Everything You Need to Know About Sourdough Starter — Bread & Basil (2024)

Intro | Sourdough Starter Recipe | Ingredient Weight-to-Volume Conversions | Maintaining Starter | FAQs & Troubleshooting | Final Thoughts

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Introduction

Sourdough starter has become a widely discussed topic lately, and it’s no wonder why. Home cooks and bakers are embracing slower, more mindful cooking processes, and what better place to start than with the most humble of foods: bread. Humans have been naturally leavening their breads for tens of thousands of years, with little more than three simple ingredients: flour, water, and time. Add salt, and you’ve got a delicious and nutritious loaf of bread.

Baking sourdough bread offers an opportunity to combine science with art to craft something nourishing, wholesome, and beautiful with your hands. This may sound intimidating, but I promise you it isn’t difficult. The benefit of sourdough becoming so popular across food media outlets and social media is that there is a ton of information out there. I’ve spent countless hours reading cookbooks, other blogs, online baking resources and forums, and, most importantly, talking directly with other sourdough bakers through social media. I have seen the most questions come up about the starter itself, so I have compiled this resource for you to use when beginning your sourdough journey.

This detailed guide will walk you through every step of the process, with helpful hints and visual information along the way. Whether you read it top to bottom or use it as a reference, soon you will be able to confidently bake naturally leavened goods with your very own starter.

Ready? Let’s learn how to make sourdough starter.

Before you start

• I highly suggest beginning by reading all the way through the recipe below. Then, assemble your ingredients and tools, and start with the Day 1 instructions. Pick a time of day that you can dedicate to feeding your starter consistently, as timing is very important during the establishment phase. Keep in mind, this establishment period will take at least 7 days (and up to 14 in some cases), but the involvement is only 5-10 minutes of total active work per day.

• Do not attempt to use your starter to bake a loaf of bread until at least day 7. It just won’t work! You might see a lot of activity within the first few days, but what you’re observing is bad bacteria, good bacteria, and yeast all fighting over one food source, your flour. This will die down, because it isn’t a “happy” community yet. After 7-14 days, the bad bacteria die off, leaving you with a harmonious colony of good bacteria and wild yeast. These microbes are what do the leavening, and they can’t do their jobs properly without this growing phase first.

• Quantities of ingredients are specified in the “method” section, because feeding sourdough starter is an ongoing process and requires the use of flour daily at first. Assume that you will need to start with a 5lb bag of flour or two, preferably whole wheat or rye in addition to all purpose. For ingredient conversions from weight to volume (grams to cups) visit this table . Read more about flour selection here.

• I have chosen the quantities of flour/water for this recipe based on thorough research and knowing that this method works. Using a cup of flour every day may seem quite excessive, but once the establishment period is over I have instructions on how to maintain a smaller sourdough starter. You can try to cut the quantities I have listed in half (50 grams each flour and water instead of 100 grams each) but I suggest following the recipe for 7 days before attempting to reduce.

• You may find it helpful to use a notebook to keep track of the days, along with what sensory cues you are noticing from your starter. This can help you track the progression of activity and troubleshoot any issues. I find sensory cues (smell, sight, sound, tactile) the most useful in knowing what’s going on with my starter. Read why here.

• My biggest tip: don’t be afraid! I have included all the knowledge you need (and more) to successfully make a starter in this guide. I believe that creating and maintaining a sourdough starter is an exercise in mindfulness, and anyone can do it with a curious eye and keen attention.

• For other helpful tips and things to look for along the way, read through the Frequently Asked Questions section here.

Ingredients

Whole wheat or rye flour (preferred, read more here) and/or

Unbleached all purpose flour (fine to use if you do not have wheat/rye, or in combination with either of them)

Water (read about what temperature and type to use here)

Tools

One or two clear-sided containers, around 32oz capacity, glass or plastic

A scale that measures in grams (strongly preferred), or measuring cups and spoons

A stirring utensil, preferably made of wood, silicone, rubber, or plastic

One or two rubber bands

An instant-read thermometer (optional, but very helpful)

I will earn a commission if you purchase the tools I recommend via the links above, at no extra cost to you. This helps me run the blog and keep delivering high-quality recipes and guides to you.

Method

Day 1:

Place a clean container on your scale and make a note of how much your container weighs. Then, tare so the scale reads “0”.

Add 100 grams (g) whole wheat or rye flour (or all purpose if that is all you have) and 100g water. Stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely with a lid or clean kitchen towel/paper towel and rubber band and set in a warm (70°F - 80°F) place for 24 hours.

Read more about creating a warm place in a cold house here.

Day 2:

You may see some bubbles and activity in your starter, or you may not see anything happening yet. Either way, discard 100g (about 1/2 cup) so that you are left with 100g in the container (100g starter plus the weight of your specific container). Add 100g water and stir to break up the starter. Add 100g flour (whole wheat/rye preferred again) and stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely again and set in your warm place for 24 hours.

Read more about the discard process here.

Day 3:

Today you will start feeding your starter twice a day.

If you saw an initial surge of activity in the first couple of days, this may die down, or may continue to ramp up slowly. Regardless, discard 200g (about 1 cup) so that you are left with 100g in the container*. Add 100g water, stir to break up the starter, then and 100g flour (whole wheat/rye preferred again) and stir thoroughly until no dry spots remain. Cover the container loosely again and set in your warm place for 12 hours.

12 hours later: Repeat the feeding process described above.

*If your container is looking very crusty, feel free to add 100g of your starter to a clean container to feed it instead of using the same container. This is why having multiple containers is helpful. Just keep in mind that you don’t have to use a fresh container for every feed.

Days 4-6:

Repeat the Day 3 feeding process every 12 hours. You may see no activity for a few days, and then be surprised to find your starter showing lots of activity, or it may slowly ramp up day-to-day.

At this point, if you have been using whole wheat or rye flour, you may switch to feeding your starter a blend of whole wheat/rye and all purpose, such as 50g of whole wheat/rye and 50g of all purpose flour instead of 100g whole wheat/rye if you wish. If you are only using all purpose, keep doing what you are already doing.

Read troubleshooting tips here.

Day 7:

By this point, you should hopefully see some reliable activity in your starter.

If your starter consistently rises to double or triple its height within 4-8 hours of feeding it, it is ready to bake with. If not, continue to feed on the 12-hour schedule until it does. This could take up to 14 days in some cases, especially if you are using only all-purpose flour or your starter is in a colder environment.

To tell if your starter is doubling/tripling, use a rubber band on the outside of the container to mark where the top of the starter is after feeding. Over the next 4-8 hours, check in periodically to monitor the growth. The starter will rise, creating a slight doming at the top, and you will see bubbles throughout, which will be different sizes/shapes depending on what flour you are feeding and your environment. After the starter reaches its peak, it will fall back down, leaving streaks on the side of the container.

Once your starter behaves as described above, you can successfully bake with it!

Read more about signs of a healthy starter and what activity/cues to look for here.

Don’t forget, you will have to maintain your starter by continually feeding it. For simple maintenance instructions including how to store your starter in the fridge and dry your starter, read more here.

If you enjoy this recipe and visual guide, be sure to tag @breadandbasil and use the #breadandbasil so I can see your bakes on Instagram!

Ingredient Conversion Chart

Use this chart to convert ingredient weights into approximate volume measurements if you do not have a scale.

*The volumetric measurements here are approximate and based on my own research utilizing King Arthur Flour. To measure, I spoon sifted flour into a cup. If you use different flour or use the dip-and-sweep method, the measurements may be slightly different, which is why I encourage you to purchase a scale—100 grams will always be 100 grams. The good thing is that for starter, you don’t have to be precise to the gram. A little extra flour or water here or there is okay, but try to be as close as you can be.

When it comes to baking loaves, while you can measure by volume, you will achieve the best results measuring by weight. This is the kitchen scale that I use; it’s a low-cost investment that will serve you well as a baker.

Return to recipe

Now that you’ve built your own sourdough starter, you will need to maintain it in order to be able to continually bake with it. The good news is that the older your starter gets, the stronger it gets. Time is a great friend to your little natural yeast colony, but you can’t “set it and forget it” indefinitely. Below are options for maintaining your starter between bakes.

Feed your starter when it’s hungry.

The best way to maintain a starter if you are baking frequently is by paying attention to its activity and following the discard/feed process every time it reaches peak. Over time, this will be closer to every 4-6 hours, though a mature starter could wait to be fed every 8 hours or so without much detrimental effect. Still, this means two or more feedings a day. Even though discard is very useable stuff, this may feel excessive and involved to a home baker. Below are two ways to preserve your starter for short-term storage and long-term storage.

Short term storage: how to store sourdough starter in the fridge

Once your starter is established it becomes more resilient. This means that you can store it for longer periods without feeding, but in order to do so, you have to slow down fermentation activity or else all your natural yeast will die off. Luckily, we can do this in the fridge. Feed your starter, let it sit at room temperature for an hour or so, and then place it, tightly covered, in the fridge for a week (or two, if you really need to) before removing it and feeding/discarding regularly it between 3-4 times before you bake with it. These feedings help “wake up” the starter so that it is vigorous enough to provide a good rise.

Long term storage: how to dry sourdough starter

You can dry starter if you want to take a break from actively feeding it, or if you want to mail some to a friend. This is the way that starter will come if you purchase it rather than starting your own. To dry starter, take starter at its peak, but instead of discarding a portion, spread it in a thin, even layer over a sheet of parchment paper. Allow this to dry completely (this can take a couple days, especially if it’s humid) and then break it into small pieces and store in an airtight container.

At this point, you can store this starter for future use, give some away, or keep it on hand in case something happens to your “main” starter. To rehydrate it, weigh out an amount of starter and crush it into small bits. Rehydrate it with the same weight of water, and then feed it with the same weight of flour. Allow it to rise and fall, and proceed to feed as normal. Depending on the strength of the dried culture, this can take 3 or more feedings, or may be pretty quick to show activity again. As always, it’s more important to pay attention to the sensory cues that your starter gives rather than strictly sticking to time.

What if I want to reduce the quantity so I don’t have to feed it so much?

No need to continually feed your starter nearly a cup of flour every time you feed it. Once your starter is active and well-established you can feel free to reduce the quantity that you keep between bakes. I’ve kept as little as 20 grams from an old batch of starter, feeding it just 20 grams of flour and 20 grams of water before putting it in the fridge for storage. You will need to increase the amount of starter you have by feeding without discarding a few times before baking, but after you bake, you can keep that same small quantity in the fridge.

Now that you know how to make sourdough starter, let’s learn more about what it is and what makes it work.

Here are some frequently asked questions that you may have while creating and maintaining your starter.

What is a sourdough starter?

The quick version: a sourdough starter is an active colony of wild yeast and good bacteria cultivated by combining flour and water and allowing it to ferment. By feeding it continually and keeping it in happy conditions (more on that below) you will have a reliable “natural yeast” culture that can be used to leaven (raise) breads and pastries of all kinds.

The science: a sourdough starter is a symbiotic community of lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast. Both yeast and bacteria feed on the carbohydrates present in flour when hydrated with water and allowed to ferment. As you refresh the starter with new “food,” each microbe gets stronger and more vivacious, releasing gases (providing air and lift) as they consume. These two live microorganisms exist in harmony within your starter, creating an environment rich with lactic and acetic acid. These acids provide both flavor and nutritional benefit.

Breads that are made exclusively with sourdough are referred to as naturally leavened. Naturally leavened breads have a longer fermentation time than commercially yeasted breads, which allows the lactic acid in the sourdough to “unlock” the nutrients within the flour. This creates a more flavorful, digestible bread with more readily available nutrients.

You have to feed your starter because it’s alive! The yeast and healthy bacteria within the starter snack on carbohydrates present in the flour you feed it, creating gases, alcohol, and an acidic environment. Eventually, all of the “food” will be gone, and the bacteria and yeast will begin to die off. In order to keep the starter healthy, you have to maintain a regular feeding schedule. But this doesn’t have to mean every day forever—eventually, a starter will be strong enough to go into cold storage in your refrigerator for longer periods.

When you first make your starter, you will stir together some type of flour with water, and let it sit. Then you will feed it every day, twice a day, for about two weeks. This takes no more than 3 minutes and a few simple ingredients.

What do I feed sourdough starter with?

Starter made and maintained with just flour and water.

Flour: Different guides will give you different instructions in terms of what kind and quantity of flour to use. In general, it is good to know that whole wheat flour or rye flour contain more natural enzymes to feed the bacteria and yeast in your starter than all purpose flour. This helps kickstart activity, especially in a new starter. You are most likely to see results sooner if you can use one of these flours. I choose to continue to feed my starter with either whole wheat flour or a combination of all purpose and whole wheat or rye because it behaves the most predictably when I do.

It is, however, completely possible to make a starter using solely all purpose flour—just make sure it isn’t bleached. Bleached flour has the natural bacteria present stripped away, and won’t be conducive to creating a healthy culture.

I started my starter with whole wheat flour and it is my preferred flour to use for starter today. If I run out, I switch to a combination of all purpose and rye, or just all purpose if that’s what I have. Keep in mind: whatever flour you feed your starter with is the flour that will end up in your final bread. So, for example, if you want an all-white sandwich bread but your starter is fed with whole wheat, some whole wheat will end up in your final bread.

Your flour does not have to be organic, but the less chemicals involved in the production of your flour, the more beneficial “wild” goodies that come along with the grain. If you have the means and desire, you may have great results with organic flour, but I have always used conventional, unbleached flour with success. King Arthur Flour is readily available in the U.S. in national and specialty grocers.

Water: Some sources will say that you can only use bottled or filtered water to make starter, but I don’t find this to be the case at all. I live in New York City, where we happen to have excellent tap water! I’ve used it from the beginning with no issue. However, if your water is highly chlorinated, metallic, or something you don’t enjoy drinking, use filtered or bottled water for your starter.

If your house is cold and you want to help give your starter a boost when feeding it, you can use warm water (around 80°F) to help raise the temperature. If your house is warm, you can use room temperature water (around 70°F). Cold water will slow down fermentation activity and isn’t very useful for starter.

How do I know if my sourdough starter is ready to use?

When your starter is reliably rising to double or triple its size and falling in the jar anywhere between 4-8 hours after you feed it (dependent on your ambient conditions and the flour you feed with) it is ready to bake with. When the starter is at the peak of its rise, it is called ripe, fed, or mature.

You may have heard of the float test, which involves dropping a spoonful of ripe starter into a glass of water. If it floats, the test says that the starter is ripe and ready to use. I personally don’t rely on this to tell me if my starter is active, as I’ve had it sink plenty of times and still raise a beautiful loaf of bread. You might try using this test a couple of times to see what happens, but don’t use it as a hard and fast rule.

I prefer to rely on sensory cues to know that my starter is ready to bake with. Your starter will give you several indications that it is thriving and ripe. My starter looks different depending on the flour I feed it, how warm it is while I let it rise, and whether I’ve just taken it out of the fridge or it’s been sitting at room temperature for a few days.

Over time, you will get to know the particular look, smell, and feel of your starter if you give it your loving attention. Remember, it doesn’t take much time each day to feed it, but the work you put in to getting to know what makes your starter happy will give you the best results when it comes to baking incredible, naturally-leavened breads.

Ripe starter will:

• Look: doubled or tripled in size within 4-8 hours after feeding. Bubbly, with little clusters of small and large pockets of air throughout and on the surface

• Smell: like yeast, bread, warm, milky, possibly tangy

• Sound: bubbly, with little pops and squishes as you stir it

• Feel: stringy, light, sticky, fluffy, web-like

Follow the establishment pattern outlined in the recipe above to start without trying to reduce the quantities specified. Once your starter is well-established, you might not want to keep 200-300 grams on hand at all times. Feeding this quantity can quickly go through flour, which can feel wasteful (even if you make all kinds of delicious things with your discard, which we’ll talk about below).

To keep a smaller starter, you will save just 20 grams (about 1 heaping tablespoon) of active starter, feeding it with 20 grams of water and 20 grams of flour. This will yield 60 grams of starter which is just enough to maintain. However, it won’t be enough for most sourdough bread recipes, so you’ll need to increase the amount you have before baking.

When I go to make bread, I create what’s called a levain to increase the amount of ripe starter available to bake with.

Levain is the word used for a batch of starter made specifically before baking—the starter that’s going to be incorporated into the dough. You may also see the words biga and poolish used in recipes. Though people use them to mean slightly different things, levain, biga, and poolish are all types of preferments, or flour and water (and in the case of biga and poolish, commercial yeast) that gets mixed and rested to ferment for a period of time, usually overnight, before being mixed into the final dough.

You never want to use the entire amount of starter you have in a recipe because then you will have nothing left to feed and save for the next bake. When you go to bake, take whatever quantity you need for the recipe and then evaluate what you have left over. You will take a portion of this and feed it as usual, and the rest gets discarded.

If you keep a small quantity of starter as described above, you’ll have to take a portion of what you have and add enough flour and water to make the required quantity for your recipe plus some extra to save. For example, if you keep 60 grams of starter, first feed and discard a few times as normal. Then before you bake, take all 60 grams of starter, and add 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour. You’ve now increased the amount you have available to 260 grams. Once it’s ripe, remove the amount you need for the recipe (I almost always use between 100-200 grams) and then save 20 grams, feeding it with 20 grams water and flour. You’re back to having 60 grams of starter to keep for next time with enough to bake your bread now.

What’s the deal with discard? Do I have to throw it away?

Every time you feed your starter, you will take equal parts of existing starter, new flour, and new water, mix them, and let them rest until the next feeding. When you are making your starter, you’ll be doing this twice a day for two weeks. If you bake often, you will keep your starter on the counter and keep feeding it on this schedule indefinitely. If you bake less frequently, you may keep a mature starter in the fridge for a week (or two, if you’re pushing it) and then feed it 2-4 times to “wake it up” before baking, feeding it again, and putting it back in cold storage.

If you only ever fed your starter and never discarded any, it would get exponentially bigger and bigger until you had a gallon of the stuff! This not being optimal, sourdough bakers will remove a portion of starter and feed just a small bit with fresh flour and water to grow into the new batch of starter.

You do not have to throw your sourdough discard away! Just because you don’t bake a loaf of sourdough with your starter every time you feed it doesn’t mean that this fermented flour, water, and wild yeast isn’t useful. There are so many recipes developed specifically to use discard sourdough starter. I like to pour off discard into one container that I keep in my fridge. When I have enough, which is usually after a couple of feedings, I’ll bake something with it like this Brown Butter, Banana, and Rye Sourdough Crumb Cake. You can also make pancakes, waffles, English muffins, and more.

Young sourdough discard is not as vigorous as more mature sourdough starter, but both can be used with great success. When using particularly young starter, I suggest starting with recipes that include baking powder or baking soda to provide lift such as these sourdough discard pancakes from King Arthur Flour.

You might see someone describe feeding their starter as 1:1:1, 1:6:6, or 1:10:10, or 1:6:10, etc. This is simply describing the amount of starter, water, and flour that a person feeds their starter with.

The recipe I have outlined describes a 1:1:1 feeding process. The weight of the starter (100 grams) is equal to the weight of the flour (100 grams) and water (100 grams) it is fed with.

In some cases, especially if you keep a small starter, you may choose to use a smaller amount of starter and feed it with larger quantities of water and flour to “grow” it. This is like giving a big meal to a small community of yeast, making your starter rise faster. For example, if you took 10 grams of starter and fed it with 60 grams of water and 60 grams of flour, this would be a 1:6:6 ratio. If you took 10 grams of starter and fed it with 60 grams of water and 100 grams of flour, this would be a 1:6:10 ratio, and make your starter stiffer than liquid (more on that here).

There are a couple of advantages to playing around with the ratio that you use to feed your starter.

1. If you keep a small starter, you can easily increase the amount you have on hand by feeding it a larger meal. 20 grams can easily become 210 grams if you follow a 1:10:10 ratio—10 grams starter, 100 grams water, 100 grams flour.

2. If you want your starter to rise more slowly, you can use a ratio such as 1 part starter to 3 parts flour and 3 parts water (1:3:3). Now, your small amount of starter has a bigger meal to get through, so instead of taking the typical 4-6 hours of a 1:1:1 feed, you will wait 10-12 hours for the starter to peak. This is helpful for feeding your starter overnight and not letting it get too hungry by the morning.

3. Stiff starter—starter that has more flour than water in it—rises more slowly than liquid starter. It is particularly useful in enriched dough recipes. Liquid starter—starter that has a hydration of equal parts flour and water or more water than flour—rises more quickly. The recipe on this page is a liquid starter with a 1:1:1 ratio.

4. The more wild yeast you start with, the more competition there is for food, which is why it’s generally not helpful to start with more starter by weight than fresh flour and water. The large yeast colony will quickly eat through the food but not reach their maximum potential because they run out of fuel too soon.

What’s the difference between liquid starter and stiff starter?

This all comes down to hydration, or the amount of water in a dough formula compared to the amount of flour in a dough formula, expressed as a percentage. New to this concept? Check out this Instagram story highlight where I take you through Baker’s Math 101: how to calculate hydration. Tip: if viewing on a computer, click and hold to stay to “pause” the slides. If viewing on a phone, tap the screen and hold to pause.

If you’re following the recipe I posted above, you are making what is known as a liquid starter. This means that the hydration of the starter is above 65%, creating a loose, bubbly, lava-like texture. In the case of this recipe, it is a 100% hydration starter because the weight of the flour used, 100 grams, is equal to the weight of the water used, 100 grams. I find this the easiest to work with and maintain.

A stiff starter will have less than 65% hydration and is much firmer in texture. You may even see it stored in a ball rather than in a jar. Pasta madre, an Italian sourdough translating to “mother dough”, is an example of a stiff starter at around 45% hydration. There are advantages to using a stiff starter such as having to feed it somewhat less often without it getting too sour, and it contributing less liquid to your overall recipe which is beneficial in the case of lower hydration doughs and pastries. However, to date I have not consistently utilized this type of starter in my recipes. Do you use a stiff starter? Let me know why in the comments below!

A recipe may or may not specify whether you need a stiff or liquid starter. If it does not specify, assume that a 100% hydration liquid starter will work just fine.

If you need to convert a liquid starter to a stiff one, remove a portion of starter, and feed it with more flour than water. Continue until it reaches a stiffer consistency over a few feeds.

If you need to convert a stiff starter to a liquid one, remove a portion of starter and feed it with equal parts flour and water. Continue until it reaches a liquid consistency over a few feeds.

The wonderful thing about sourdough starter is that it can be used in place of commercial yeast in virtually any bread recipe. You may be used to the artisan, crusty loaves with a typical tangy flavor, but any type of bread can be sourdough, even a delicate white sandwich bread, a babka, or a croissant. Yes, even typically yeasted pastries can make use of sourdough starter, though this can be tricky and should be reserved for more experienced bakers.

When looking for “true” sourdough recipes, look for recipes that are naturally leavened, with no yeast. They will typically include longer fermentation times, often taking 24 hours or more from start to finish. Your time, effort, and patience will be rewarded with breads that are full of flavor that can’t be achieved with a short rise. Not all sourdough breads are sour; in fact, some barely have any note of sourness at all. This all depends on how you feed your starter and when you use it.

Some recipes are called sourdough but also use instant or active dry yeast. They are perfectly acceptable breads and sometimes really wonderful to make when you want sourdough but with a very reliable, quicker rise. In fact, in France, bakers are allowed to label their baguettes as “naturally leavened” even if they contain up to 0.2% commercial yeast, which is a minuscule amount.

Breads that are traditionally yeasted can be made with sourdough, but it involves a bit more work than a direct substitution. Since starter already contains flour and water, you will need to adjust the total flour and liquid in a yeast-based recipe to account for this addition.

How do I make my breads more sour?

You may be surprised to find that your starter isn’t producing very sour bread! Despite the name, sourdough doesn’t imply that it always tastes tangy. Starter contains lactic acid—which isn’t actually that sour, but more milky—and acetic acid, which is the more sour of the two. A starter that is fed frequently and kept out of the fridge will most likely contain more lactic acid than acetic acid, and won’t contribute too much to the overall sourness of your bread.

If you want a more tangy sourdough bread, there are a few things you can try to adjust within your starter to help.

• Feed your starter less frequently. Let it peak and fall significantly before refreshing it with more flour and water.

• Keep your starter in the refrigerator between feeds. Colder temperatures help with the development of acetic acid.

• If you see clear/brown liquid on your hungry starter, stir it in rather than pouring it off. (more on this here)

I received fresh/dried starter from someone else. How do I revive/take care of it?

Lucky you! The great thing about the discard process is that that starter can be dried (as described in the maintenance section) and given away, or even given away fresh if you are within close proximity. To revive a dried starter, follow the instructions linked in the maintenance section above. To keep a fresh starter going, you can ignore the establishment instructions in the recipe and simply feed the starter when you see it getting hungry, about twice a day based on its rise and fall pattern.

If you change the flour and water that the starter is getting, you may find that there is a stall in activity for a day or two as the starter gets used to its new food source. Don’t worry, this period will quickly pass and soon the starter will take on its own new pattern in your kitchen.

If your starter isn’t showing any signs of activity during the first few days, this is normal. If it shows a lot of activity in the first day but then dies down for a few days, this is normal, too. By day 4 you should see some bubbles, perhaps with a bit of rise and fall in the container, with a vinegar-y smell. If you don’t this could be due to a couple factors:

• Make sure you’re using unbleached flour. Bleached flour has been stripped of its natural enzymes that are necessary to feed the wild yeast you are cultivating.

• Make sure you’re keeping your starter in a warm place. For tips on how to create a warm place in a cold house or apartment, read more here.

• Keep your starter out of direct sunlight; the UV rays and direct heat won’t be friendly to your wild yeast.

• Continue to feed your starter: make sure you are following the feeding schedule outlined in the recipe

• If you’re doing all of the above, and you still see no activity, giving your starter some whole wheat or rye flour can really help boost activity.

Starter can grow in any “room temperature” place, but bakers tend to have the most luck if their ambient environment is anywhere between 70-80°F. Anything colder can slow down fermentation activity and delay the readiness of your starter. Before I feed my starter, I pull out my digital thermometer and measure the temperature of the air around my kitchen; if no space is warmer than 70°F, I create a warm place.

If your house or apartment tends to be cooler, there are a few ways you can make a warmer environment for your starter to grow in:

• Put your starter in a turned off oven, with just the oven light on. The heat thrown off from the oven light bulb combined with the enclosed space is often enough to raise the temperature of the air enough to create a warmer environment. Put a note on the oven so that you don’t accidentally pre-heat your starter and the container it’s in.

• Put your starter in a microwave oven with a mug of hot water. You can microwave a mug of water for 1-2 minutes beforehand to heat it, then place the starter inside with the door just slightly ajar.

• Put your starter in an Instant Pot/similar type cooker on the yogurt setting on “low” with the lid gently placed on top but not sealed.

Making a starter with commercial yeast is essentially defeating the purpose of the starter. A healthy starter can be used to raise all kinds of breads without the aid of commercial yeast, or in some cases, in combination with commercial yeast. That said, putting yeast in a starter will give you a lot of activity right away, but won’t do anything to contribute to the long term health of your starter. For that reason, I say skip the recipes that include extra ingredients and stick to the flour and water method.

Note: if a bread recipe specifically instructs to use both starter and yeast, follow that instruction. I simply mean that for starter alone you don’t need to include yeast.

My starter has a weird smell, is that normal?

Your starter will go through all types of aromas as it grows, becomes hungry, and gets fed. Below are some common smells and what they mean.

Alcohol: It’s hungry, give it a feed.

Fruit/nail polish remover: It’s hungry, give it a feed.

Feet/Must: It’s probably new, and going through some enzymatic changes. Continue feeding as normal.

Yeasty/Bready: It’s ripe and well-fed, at the peak of it’s rise

Milky/Yogurty: Your starter contains lactic acid, which lends flavor and some sourness

Tangy/Sour/Assertive: Your starter likely contains higher amounts of acetic acid, which is very tangy and makes for a more sour bread. If you want less sour bread, feed your starter more often and keep it out of the fridge for a few days before baking

My starter is overflowing out of the jar! Help!

While this overflow might be dramatic and potentially alarming, rest assured that your starter is just very active. You can do a couple things to try to prevent this from happening:

• Use a bigger jar

• Reduce the amount of starter you are keeping so that when you feed it, it takes up no more than 1/3 of the jar’s volume (giving it room to expand)

But otherwise, don’t worry. Just keep feeding your starter as normal and find a container with a loose fitting lid that can contain its growth.

I have thrown a LOT of information at you in this guide. I know! I’ve compiled this resource for you specifically because I did so much research when I was starting my sourdough journey, and I found that even my favorite sources didn’t have answers to all the questions I had at the beginning. I pulled information from many different blogs, websites, books, and methods to create one comprehensive resource that can be referenced throughout any baker’s journey.

If reading all of this overwhelms you, start with the recipe. If you can follow the instructions of feeding your starter a couple times a day and paying attention to your measurements and the cues your starter gives you, then you can bake naturally leavened breads successfully. I promise you. You can read through the rest of this guide as questions come up.

Sourdough breads can be more temperamental than yeast breads, but they are not hard to make. I think the reason that folks become intimidated is that baking, in particular bread baking, is an alchemical process where science meets art. There has been an enormous amount of research put into the science behind sourdough bread, as well as a huge wave of beautiful, intricately scored breads by professionals and home bakers alike making their way across our screens via social media. I happen to be someone who is inspired by and strives to create both kinds of content, but I want to make something clear:

You don’t have to be an expert in the microbiology of bread baking or a particularly skilled craftsperson to make a delicious loaf of sourdough bread.

Making good bread simply requires a willingness to learn how to both follow specific techniques as written in a recipe and to go with the flow based on your sensory knowledge. You can follow a recipe to the letter, but if your kitchen is 5 degrees cooler than the kitchen the bread was tested in, you may have a rising time difference of an hour or more. This is why I’ve detailed and emphasized the importance of following your starter with a keen eye to get acquainted with how it behaves. The process is very similar when it comes to making bread, where you’ll be monitoring expansion in volume, textural changes, and other sensory cues that will help you achieve a delicious final loaf, and this sense of attention will help you going forward.

Do you have a question about sourdough starter that I didn’t answer? Leave a comment below or send me a message on Instagram, and I’ll answer you as soon as possible!

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