Make a Sourdough Starter
Learn how to create your very own lively sourdough starter from scratch—no special equipment required! With a little patience and daily care, you’ll have a bubbly, tangy starter ready to transform any loaf into artisan-level bread.
Equipment
- 2 Jars with a lid
- Rubber spatula or spoon for stirring
- Dry erase marker, for marking starting point on jar
- Kitchen scale
Materials
- Filtered water
- Rye flour, or whole wheat flour
- Bread or all purpose flour
Instructions
Day 1
- Place a clean jar on your kitchen scale and hit tare so the weight shows 0 grams.
- Pour 50 grams filtered water, 25 grams bread flour (or all purpose flour) and 25 grams of rye flour.
- Stir well until everything is combined and there are no dry bits of flour anywhere.
- With your dry erase marker, mark the highest point of your sourdough starter.
- Place your jar someplace warm and let it ferment for 24 hours. Keeping your starter warm is going to be key - fermentation happens best around 75-80 °F
Day 2
- Check on your starter. If there are bubbles and you see some growth you can skip ahead to day 3 and do your first feed. If there isn't much growth, just leave it for another 24 hours and then check back on it.
Day 3
- In a clean jar, take 50 grams of your sourdough starter and add:-60 grams filtered water-30 grams of rye flour-30 grams of all purpose or bread flourStir it up really well until there are no dry bits of flour.
- Scrape down the sides of the jar, mark where your starter is in the jar, cover and set someplace warm. Check on it in 24 hours.
- The remaining starter that you didn't feed is discard. But because this is not an established sourdough starter, this needs to be thrown in the trash (not down the kitchen sink). It's not safe to bake with this yet.
Day 4 -8
- Sometime between day 4 and 8 you might notice a burst of activity where it grows a lot in the jar and then the next day you don't see much activity. This is totally normal. Don't panic. Just keep feeding. You're going to feed the same way for the next 5 days.
- In a clean jar, take 25 grams of your sourdough starter and add:-50 grams filtered water-25 grams of rye flour-25 grams of all purpose or bread flourStir it up really well until there are no dry bits of flour.
- Scrape down the sides of the jar, mark where your starter is in the jar, cover and set someplace warm. Try to be consistent in your feeding schedule. Sourdough likes routine, so try to feed your starter around the same time each day.
- The remaining starter in your original jar that you did not feed is discard. But because this is not an established sourdough starter, this needs to be thrown in the trash (not down the kitchen sink). It's not safe to bake with this yet.
Days 8+
- By this point you should start to see consistent growth with your starter. It should rise consistently and double and might even hit a peak and start to fall back down during that 24 hour period. If this is happening, you can move on to 2 a day feedings.
- Every morning, in a clean jar, take 25 grams of your sourdough starter and add:-50 grams filtered water-25 grams of rye flour-25 grams of all purpose or bread flourStir it up really well until there are no dry bits of flour.
- Every evening, in a clean jar, take 25 grams of your sourdough starter and add:-50 grams filtered water-25 grams of rye flour-25 grams of all purpose or bread flourStir it up really well until there are no dry bits of flour.
- These feedings should take place about every 12 hours.
- The remaining starter in your original jar that you did not feed is discard. But because this is not an established sourdough starter, this needs to be thrown in the trash (not down the kitchen sink). It's not safe to bake with this yet.
- By this point you are getting close to ready to bake your first loaf of bread. I like to wait until it's been at least 14 days before I try to bake with my new sourdough starter, but look for the following signs that your starter is ready:-consistently doubling or tripling in size-has lots of air bubbles-has a sweet, yeasty smell (if it smells like nail polish remover, it's not ready yet)
Converting Your Starter to All White Flour
- Once your starter is consistently doubling and hitting its peak, you can start to convert your starter to feeding with only all purpose or bread flour. Because your starter is young and likes routine, you don't want to rush this process. So, we're going to gradually reduce the amount of rye flour and increase the amount of white flour each day.
- Converting Day 1 - feed morning and night like this-25 grams sourdough starter-50 grams filtered water-20 grams rye flour-30 grams all purpose flour
- Converting Day 2 - feed morning and night like this-25 grams sourdough starter-50 grams filtered water-15 grams rye flour-35 grams all purpose flour
- Converting Day 3 - feed morning and night like this-25 grams sourdough starter-50 grams filtered water-10 grams rye flour-40 grams all purpose flour
- Converting Day 4 - feed morning and night like this-25 grams sourdough starter-50 grams filtered water-5 grams rye flour-45 grams all purpose flour
- Converting Day 5 - feed morning and night like this-25 grams sourdough starter-50 grams filtered water-50 grams all purpose flour
Notes
See the blog post above for more details and photographs of what's happening with your starter each day. This recipe card is a simple explanation of how to make your starter, but the details of the process are found in the blog post above.
If at any point in this process you notice mold growing on your starter or in your jar, you MUST throw it away. Your starter is contaminated and can't be saved. Mold can look like white/green fuzzy mold, or can just be an orange/pink color in your start. Throw it away and start fresh.
If you notice a layer of liquid on the top of your starter, that's nothing to worry about. It's called hooch and just tells you that your starter is hungry. If you feed it more often (two times a day) it should go away.
