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Uses for sourdough on the homestead include as a healthy additive to recipes, a quality ferment for the livestock and the compost, as well as a natural glue for compostable crafts. So many uses for extra sourdough that you need never discard it!

If you’ve baked and cooked with sourdough for any length of time, you probably already know that you can end up with a backlog of starter easily.

Today’s article outlines unique uses of sourdough, including a super easy paper lantern tutorial that shows you how to use sourdough as glue for papercrafts. Weird, I know, but it works!

Unique Uses for Sourdough

In this article, we’ll cover three topics:

Edible uses for sourdough.
Homestead uses for sourdough.
How to use sourdough as glue for papercrafts (and why you’d want to).

If you’re a sourdough newbie, I’m hoping these will inspire you to branch out into new recipes. However, even veteran sourdough bakers can benefit from these ideas.

First of All, Never Have Discard

There’s really never a reason to have sourdough “discard“. Discard is often thought to be the amount of starter that is thrown out when you regularly feed the starter.

You will find myriad sourdough discard recipes online and even here at Homestead Lady! That’s because there’s NO reason to ever, ever, ever throw discard away. ALWAYS use it for something!!

Edible Uses for Sourdough

The most economical and healthiest thing to do with extra sourdough is to make more food with it! This is also the tastiest option.

Bake up sweet loaves like banana bread, and other dense desserts like sourdough brownies. These recipes will take active starter, of course, but you can also just as easily use discard.

Made in Motherhood can show you how to make sourdough granola bars – this is a fantastic use for sourdough and one I’ve never tried.

I’m going to make up a batch of our favorite elderberry granola barss with starter for our next road trip.

Butter for All – an absolutely awesome place for great sourdough recipes – shows us how to make sourdough starter gravy. Slightly tangy and thick, this is a delicious way to use sourdough that also remove potentially unfriendly tummy foods like cornstarch from our diet.

True Sourdough teaches us how to use sourdough as fish batter. This is simple and effective and, again, can help remove cornstarch from our shelves.

Along those same lines, The Route 2 Roots teaches us how to make Indian pakora with sourdough. I cannot wait to try this recipe because pakora is one of my favorite foods!

Other simple recipes that broaden the uses of sourdough include:

Sourdough Pita Bread

From Sourdough Brandon, Sourdough Frosting

Sourdough Discard Dinner Rolls – 3 Ways

Beef Hand Pies – great for car trips!

Sourdough Grape Scones

Blackberry Breakfast Cake

Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies (and for Houses)

*All the sourdough recipes here at Homestead Lady are long-fermented for optimal health.

Homestead Uses for Sourdough

My favorite use for sourdough starter on the homestead is to add it to my compost or biochar mixtures to kicktart both with beneficial probiotics.

You can learn more about biochar, and many other soil amendments, in our article: How to Amend Soil with Permaculture. (Scroll down the article for the biochar information.)

If biochar is too much to wrap your brain around, just toss extra starter into your compost pile.

Another great way to make good use of sourdough is to feed it to your livestock – poultry and pigs will both eat it willingly.

The easiest thing to do to distribute it evenly is to mix the sourdough starter into whatever other scraps you have set aside for livestock.
If you ferment grains for your livestock, mix the starter in after you rinse them.

Why Use Sourdough as Glue

Wheatpaste – wheat flour and water – has long been used as a fixitive from art projects to wall paper. Because I always have sourdough starter on hand, I never need to mix up a special batch of wheatpaste.

The benefits of using sourdough as glue include:

I always have it on hand and feeding sourdough consistenly means I have enough surplus to use in crafts.
Once secured with clips, the drying process is completely hands off.
For paper craft projects like our Chinese New Year lanterns, using sourdough as paste means I can compost the craft after I’m finished. I don’t need to pull of tape before I put the paper into my compost pile!
It’s so easy to use that the kids can do it by themselves.
Sourdough starter is completely water soluble, so clean up is simple.

How to Use Sourdough as Glue

If you’ve run out of art glue or you simply want to be able to compost your paper craft without removing tape or staples, try using sourdough starter as glue!

red paper lantern cutout with sourdough glue on one edge

How to Use Sourdough as Glue

Homestead Lady Tessa Zundel

Sourdough starter makes a great biodegradable option for gluing paper craft projects. It's as simple as applying and waiting for it to dry!

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Equipment

Paintbrush
Damp Towel
Paperclips or Binder Clips
Iron optional

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. Sourdough Starter 50% - 75% Hydration
1-2 Egg Whites optional

Instructions

Assemble the pices of your papercraft. In this example, we're using the paper lanterns we make for the Lunar New Year. These are made from light construction paper, but sourdough will hold cardstock together, too - even cardboard!
Pour off any hooch or water collected at the top of your starter. Mix the sourdough starter thoroughly and measure out 1 Tbsp. into a small cup. Add 1-2 egg whites and mix in completely, if using.
Using a paintbrush, apply the sourdough starter to the edge of your paper just as you would with glue. Keep the application even so that it will dry at the same rate.
Affix your paper edges together. In this example, bring the edges of the lantern around to meet each other. Press them firmly together with your finger.
Wipe away any extra sourdough starter from the edges. Clean your hands on a damp towel.
Using paperclips or binder clips, secure the glued area so that it will dry correctly. Set aside to dry.
Once the sourdough starter has dried, it will lighten in color and weight. If the paper has rumpled in the drying process, you may use a warm iron (without the steam) to straighten it a bit.*

Notes

*The iron won't create miraculous flattening, so be sure to clip the project the way you want it while it dries.

If you find a 100% hydration is too wet for your climate or your project, try a little less water in your starter next time. (100% hydration is equal parts starter mixed with equal parts water and flour.)

Use sourdough starter that has been mixed and allowed to ferment for at least six hours for a smoother glue.
For best results, keep the layers of sourdough glue EVEN and THIN. This will keep your paper craft flexible and light.

Depending on the type of craft you're doing, you may not need to clip your project. With crafts like book binding, you may need to increase the pressure as the project dries by providing something to weigh down your project. A clamp works well here.

If you have a larger project, you may increase the amount of sourdough used, but be aware that you'll need to allow more dry time. You will also lose some flexibility.

To increase adheasive strength, you can add 1-2 egg whites.

Keyword compost, papercraft, sourdough discard

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Using Sourdough as Glue – Notes!

Start with 100% hydration for your sourdough starter. This means that you mix 1 part sourdough starter with 1 part water and 1 part flour. If that’s too wet for this project, try 3/4 part water to 1 part flour.

How my sourdough works as glue will vary from how your sourdough works as glue, so be willing to experiment a little.
Ambient temperature and humidity, as well as how long your starter has sat unused can all effect the consistency of the starter.

Having said all that, however, don’t overthink this. It’s water and flour and it will be plenty sticky!

To increase adheasive strength, you can add 1-2 egg whites.

For Best Results:

Use sourdough that is a little on the dry side while still ensuring that it has enough viscosity to spread evenly and thinly.
Keep the layers of sourdough glue EVEN and THIN. This will keep your paper craft flexible and light.
Use a starter that has had time to ferment so that it is less grainy. This will help it dry flatter and more smoothly.
Use only enough sourdough to be adhesive. Any more will simply be overkill and will leak out from under the paper layers.

If you have a larger project, you may increase the amount of sourdough used, but be aware that you’ll need to allow more dry time. You will also lose some flexibilit

Binding & Drying

Simple paper clips in various sizes are the easiest thing to clip a project in place while the sourdough glue dries.

Depending on the type of craft you’re doing, you may not need to clip your project. If the project is flat, simply place a book on top to help the project dry flat.

With crafts like book binding, you may need to increase the pressure as the project dries by providing something to heavier than a book to weigh down your project. A clamp will usually work best.

To flatten the project further, you can use a warm/hot iron without the steam setting and run it gently over your project.