Welcome to the beginning of your sourdough journey! You’re probably here for one, or multiple, reasons:
- You value from-scratch cooking where you can know exaclty what goes into your food. You’ve been reading those ingredient labels and have no clue why your bread needs to include Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, among other things.
- You know of the health benefits of fermenting the gluten in your bread.
- You’ve been wanting to do sourdough and are DETERMINED to figure out your very own starter.
- Or maybe you saw, or even tasted, your friend’s fresh sourdough and want to try it for yourself
The list of reasons goes on, but it doesn’t really matter. If this process is completely new to you, PLEASE do not be intimidated! Your starter is stronger than you realize; the most important ingredient in this process is patience. The process I have outlined below only takes 7 days, and this is the hardest part 🙂
Follow my steps to make your very own starter!
What you’ll need:
- Rye Flour
- Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- Filtered water is ideal for your starter as Chlorine can impact it’s growth
- 2-3 Glass Jars (preferably without a lip) and lid
- Rubber band (optional)
- Long Spatula
- Scale
Day 1 AM
*Note: Try to keep track of what time you feed your starter at. This will help you understand how and when it grows, and help it to have a schedule.
Using your scale, add 25g rye flour and 30g warm water to your glass jar. Mix using your long spatula. Set a lid loosely on top of the jar and set the jar in a moderately warm spot. Ideally, your kitchen temperature sits around 76o F. I keep mine on the counter near my stove. Allow to sit until tomorrow morning.
*Another Note: Placing a rubber band around your jar to mark your starter can be a helpful way to keep track of growth!
Day 2 AM
Around the same time frame as yesterday morning:
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top, and place the jar in the same spot as yesterday. Allow to sit until tomorrow morning.
Day 3 AM
You will repeat what you did on Day 2 AM.
Around the same time frame as yesterday morning:
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top, and place the jar in the same spot as yesterday. Allow to sit until tomorrow morning.
Day 4 AM
You will repeat what you did on Day 2 and Day 3.
Around the same time frame as yesterday morning:
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top, and place the jar in the same spot as yesterday. Allow to sit until tomorrow morning.
Day 5 AM
*Note: Today you will feed your starter twice
In the morning of Day 5, you will repeat the steps on Days 2-4.
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top, and place the jar in the same spot as yesterday. Allow to sit until the evening, when you will feed again.
Day 5 PM
About 12 hours after your morning feed, you will perform the same steps to your starter.
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top. Allow to sit until the evening, when you will feed again.
Day 6 AM
*Note: Today you will feed your starter twice
In the morning of Day 5, you will repeat the steps on Days 2-5.
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top, and place the jar in the same spot as yesterday. Allow to sit until the evening, when you will feed again.
Day 6 PM
About 12 hours after your morning feed, you will perform the same steps to your starter.
Place a clean jar on your scale. Tare your scale to bring it back to 0g. Add 19g of yesterday’s mixture (throw away any excess), 12g rye flour, 12g all-purpose flour, and 29g warm water to the clean jar. Mix using your long spatula, set your lid loosely on top. Allow to sit until the evening, when you will feed again.
Day 7 AM
Today you can begin feeding your starter a 1:1:1 ratio. This means equal parts of starter to all-purpose flour to water. For example, if you put 10g of your starter into a clean jar, you would feed it with 10g all-purpose flour and 10g water. It is up to you how many grams of starter you choose to feed (10g, 20g, 30g, etc.). Just know that the more starter you feed, the more you will have!
*Do not freak out if it seems like your starter isn’t growing when you make the transition to all-purpose flour. Pro tip: Rye-flour causes your starter to grow very quickly and become very active, it even makes it a little sweeter.
Day 7 PM
Repeat with feeding your starter a 1:1:1 ratio.
From Now On
You get to experiment with the ratios you feed your starter. Work to create a routine that helps you to learn how your starter grows – this will change with the seasons. Winter slows my starter down, and summer it grows fast!
It is crucial that you always remove some starter (the excess or discard – see below) before feeding. Otherwise, your starter will 1. become huge and 2. be over-fermented.
Discard
Once your starter is healthy (can at least double in size after a feeding), you can keep the excess that you would normally throw away, the “excess” mentioned in the steps above. This excess is called discard. Keep your discard in a glass jar in the fridge with a sealed lid. It can be stored in your fridge for about 2 weeks until it goes bad. You can use discard for a variety of recipes! Be sure to check some of my favorite discard recipes here.
Feeding Ratios
What to know more about starter feeding ratios? Check out this post to learn more!
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