enough strength to raise a loaf. This arrives as an established culture. You rehydrate it over a few days and it is ready, with none of the guesswork.

Second, the culture itself. A starter you build at home is colonised by whatever wild yeast and bacteria live in your kitchen, which is fine but unpredictable. This is a known San Francisco culture that has been kept in continuous use since the 1850s. The flavour is consistent and properly sour, and once you settle into a feeding routine it behaves the same way every time.

If you enjoy the process and do not mind a few failed attempts, make your own and save the money. If you want a dependable starter that works from the first proper feed, and a bit of history in your bread, this is worth the small outlay.

I have had some great success with this 150 Year Old San Francisco Sourdough Starter. It makes writing Kensington Sourdough reviews so fulfilling because the proof is in the (bread?) pudding. My results are consistently good and providing Prue is cared for and treated as one of the family (almost), she will keep on providing good results.

History makes it

There is something about the story which I love and having a bit of history in the bread made gives it something extra. It is really obvious just how active the starter is once it gets going. Get yourself over to the Kensington Sourdough site and order a pack.