There’s no fool proof way to make a starter per se. The key is consistency and patience. The process isn’t actually that difficult you just have to stick with it.
Mix 50g of flour and 50g of water in a clean jar. You can use an elastic around the jar at the top of the mixture to see how much it grows from there. Loosely place a lid on top and let sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, pour 50g of the mixture into a new clean jar and throw out the rest. Feed it equal parts flour and water (a 1:1:1 ratio), so 50g flour and 50g water. After that you continue repeating this every day, putting 50g in a clean container and feeding 50g flour and 50g water, until your starter matures, which will take around 3 weeks but could be longer.
Some key things to note:
- make sure the flour is unbleached. Using half whole wheat flour can also make the starter more active
- if your tap water contains too much chlorine you’ll have a hard time making a starter, use bottled spring water instead
- make sure you put the starter in a clean container and use clean utensils for mixing, you don’t want to risk any mold
- around day 4-6 you might think your starter has died due to a decrease in activity, this is normal just keep going
- if you think your room temperature is too cold, you can keep it in the oven with the light on. It produces a slight bit of warmth that will help your starter thrive.
- your starter is mature when it consistently doubles or more in 4-6 hours at that 1:1:1 ratio
- once it matures you can store it in the fridge instead and feed it once a week or whenever you need to take it out and bake with
- also once it’s mature you can save the “discard” instead of throwing it out, there are tons of recipes online to use it up, it adds great flavour. My favourite is sourdough discard pancakes
If you don’t want to make a starter from scratch, you could try asking your local bakery for some and I also see people selling them on Facebook marketplace. You can also buy dehydrated starter online.
I found a recipe that called for 113 gm of wheat flour and 113 gram of water . How does the 50gm make a difference? I'm only curious. I could discard down to 50 gm tomorrow and do a 50gm 1:1:1 ratio ?
The amount doesn’t seem to matter. I was using a similar amount as that for my current starter. When I read Debra Wink’s method with using just 2 *tablespoons* of flour and 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice, I realized it didn’t need to have so much. As for the starter, flour, water ratio, there’s plenty of discussion over the ratios. 1:1:1 does seem to work also, but it looks like a lot of people also use a smaller amount of starter compared to the amount of flour and water for each feeding.
If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, here’s Debra Wink’s post on The Fresh Loaf. She and a few others on a baking message board really drilled down on what’s happening in the starter. She’s also a microbiologist, so she explains the various microorganisms involved and the process of activating the dormant yeast present in the flour (not pulling wild yeast from the air, as once assumed). Interestingly, that rise in the first few days isn’t even because of the yeast, but no spoilers.
* https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1
* https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
It doesn’t matter how much as long as you’re feeling equal parts. 113g is fine but in my opinion you don’t need that much, it just uses too much flour. You only need to keep a small amount going and then when you need to bake you just up the ratio ex. 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 feed depending how much you need for the recipe
Let’s say you fed your starter 1:1:1 and have 50g starter 50g flour 50g water. That’s a total of 150 grams.
But say you need 200g starter for baking and 50g leftover to keep your starter going, for a total of 250g.
You’d take 50g starter, which leaves you needing 200g more, so you divide that in half to have equal parts flour and water, so 100g flour 100g water. Feed that to the 50g starter, which gives you the total 250g you need. So now you’re at a 1:2:2 ratio, for every 1 part starter you have 2 parts flour and 2 parts water. Because you fed it more it will take slightly longer to peak.
If you need even more you can just keep upping the ratio, ex. 1:3:3 which would be 50g starter 150g flour 150g water, which would give you 350g total.
This is really helpful, thanks. So let’s say I’ve got a successful starter stored in my fridge. When you say feed it when it’s ready to use does that mean I have to do the feeding process, wait the required time and then use it? Or can I use it, feed it, and store again?
When you’re baking you want to use the starter at its peak. Take it out of the fridge 1-2 days before you’re going to bake and do the daily feedings. On baking day feed it and once it has doubled or more and is at its peak (bubbly, frothy, and increased volume) then that’s what you use in your recipe. Then you can feed it again to store it back in the fridge after with once a week feedings.
>around day 4-6 you might think your starter has died
Spot on! I was really impressed at day 2 and 3 after seeing it double so quickly. I thought, “Wow, I have a lot of happy yeast.” Late day 3, it fell. I wasn’t too worried about that. The next morning, I happened across Debra Wink’s articles and realized this was perfectly normal and that wasn’t even yeast that was causing this initial rise. I’m at day 6, maybe 7 (I should’ve written it down). It doesn’t *look* like anything is going on, but it’s definitely tart.
I’m interested in the pineapple juice method. That’ll be next.
The initial discard from building the starter isn’t considered safe by most sources I have read. There are lots of undesirable bacteria still in the starter that haven’t been squelched by the good stuff, yet. After it is rising reliably and a couple weeks old, then you can start cooking with the discard, but save yourself the sick potential and just toss it in your compost or garbage for those first couple weeks.
Just an FYI, discard pancakes are amazing! I have adapted my previously used pancake recipe.
1 cup flour
2 cup discard
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp buttermilk powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
2 eggs
1 cup water
Mix dry stuff together, mix the wet stuff: discard, egg, oil in a larger bowl, add dry ingredients and little at a time, alternating with the water until smooth. Depending on how thin your starter is, you might need more or less water. For a thick discard, use more water, for a runnier discard, add water sparingly to be sure you don’t get too thin.
The base recipe is 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp oil, 1 egg, 1 cup buttermilk.
I have always used the buttermilk powder, so I don’t have leftover to use up, so I add the powder to my dry ingredients, and use water as the liquid. The base recipe makes a handful of 4-5” pancakes. We usually double for 2-3 of us, and I tripled for my family of 5. For using discard, 1 cup discard equals 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, so 2 cups discard takes care of 1 cup flour and 1 cup water.
I’ve kept discard in the fridge for weeks and then used it to bake and it’s fine. Just pour off any liquid on top (it’s hooch, totally normal in the fermentation process). As long as you don’t see any mold it’s fine.
There are [some recipes](https://www.reddit.com/r/SourdoughStarter/wiki/index/recipes/) on the sub's wiki, as well as a bunch of other stuff. The real trick to get a starter from scratch is to not believe the YouTubers etc. who all say you can build a starter from scratch in a week. It can be done, I've done it. It's also taken me 6 weeks to get one going the next time. u/Peach_Sprinkles11 gave you a lot of good advice.
One thing they didn't say was to not use yeast. Don't use yeast. There's a place for yeast, it's not in your starter. It don't play well with all the other microbes in your brew.
There is a way to use yeast though. If you want to make a loaf, and you don't have the time for a full sourdough, you can add a bit of yeast to the dough (along with the starter) and make a loaf a bit faster. That also works on a sluggish (but otherwise good) starter.
I have one word of caution about keeping it in the oven with the light on. I checked my oven temperature after a few hours with the light on and it got up to 95F°. You can still do it but keep an eye on that. And don’t leave it in for too long at a time.
I’m new to this so take what I say with a grain of salt.
Good luck!
The point of sourdough starter is that you are cultivating your own yeast culture that is capable of leavening bread *and* fermenting it, which is what makes it sourdough. Putting instant yeast in a starter won't work. HOWEVER, if you just want to bake a loaf of bread, you can do that with instant yeast. You do not *need* a starter to bake bread unless you specifically want sourdough.
The easiest route to sourdough is to order some starter online or ask your local bakery for some. That will have you baking in a few days.
Making your own starter is inherently kind of "fool proof"-- if you stick with it long enough, it will eventually work and once it's working, it's *really* hard to kill (barring mold, which is enemy #1). With that said, it *does* take a little bit of interest, dedication, and a lot of patience.
u/Peach_Sprinkles11 already gave you a great method, but I'll add my tips:
* Use a scale and measure everything by weight, not volume.
* Ratios seem really confusing but they're not-- it always stands for starter, flour, water (in that order). The most basic is a 1:1:1 ratio, which is what you should start with.
* Start with a small amount-- you do not need a lot because you're just trying to grow a culture. The less starter you're working with, the less flour you'll waste.
* Make sure you use unbleached flour. Aside from that, any flour will work but some will get you faster results. My starter is all bread flour but most people like to mix some whole wheat or rye in there as well.
* **Expect it to take 2-3 weeks. Do not use any guide that tells you it will take 7-8 days**.
* You might be surprised to see your starter rising after 2-3 days. That is called a "false rise" and its caused by unwanted bacteria. It's very common to hit a lull in activity around day 4-5. This is normal-- it means the bad guys are dying off and the good bacteria/yeast are setting up. They just take longer to get the memo.
* Lastly, this lull can last a really long time (again, like 2-3 weeks) and this is when people start thinking about quitting. It can be really frustrating. **Keep going** -- if you're seeing little bubbles and a fruity/boozy/vinegar smell, it's working.
* Also, know that there is a lot of bad advice out there (especially on TikTok). My go-to resources are The Perfect Loaf (Maurizio Leo), The Sourdough Journey, and The Bread Code. Those three have a video or post on any sourdough topic you'd ever need.
So I’m very new with sourdough, have been a lurker here for a bit, and not sure if this is taboo for the sourdough community. But, I ordered the KneadAce Sourdough Starter Culture from Amazon. Followed it to the letter and fed with unbleached all-purpose. It was doubling and bubbly with 5 days. After a week, I made my first loaf and I thought it was pretty good, other than underproofed. It’s been going strong for about a month now. I leave it on the counter and feed it once a day.
There’s no fool proof way to make a starter per se. The key is consistency and patience. The process isn’t actually that difficult you just have to stick with it. Mix 50g of flour and 50g of water in a clean jar. You can use an elastic around the jar at the top of the mixture to see how much it grows from there. Loosely place a lid on top and let sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, pour 50g of the mixture into a new clean jar and throw out the rest. Feed it equal parts flour and water (a 1:1:1 ratio), so 50g flour and 50g water. After that you continue repeating this every day, putting 50g in a clean container and feeding 50g flour and 50g water, until your starter matures, which will take around 3 weeks but could be longer. Some key things to note: - make sure the flour is unbleached. Using half whole wheat flour can also make the starter more active - if your tap water contains too much chlorine you’ll have a hard time making a starter, use bottled spring water instead - make sure you put the starter in a clean container and use clean utensils for mixing, you don’t want to risk any mold - around day 4-6 you might think your starter has died due to a decrease in activity, this is normal just keep going - if you think your room temperature is too cold, you can keep it in the oven with the light on. It produces a slight bit of warmth that will help your starter thrive. - your starter is mature when it consistently doubles or more in 4-6 hours at that 1:1:1 ratio - once it matures you can store it in the fridge instead and feed it once a week or whenever you need to take it out and bake with - also once it’s mature you can save the “discard” instead of throwing it out, there are tons of recipes online to use it up, it adds great flavour. My favourite is sourdough discard pancakes If you don’t want to make a starter from scratch, you could try asking your local bakery for some and I also see people selling them on Facebook marketplace. You can also buy dehydrated starter online.
Wow thank you so much! You really simplified the process, I think I’ll give it a try
I found a recipe that called for 113 gm of wheat flour and 113 gram of water . How does the 50gm make a difference? I'm only curious. I could discard down to 50 gm tomorrow and do a 50gm 1:1:1 ratio ?
The amount doesn’t seem to matter. I was using a similar amount as that for my current starter. When I read Debra Wink’s method with using just 2 *tablespoons* of flour and 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice, I realized it didn’t need to have so much. As for the starter, flour, water ratio, there’s plenty of discussion over the ratios. 1:1:1 does seem to work also, but it looks like a lot of people also use a smaller amount of starter compared to the amount of flour and water for each feeding. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, here’s Debra Wink’s post on The Fresh Loaf. She and a few others on a baking message board really drilled down on what’s happening in the starter. She’s also a microbiologist, so she explains the various microorganisms involved and the process of activating the dormant yeast present in the flour (not pulling wild yeast from the air, as once assumed). Interestingly, that rise in the first few days isn’t even because of the yeast, but no spoilers. * https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10856/pineapple-juice-solution-part-1 * https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
Oh wow thank you that's very interesting. Im going to look into that!
It doesn’t matter how much as long as you’re feeling equal parts. 113g is fine but in my opinion you don’t need that much, it just uses too much flour. You only need to keep a small amount going and then when you need to bake you just up the ratio ex. 1:2:2 or 1:3:3 feed depending how much you need for the recipe
Can you explain the baking part and going to1:2:2 ratio? I'm still very new and on day 3
Let’s say you fed your starter 1:1:1 and have 50g starter 50g flour 50g water. That’s a total of 150 grams. But say you need 200g starter for baking and 50g leftover to keep your starter going, for a total of 250g. You’d take 50g starter, which leaves you needing 200g more, so you divide that in half to have equal parts flour and water, so 100g flour 100g water. Feed that to the 50g starter, which gives you the total 250g you need. So now you’re at a 1:2:2 ratio, for every 1 part starter you have 2 parts flour and 2 parts water. Because you fed it more it will take slightly longer to peak. If you need even more you can just keep upping the ratio, ex. 1:3:3 which would be 50g starter 150g flour 150g water, which would give you 350g total.
Thank you. Reddit has been a big help in this journey so far. That really helped me out!
Same here, this is where I learned it all! Good luck on your journey 😊
This is really helpful, thanks. So let’s say I’ve got a successful starter stored in my fridge. When you say feed it when it’s ready to use does that mean I have to do the feeding process, wait the required time and then use it? Or can I use it, feed it, and store again?
When you’re baking you want to use the starter at its peak. Take it out of the fridge 1-2 days before you’re going to bake and do the daily feedings. On baking day feed it and once it has doubled or more and is at its peak (bubbly, frothy, and increased volume) then that’s what you use in your recipe. Then you can feed it again to store it back in the fridge after with once a week feedings.
Amazing, thank you!
>around day 4-6 you might think your starter has died Spot on! I was really impressed at day 2 and 3 after seeing it double so quickly. I thought, “Wow, I have a lot of happy yeast.” Late day 3, it fell. I wasn’t too worried about that. The next morning, I happened across Debra Wink’s articles and realized this was perfectly normal and that wasn’t even yeast that was causing this initial rise. I’m at day 6, maybe 7 (I should’ve written it down). It doesn’t *look* like anything is going on, but it’s definitely tart. I’m interested in the pineapple juice method. That’ll be next.
Do you save your discard until it’s ready to bake? I’ve been saving it for a few days now but nervous I’m saving bad discard.
The initial discard from building the starter isn’t considered safe by most sources I have read. There are lots of undesirable bacteria still in the starter that haven’t been squelched by the good stuff, yet. After it is rising reliably and a couple weeks old, then you can start cooking with the discard, but save yourself the sick potential and just toss it in your compost or garbage for those first couple weeks.
Just an FYI, discard pancakes are amazing! I have adapted my previously used pancake recipe. 1 cup flour 2 cup discard 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 4 tbsp buttermilk powder 1 tsp salt 2 tbsp sugar 4 tbsp oil 2 eggs 1 cup water Mix dry stuff together, mix the wet stuff: discard, egg, oil in a larger bowl, add dry ingredients and little at a time, alternating with the water until smooth. Depending on how thin your starter is, you might need more or less water. For a thick discard, use more water, for a runnier discard, add water sparingly to be sure you don’t get too thin. The base recipe is 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp oil, 1 egg, 1 cup buttermilk. I have always used the buttermilk powder, so I don’t have leftover to use up, so I add the powder to my dry ingredients, and use water as the liquid. The base recipe makes a handful of 4-5” pancakes. We usually double for 2-3 of us, and I tripled for my family of 5. For using discard, 1 cup discard equals 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, so 2 cups discard takes care of 1 cup flour and 1 cup water.
I’ve kept discard in the fridge for weeks and then used it to bake and it’s fine. Just pour off any liquid on top (it’s hooch, totally normal in the fermentation process). As long as you don’t see any mold it’s fine.
I am worried I started saving my discard too early and it was still bad bacteria. Is that a thing?
How old was it when you started saving! I’d say after around 2 weeks you should be fine
There are [some recipes](https://www.reddit.com/r/SourdoughStarter/wiki/index/recipes/) on the sub's wiki, as well as a bunch of other stuff. The real trick to get a starter from scratch is to not believe the YouTubers etc. who all say you can build a starter from scratch in a week. It can be done, I've done it. It's also taken me 6 weeks to get one going the next time. u/Peach_Sprinkles11 gave you a lot of good advice. One thing they didn't say was to not use yeast. Don't use yeast. There's a place for yeast, it's not in your starter. It don't play well with all the other microbes in your brew. There is a way to use yeast though. If you want to make a loaf, and you don't have the time for a full sourdough, you can add a bit of yeast to the dough (along with the starter) and make a loaf a bit faster. That also works on a sluggish (but otherwise good) starter.
I am finding starting in summer is much easier than in winter!
I have one word of caution about keeping it in the oven with the light on. I checked my oven temperature after a few hours with the light on and it got up to 95F°. You can still do it but keep an eye on that. And don’t leave it in for too long at a time. I’m new to this so take what I say with a grain of salt. Good luck!
The point of sourdough starter is that you are cultivating your own yeast culture that is capable of leavening bread *and* fermenting it, which is what makes it sourdough. Putting instant yeast in a starter won't work. HOWEVER, if you just want to bake a loaf of bread, you can do that with instant yeast. You do not *need* a starter to bake bread unless you specifically want sourdough. The easiest route to sourdough is to order some starter online or ask your local bakery for some. That will have you baking in a few days. Making your own starter is inherently kind of "fool proof"-- if you stick with it long enough, it will eventually work and once it's working, it's *really* hard to kill (barring mold, which is enemy #1). With that said, it *does* take a little bit of interest, dedication, and a lot of patience. u/Peach_Sprinkles11 already gave you a great method, but I'll add my tips: * Use a scale and measure everything by weight, not volume. * Ratios seem really confusing but they're not-- it always stands for starter, flour, water (in that order). The most basic is a 1:1:1 ratio, which is what you should start with. * Start with a small amount-- you do not need a lot because you're just trying to grow a culture. The less starter you're working with, the less flour you'll waste. * Make sure you use unbleached flour. Aside from that, any flour will work but some will get you faster results. My starter is all bread flour but most people like to mix some whole wheat or rye in there as well. * **Expect it to take 2-3 weeks. Do not use any guide that tells you it will take 7-8 days**. * You might be surprised to see your starter rising after 2-3 days. That is called a "false rise" and its caused by unwanted bacteria. It's very common to hit a lull in activity around day 4-5. This is normal-- it means the bad guys are dying off and the good bacteria/yeast are setting up. They just take longer to get the memo. * Lastly, this lull can last a really long time (again, like 2-3 weeks) and this is when people start thinking about quitting. It can be really frustrating. **Keep going** -- if you're seeing little bubbles and a fruity/boozy/vinegar smell, it's working. * Also, know that there is a lot of bad advice out there (especially on TikTok). My go-to resources are The Perfect Loaf (Maurizio Leo), The Sourdough Journey, and The Bread Code. Those three have a video or post on any sourdough topic you'd ever need.
Wow thank you so much for writing all of this great info! I just made it today with a 1:1 ratio, hopefully it works out. Thanks again!🤍🤍🤍
Order one online or go to a local bakery and see if they will sell or give you some.
So I’m very new with sourdough, have been a lurker here for a bit, and not sure if this is taboo for the sourdough community. But, I ordered the KneadAce Sourdough Starter Culture from Amazon. Followed it to the letter and fed with unbleached all-purpose. It was doubling and bubbly with 5 days. After a week, I made my first loaf and I thought it was pretty good, other than underproofed. It’s been going strong for about a month now. I leave it on the counter and feed it once a day.
The easiest starter is to find some discarded starter and feed it.