If you had told me many years ago that I could make enticingly crunchy, tender, and healthy bread at home with only a few elemental ingredients, I would not have believed you.
I would have claimed that baking bread requires a professional mixer, a specialized oven, and a list of ingredients so long your eyes start to glaze over. But now I perform this alchemy daily in my home kitchen: transforming three basic ingredients into wholesome sourdough bread. How does one begin the journey of making naturally leavened bread at home? It starts with, well, making a sourdough starter from scratch.
A healthy sourdough starter means great bread.
Despite all the mysticism and lore about creating the concoction, a sourdough starter is merely a naturally fermenting mixture of flour and water. Add water to dry flour, let it sit on the counter for a few days, and you’ll see nature weave life into a once lifeless lump: bubbles will appear and the mixture will rise.
This natural fermentation can be harnessed and (once it is stable) controlled to produce bread so flavorful and healthy that it’s hard to go back to anything else.
I created my sourdough starter years ago (using this sourdough starter recipe), and it’s the same one I use to this day. It’s a spoiled brat now, to be sure, thanks to all my coddling, but in exchange for my attention and flour, it stays on schedule. Besides, when I’m baking, it does the heaviest lifting (bread nerd joke, sorry). Initially, it was the quintessential rebellious child. Sometimes it wouldn’t show any fermentation activity, and at other times it was utterly unruly. Back then, I didn’t realize what it needed to thrive. I didn’t see how vital timely refreshments (also called feedings) were or how much temperature impacts fermentation.
The key to raising a well-adjusted starter is to observe its needs, give it space to grow, and adjust the refreshments to encourage maximum fermentation activity. And a healthy starter means great bread.
But first, let’s quickly look at what a sourdough starter is.
What is a Sourdough Starter?
At a high level, a sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water that hosts a stable blend of beneficial bacteria and wild yeasts. This mixture is continually maintained with regular refreshments (or feedings) and is used to leaven and flavor new bread dough. The starter is the cornerstone of successful sourdough baking, and especially for a home baker with changing environmental conditions in the kitchen, learning how to care for and use one is the key to bread with the best flavor, texture, and keeping qualities.
A Few Tips Before We Begin
Water that’s high in chlorine or chloramine (disinfectants used by some cities to clean tap water) can impede fermentation. The night before you want to make your starter, fill a large jug with tap water and let it sit out uncovered overnight to allow any chlorine to dissipate. If your city uses chloramine instead of chlorine, letting a jar sit out overnight will not work. In this case, you’ll have to use bottled water or filtered water (if you are concerned, you can test your water with over-the-counter test kits to determine whether there are additives or other issues). Alternatively, you could use bottled spring water until you get your starter fermenting reliably, then try switching back to tap water with a portion of the starter to see if it’s able to handle the tap water (but don’t use all of it just in case it doesn’t work).
After you mix the flour and water in the jar, be sure to keep the jar lightly covered during the rest of the process. Either a porous cloth or a lid resting on top of the jar will work well. Use a container with enough headspace for the mixture to rise—I like to give at least 5-inches of headspace. Additionally, it’s a good idea to place your jar in a bowl while it’s resting in case the mixture overflows.
During the first couple of days, there’s often a surge in fermentation activity that then drops off dramatically; this situation is probably caused by other yeast and bacteria that are initially present but eventually die off. When this happens, many first-timers think that it has “died,” and they start over. Don’t be fooled by this lapse of activity; continue with the schedule and eventually, the desired yeast and bacteria will move in and stabilize the starter.
The entire process is exceptionally temperature-dependent. Instead of a typical cooler room temperature, I find a warm temperature of around 80°F (26°C) helps kickstart activity since this is near the temperature at which the bacteria and yeast are most active. A home dough proofer (which I highly recommend) and a yogurt maker are great tools for maintaining such an environment. If not, a home oven, turned off, with the light on the inside (and a thermometer to monitor the temperature), or a microwave with a bowl of warm water inside, will both work well.
For even more tips on this whole process and many things related to sourdough starters, check out my Sourdough Starter Frequently Asked Questions page →
Helpful Tools to Make a Sourdough Starter
You can see a rundown of all the tools I use for baking sourdough, vetted over years of baking, over at my favorite sourdough baking tools page. Here, I list what I consider the necessary tools to get started:
Weck glass jar
Have at least two clean jars on hand. I like these Weck jars (#743, 3/4 liter jars) best because they taper out towards the top, making it easy to stir, and they don’t have any hard-to-clean lips or edges. Also, using the glass lid without the provided rubber seal and clips provides just enough of a seal to keep moisture and heat trapped inside.
I recommend using glass jars because you can easily see the fermentation as it progresses. It can also help to place a rubber band around the jar at the height of your starter after mixing so you have a visual guide for how high it rises between refreshments. Two more reasons I like these jars: they’re high quality and very economical. They are canning jars, so you can use them for many other things around the kitchen (jam, homemade pesto, dried fruit, cereals, and so on).
Silicone spatula
I use a small, firm spatula to do my feedings. It’s sturdy and easy to clean with a sponge, and if things get messy, you can run it through the dishwasher.
Scale
A kitchen scale is indispensable and guarantees accuracy when measuring the amount of flour needed for each starter refreshment. Measuring flour by volume is inherently imprecise as the amount of flour packed into a measuring cup can vary. Further, it’s a good idea to get used to using a scale for weighing ingredients, as this method is essential for improving your baking consistency.
Rye flour
Using whole grain (“dark”) rye flour helps expedite the fermentation process. In comparison to white flour, rye flour is teeming with extra nutrients that help kickstart the entire process. If you don’t have rye flour, a good quality organic whole wheat will also work well.
Unbleached, all-purpose, white flour
With my starter of 10+ years, and outlined in my post on how I feed (refresh) my starter these days, I typically refresh it with 70% all-purpose flour (or bread flour) and 30% whole rye flour. I like this mix because you get the fermentation boost from the whole-grain flour and the white flour’s increased gas-trapping ability and gluten strength. This helps me spot the signs of fermentation throughout the day and is a good compromise, using just enough whole grains without my starter getting overly acidic too quickly.
Thermometer
An instant-read thermometer will help monitor the temperature of your starter and ensure that it’s in the optimal range for increasing fermentation activity.
My Free Sourdough Starter Quicksheet
My sourdough starter quicksheet is a free, one-page printable guide to feeding, maintaining, and using my sourdough starter. Download it, print it, and keep it in your baking notebook for quick reference!
Starter Refreshment (Feeding)Schedule
In the beginning, your starter refreshments will occur just once a day. As your culture becomes more active, you’ll increase this to twice a day. Because of the frequency of these feedings, one of my goals is to help you set things up so it’s quick and easy to do your feedings and move on with your day. Once you get the hang of things, you only need about 5 to 10 minutes per day to keep your starter going–totally manageable.
A sourdough starter is very resilient. If you forget to feed it one day or feed it several hours after it needed a refreshment, don’t worry, in almost all cases it will spring back.
The following sourdough starter recipe schedule will provide you with a reliable and robust sourdough starter in 6 to 9 days. Once you have the culture stable, it will last indefinitely as long as you refresh it regularly. If you don’t plan to bake frequently, you can toss the starter in the fridge and feed it only once a week. (I’ll discuss this in more detail later in this post.)
Your schedule will follow the natural rise and fall of your starter. As soon as you feed it, the yeast and bacteria in your culture will begin to metabolize the sugars in the flour, creating gasses (among other things) as a byproduct. These gasses cause the starter to rise throughout the day as seen above. Once they subside, then the starter falls.
Daily Refreshment Process
At each refreshment, we will perform the following quick steps:
- Stir your starter a little bit with your spatula
- Place a clean jar on your scale and scoop in some portion (outlined below) from the jar you just stirred down
- Add fresh flour and water; mix well to incorporate completely
- Cover the jar loosely and let rest until the next feeding
That’s it! Once you get your process down, it should take no more than a few minutes each day.
Sourdough Starter Recipe: Making an Incredible Sourdough Starter from Scratch
Day One
Initially, I like to use two jars for this process: each time you refresh, swap in a clean jar. Starting on Day 4, you can use the same jar: discard down and add fresh flour and water.
I first like to weigh the jars I’m using (without the lids) to find their empty weight. Then, take a permanent marker and write the jar’s weight on the bottom. This way, we know the baseline weight of the jar so we can quickly figure out how much starter to keep during each refreshment.
In the morning, place a clean, empty jar on the scale and tare (the “tare” button on your scale will zero it out after you place your jar on top. This will allow you to measure the flour and water your place in your jar and exclude the jar’s weight). To that jar, add 100 grams whole grain rye flour and 125 grams water and mix until all dry bits are incorporated. If it’s cool in your kitchen, warm the water to 80°F (26°C) before mixing. Lightly cover the jar and set it in a warm place–80°F to 85°F (26°C to 29°C) is ideal–and out of direct sunlight for 24 hours.
Day Two
You may or may not already see some fermentation activity. As mentioned above, this potential initial surge of activity is typical and should subside around Day 3. What you can see below is how my initial mixture expanded significantly (in fact it bubbled out of the jar; this is why setting the jar in a bowl is a good idea). Don’t be discouraged if the surge disappears by the third or fourth day. Stick to the schedule, and it will come back!
Place a second, empty jar on the scale and tare so that it reads 0 grams. Scoop in 75 grams of the mixture that has been resting for 24 hours. Next, add 50 grams rye flour, 50 grams all-purpose flour, and 115 grams of water. Again, if it’s cold, warm the water to 80°F(26°C).
Mix well until all dry bits are incorporated, cover, and place in the same warm spot for 24 hours. Discard the rest of the mixture in the first jar and clean it in preparation for the next day.
Day Three
In the morning, you may start to see more activity, or you may see none. You can see below that the initial surge of action I had on Day 2 disappeared. However, my mixture started to show the beginning signs of beneficial yeast and bacteria taking hold: some bubbles on the top and at the sides, rose to some degree, and it started to take on a sour aroma.
Regardless of what signs your mixture is presenting, don’t fret and stick to the schedule. Remember, if it’s cold in your kitchen, warm your water to 80°F (26°C) to help speed things along.
If a layer of clear liquid (“hooch”) forms on the top of your mixture just stir it back in and keep with the schedule.
Place a new, clean jar on the scale and tare. Scoop in 75 grams of the mixture that rested overnight and add 50 grams rye flour, 50 grams all-purpose flour, and 115 grams water. Stir until well incorporated. Cover the jar and let it rest for 24 hours.
Discard the rest of the mixture in the first jar and clean it in preparation for the next day.
Day Four
This day is the first day of the process that has two refreshments in a single day: one in the morning, and one approximately 12 hours later.
In the morning, you should start to see signs of fermentation activity if you haven’t already, and begin to see them again if you experienced the surge-and-drop that I described above. There will be bubbles scattered on the sides and top, and the level of the mixture might have risen and fallen a little (evidenced by streaks on the sides of the jar).
Refresh in the same way that you did on Day 3. Place a clean jar on the scale and tare. Scoop in 75 grams of the mixture from the jar that fermented overnight, add 50 grams rye flour, 50 grams all-purpose flour, and 115 grams water. Mix thoroughly, cover, and let rest for 12 hours.
Discard the rest of the mixture in the first jar. From here on, simply use the same jar each day (no need to switch to a clean jar) by discarding the contents down and adding fresh flour and water as instructed.
After this 12-hour rest during the day, discard the contents to 75 grams and refresh again with the same ratio of ingredients. Let the new mixture rest for 12 hours (overnight).
Day Five and Six
For Days 5 and 6, continue to discard down the contents of the jar and then refresh with the same ratio of ingredients as you did on Day 4, twice a day. You will see fermentation activity increase more and more. If you’ve written the weight of the empty jar on the bottom as I indicated on Day 1, you should know exactly how much the resulting weight of the jar plus carried over starter will be—discard down to this weight.
Keep using the same jar for these refreshments.
Day Seven and Onward
In the morning on Day 7, discard what’s in the jar down to 20 grams of the mixture. To this, add 30 grams rye flour, 70 grams all-purpose flour, and 100 grams water. Mix thoroughly, cover, and let rest for 12 hours during the day. In the evening (after about 12 hours), discard the jar contents down to 20g, add the same ratio of ingredients as earlier in the day, and let rest 12 hours (overnight).
At this point, you should see the height of your starter rise and fall in the jar predictably each day. This periodic behavior is a good indicator that it is strong enough for you to use for your first loaf of bread. If your starter is still struggling to show activity, continue the refreshment schedule with the same ratio of ingredients for another day–or even several more days–until things pick up. The process of stabilization can sometimes take longer, depending on the flour used and the environment (especially if it’s cool in your kitchen). Be patient and stick to the schedule!
Once you get the hang of your starter and its feeding schedule, feel free to adjust the ratio of ingredients. For example, in warmer months I’ll reduce my mature starter carryover to 10g to 20g depending on the temperature. To read more about how I change these ratios and maintain my starter, check out my comprehensive sourdough starter guide page which includes my current feeding schedule, an in-depth FAQ, and more.
The starter will continue to develop flavor and strength over the next week and into the future. With an active starter, you can now use a portion of it when it is ripe. A starter is ripe when it has risen, is bubbly on the surface and at the sides, has a sour aroma, and has a looser consistency than when first refreshed.
Having issues? Check out my list of the 21 most common sourdough starter problems (with solutions) →
What is the Best Flour to Feed My Sourdough Starter?
I get asked this question often. Once your starter is rising and falling predictably, it’s okay to switch your refreshment flour to suit your preference. You can continue with a mixture of rye and all-purpose, change to 100% all-purpose white flour, or even switch to using 100% whole wheat.
There is no right or wrong flour to use when feeding a starter.
Each flour will affect the starter in a different way, changing how fast it ferments, how acidic it becomes in the same timeframe, and eventually, the final flavor profile. There is no right or wrong flour to use when maintaining your starter; it’s up to you and your starter!
Next Steps For a Healthy Sourdough Starter
After your starter rises and falls predictably, review my sourdough starter maintenance routine for all the steps I do to keep my starter healthy. You can adjust your feeding schedule based on your baking frequency. If you can bake almost every day, you’ll want to feed your starter once daily to keep it ready-to-use shape. If you want to bake only on the weekends, you can put your starter in the refrigerator to slow down its activity.
You can also scale down your starter and maintain a smaller one. Scaling down your starter will mean less flour and water needed for each refreshment (to save ingredients). See my guide to maintaining a smaller sourdough starter for a recipe and process.
What If I Need a Break From Maintaining My Starter?
Maintaining a sourdough starter should always be on our terms, not the other way around. Maintaining a starter indefinitely can be daunting, but there are ways to put your starter on pause if you need a break from baking for a while. Remember, the refrigerator is our friend to slowing fermentation, and there are even ways to stop all fermentation activity altogether (and it can stay this year for years!).
How Can I Save Sourdough Starter Discard?
Once your starter is rising and falling predictably each day, and only then, to ensure you have the right mix of suitable bacteria and wild yeasts in the culture, you can save the discard. I keep a jar in my fridge where I collect all discards and keep them for up to 2 weeks. Then, when I want to make pancakes, waffles, or another discard recipe, I can use starter from my sourdough starter discard cache at a moment’s notice.
Final Thoughts
These days, refreshing my sourdough starter is a liturgical part of my day. It takes minutes to provide my starter with fresh flour and water. In return, my starter produces flavorful and healthy bread. I like to think it’s me making the bread; it’s me controlling fermentation, it’s my hands mixing and shaping the dough. But the reality is, I’m just a small cog in nature’s machinery. All I need to do is lend a helping hand and stay out of the way. Happy baking and buon appetito!
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Sourdough Starter Recipe
- Prep Time: 7 days
- Total Time: 168 hours
- Yield: 1 sourdough starter
- Category: Sourdough, Baking, Bread, Starter
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sourdough starter recipe will help you create your own sourdough starter from scratch at home in seven easy steps. Your starter is the cornerstone of great bread—once you have it showing consistent signs of fermentation each day, which takes on average 5 to 7 days, you’re ready to start baking sourdough bread!
Ingredients
- 300g all-purpose flour
- 400g whole-grain rye flour
- 800g water
Instructions
- Day One
To a clean jar, add 100g whole rye flour and 125g warm water. Mix ingredients and keep somewhere warm for 24 hours. - Day Two
To clean jar, add 75g of the mixture from Day One (discard the rest), 50g whole rye flour, 50g all-purpose flour, and 115g water. Mix ingredients and keep somewhere warm for 24 hours. - Day Three
To a clean jar, add 75g of the mixture from Day Two (discard the rest), 50g whole rye flour, 50g all-purpose flour, and 115g water. Mix ingredients and keep somewhere warm for 24 hours. - Day Four
On day four, you will give the mixture two feedings. In a clean jar, add 75g of the mixture from Day Three (discard the rest), 50g whole rye flour, 50g all-purpose flour, and 115g water. Mix and let rest for 12 hours. In the evening, after 12 hours, repeat the discarding and feeding you did in the morning. Let the mixture rest overnight. - Day Five and Six
For days five and six, continue to discard down the jar contents and then feed with the same ratio of ingredients as Day Four, twice a day. You can use the same jar for these feedings. - Day Seven and Onward
In the morning on Day Seven, discard the jar’s contents down to 20g of the mixture and add 30g whole rye flour, 70g all-purpose flour, and 100g water. Repeat this feeding twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, indefinitely.
Notes
You don’t have to use a new, clean jar each time you feed your starter, but I find it’s helpful to keep track of the weight of the jar so you know how much you’re carrying over.
If you use my method for creating a starter, tag @maurizio on Instagram and use the hashtag #theperfectloaf so I can take a look!
Sourdough Starter Creation FAQs
Why do you need a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a continually maintained mixture of wild yeast and suitable bacteria used to seed fermentation in new dough for bread, pastry, and more.
How long does it take for a sourdough starter to be ready?
In general, I’ve found it takes about 7 days from when you first mix flour and water to when a sourdough starter is ready to be used to bake bread.
Is a homemade sourdough starter safe?
A well-maintained sourdough starter can live virtually indefinitely. The high-acid environment of the sourdough starter helps stave off any unwanted pathogens. However, if you see any signs of traditional mold (pink, white fuzzy, green), it’s best to discard the entire starter and start a new one.
Should I make or buy a sourdough starter?
While buying a sourdough starter is very easy online, it’s a very easy process to do at home! Plus, creating your own starter exposes you to the signs of fermentation, what steps you need to perform to maintain your starter, and gives you a chance to get to know the feeding (refreshment) process.
How long does it take for a sourdough starter to peak?
Some bakers use the term “peak” to refer to either the point at which a starter is ready to be used or needs feeding, or it can refer to the physical peak height of the starter in the jar. I find judging a sourdough starter’s readiness based solely on the height it has risen to may lead to using it at an incorrect time. After all, the height of a starter is simply a display of the strength and other characteristics of the flour. To determine when your starter is ready to be fed (or used for baking), look for a combination of signs: some rise, bubbles on top and at the sides, a sour aroma, and a loose consistency (it should loosen the longer it ferments). From there, use the timeframe for fermentation as a guide: at about 72-78F (22-25C) with 30-50% whole grain flour and 20% ripe starter (the seed, or inoculation), it might be ready after 12-16 hours.
Why doesn’t my sourdough starter have big bubbles?
It’s okay if your starter doesn’t have big bubbles. Large bubbles can be the result of the flour you’re using and the hydration. What’s more important overall, is to see strong signs of consistent fermentation: some bubbles, consistent rise each day, a sour aroma, a loosening in texture.
Why is my sourdough starter not rising?
It’s worrisome if you don’t see any rise in your starter, you should see some. Usually, no rise is a sign it’s not fermenting properly and needs more time to establish. Continue with the feeding schedule outlined in my guide on how to make a sourdough starter and it should begin fermenting after a few days.
What’s Next?
If you’re looking for something to make with the discarded sourdough starter that you’re generating every day, have a look at my sourdough waffles, sourdough pancakes, and sourdough banana bread.
If you need a high-level look at each step of the bread-making process, read through our Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Bread.
2,663 Comments
Hi Maurizio! Thanks for such an amazing website full of wonderful recipes! Can’t wait to try them all but at the moment I seem in a bit of a rut with my starter. I feed it every 12 hours: 30g starter, 30g water (filtered, left to air for 12h), 30g rye flour (organic). The jar sits on the radiator around 25-30ºC throughout the day. It reliably grows but only by a 1.5 factor which is not the 2-3 times you’ve been getting. I’ve left it to rise for 24h cycles and I could see it deflate (it didn’t grow more than 1.5 volume). It’s been about three weeks. I’ve also tried 1:2:2 ratio (starter:flour:water) to no avail. I’m stumped. Any suggestions?
Hey, Zachary, you’re very welcome! That’s going to be very typical if you feed with 100% rye flour — it won’t rise the same amount as a starter fed with some wheat flour. And this is fine! As long as you’re seeing consistent rise and fall with signs of strong fermentation your starter will perform very well in baking 🙂
Oh! Wow! That really did make a difference! Why is that? I thought rye flour is better in terms of nutrients and natural yeast contents. So much so, maybe, that there isn’t enough food for everyone? So the type of flour you use to feed your starter will have an impact on the rise of your bread, won’t it? I suppose your recommended 50% rye 50% wheat in the recipe above provides the best results?
That’s been tremendously helpful, Maurizio; thank you!
Rye is packed full of minerals and nutrients that wild yeast and bacteria thrive on and it aids fermentation significantly. I think the flour you choose to feed your starter with is really a personal preference. Some bakers love using 100% white flour, and some a mix of white and whole wheat, and others rye/einkorn/spelt and so on. It’s up to you, really, but for me the best mix has been 50% whole grain rye and 50% white flour, or 50% freshly milled whole wheat and 50% white flour. Those are my preferences.
Hope that helps!
Brilliant, super helpful, Maurizio! Thanks so much!
I began my starter using the method on King Arthur’s site but am not getting the rise i’d like and it’s been more than 10 days. Their process calls for equal parts (113g) starter, flour and water but it’s not rising consistently for me and i’m keeping the temperature around 72 degrees. I notice your post calls for 50g starter, 100g flour and 100g water– is the KA method not giving my bacteria enough food?
It’s hard to say. I’m sure their method works really, well though! I would recommend you try keeping your starter a little warmer if you can, 78F would be great (you can warm your mixing water a little to get things going). I actually like to feed with even less starter at each feeding as seen on my starter maintenance post — which has some more great suggestions! If you’re seeing consistent rise and fall, try doing 25g starter, 100g flour, 100g water and keep it a little warmer. Feed it 2x a day for a week and see how it goes from there!
Hey there! Our kitchen is a cool one, so I purchased a home proofing box. Do you have instructions for using that when starting the sourdough starter? Or is it as simple as… create, let sit in proofing box… discard and feed, let sit in proofing box and so on… looking forward to starting! (Once I get my new proofing box…first one came in damaged! 🤨).
Thanks in advance for the advise! 🍞🥖💓
~ gia
It’s very simple and exactly as you said. However, I do have a guide to maintaining my sourdough starter with lots of info on all of this! Let me know if you have more questions and have fun, Gia 🙂
Hi there – I’m on day three of developing a starer. The starter smells “off” to me. Not sweet and yeasty as my previous starter smelled, though I’ve never made one from scratch. Is there typically an adjustment period while the beneficial bacteria colonize or did I get something bad in there. Smells a little putrid…
I’m using a mix of bread flour (it’s what I had in the pantry) and organic whole wheat covered loosely by muslin and rubberband. Kept in the oven with the light on over night, as the first night I didn’t get much “action”. Both jars were sterilized and I used Berkey filtered room temp water. Thoughts?
Thank you – I’ve really enjoyed these articles!
Ali
Yes, that’s very common (in fact, it has always happened for me when creating one). That smell is usually due to unwanted bacteria in the mixture that’ll eventually go away as beneficial bacteria/yeast colonize the mixture. Stick with the process and it’ll eventually go away!
Happy baking, Ali!
Fantastic! And thank you for the prompt reply!
Hello again -I’m on Day 9 and getting very little activity within the 12 hour period. Some weak bubbles on top, but none visible on the sides. The starter looks “runny” with little structure. There is evidence of maybe a 1/4 inch rise on the side of the glass. I’ve tried allowing it to rest both in the oven with the light on and on the countertop. I’ve tried warmed water and room temp water. How much rise should I see by this point? I got the initial surge on day 1 and 2 and then flop…very little activity.
Thoughts, tips? Thank you!
Unfortuantely, sometimes it just takes longer! But, keeping it warm (80F would be great) is the right move there. It’s encouraging that you’re seeing some activity in your mixture, it tells me things are almost there and should happen at some point. I’d say return back to one feeding a day with some rye flour, perhaps 25% rye flour and 75% white flour, and keep with the single feeding per day for a few more days to see if that helps. Keep it warm, at 80F, if possible. Also, if you can… Grab a large gallon bottle of spring water from the market and use that for your feedings for the next week or so.
I know, this is a lot of fuss for a starter, but I have yet to not help someone get one going. Sometimes it takes a little more effort, but it will happen!
Hi Maurizio,
I’m just beginning to bake and was so excited to find your website. Thank you so much for all your guides and recipes! I can’t wait to get started.
As I’m preparing to start my first sourdough starter, I’m still a bit confused about 100% hydrated starter and a stiff starter. So I feed my starter following your 7-step guide and by the end of the week, I will have a 100% hydrated starter? From there, if I follow the ratios on your Sourdough Starter maintenance guide, that will give me a stiff starter?
Thank you again!
Hey Diana — you’re welcome! Sorry about the confusion. A “stiff” starter is usually around 60-65% hydration (meaning, for example, 60g water to every 100g flour which will be very stiff and hard to mix). My guide here and my maintenance guide use a “liquid” starter that’s around 100% hydration (same amount of water to flour). However, the ideas and principles behind all of this will apply to either and maintaining a stiff starter or liquid one is really up to you and what you prefer!
Have fun and happy baking.
Are there any substantive advantages of purchasing a mature starter from the onset? I’ve noticed a plethora of vendors offering 30+ year-old San Franciscan starter. Would such a culture contribute to a more complex, superior starter batch over the long-term? I certainly don’t mind starting from scratch, but I am curious about kickstarting my live culture batch with a mature, diverse microbial population. Is this a sensible idea, or a worthless gimmick?
I think there’s something to be said for having diversity in a culture, but for me creating my own was the way to go. Not only do you get a better feel for your particular starter, but also in the end whatever starter you buy will most likely evolve to suit the temperature, feeding schedule, and flour you’re using for refreshments.
Hi,
I tried this using organic sprouted rye. It was quite active the first 12 hours and until the third day, and then
not a single bubble in days 4-6. I kept it at 80 to 82. Could this die back be due to the sprouted rye? Can it be saved? Thanks
I’d keep with it, it should be just fine using sprouted flour!
Hi! Thanks for your detailed posts about sourdough starters. My friend just gave me a portion of her sourdough starter and I’m curious when I should start to feed it and how long after feeding I can use it for my first loaf of bread? I am very new to all of this and I don’t want to mess up the starter she gave me! Thank you!
Hey there! As long as the starter is rising and falling reliably each day when you refresh it, it should be ready to bake with. Check out my sourdough starter maintenance routine post for a detailed breakdown on how I keep my starter going!
Hey Maurizio – great website! Just wondering if I could use strong white bread flour instead of all purpose? This could still be mixed in with the rye flour. Thanks for your help!
Hey, Courtney — thanks! You could and it will likely work just fine. I’ve always used lower protein flour when creating a starter, because that’s the type of flour I have most on hand and I prefer, but bread flour should work!
This is such an amazing website! I am making my first ever sourdough starter to make my first sourdough bread. it’s day 6 now and the activity seems to have picked up, so much so, that I noticed the starter reached its highest point (ever) about four hours after the morning feeding (at 6am). I read in your piece about the maintenance of the starter that it should be fed before it collapses to its original level, so I was afraid to wait until its planned 6pm refreshment and fed it at noon. Is that ok? Or is it too often and I should rather stick to feeding it only every 12 hours?
Thanks, I appreciate that! Sure, if it looks like it’s at its peak height (and it’s risen substantially), you can certainly give it a feeding. Since this is the first time it’s risen that high with good signs of fermentation, you could also wait until tonight to give it that feeding, then proceed with the rest of the schedule. Once you see a consistent rise and fall each day your starter is ready to go.
Hope that helps and have fun!
Thank you! Four hours later it was again up substantially, then started to go down, so I hope this is becoming consistent. Will try to stick to the schedule for another day to make sure.
Hey!
For feeding the starter you start using all-purpose flour on day 2, is that made from whole wheat? Or is it also possible to use whole wheat flour (rye or wheat)? Does that make a difference? Thank you!!
All-purpose flour is a sifted flour that has some percentage of the bran/germ sifted out from whole wheat flour. You can continue to use whole wheat if you’d like, but I find all-purpose helps spot the signs for fermentation a little easier (it’ll show more rise and slightly more gas-trapping). Either way will work!
Hi great tutorial! I am approaching day 7 and everything is going great! I do have question however. I am confused with day 7 and onward. Let’s say my recipe calls for 1 cup of starter, why can’t I just add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water back to the mixture? Why do I have to discard it down to 50g and then re-feed it? It seems like alot of waste by keeping in discarding down.
Glad to hear it, Nick! If you don’t keep discarding, you’ll eventually end up with a huge starter — at some point you need to cut it back down. We discard each day to do this and only a small amount is needed to keep the culture going. The fresh flour and water added is new “food” for the yeast/bacteria to metabolize.
You don’t have to throw the discard, you can use it to make focaccia or pancakes, waffles, banana bread — many things!
Thanks for your quick reply! I am planning on visiting family next week and would love to give them a bunch of starter. So technically if a recipe called for 1 cup of starter, could I just add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water back to the mixture in order to make a bunch? Or would I have to reduce then re-add flour/water?
Yeah, you can definitely do that to scale it up.
Hi there, I’m on day 7 and my starter is still taking its time it seems. It is bubbling a little but not as much as in your pictures. I am using a heating pad which keeps it at about 28 degrees C. When I go to feed it at the 12 hour mark it has risen about a cm, but I don’t see any signs of it falling (no streaks on the sides). Is this normal? should I be waiting longer than 12 hour to feed? how much rise should I be seeing?
Thank you for your help!
It’s hard to say exactly how much rise, it depends on your flour, how long you mix, and other factors. I’d say run a test: let it go longer than 12 hours one day and see how long it takes to eventually fall. Even if it never fully collapses, you might see signs it needs a refreshment: lots of bubbles on top, a sour yogurt-like smell, and if you stir the mixture, it’ll feel very soft and weak.
Hi Maurizio, first of all, great blog full of info and amazing pictures ! Keep going !
Regarding my sourdough, Can divide the quantities you give to a minimum ? I am using quite a lot of flour to feed my starter and I would like to keep it at a minimum ! Or is it calculated so the starter consume optimally the flour ?
Thanks !
Thank you and you’re very welcome! You can definitely reduce the quantities you’re feeding your starter. If you’d like to keep the same ratios then just decrease everything proportionally to make sure they’re kept in tact (i.e. if you’re feeding 100g water, 100g flour, 20g starter and want to reduce, go down to 50g water, 50g flour, 10g starter).
Hope that helps!
I am on day 2, having not yet discarded and refreshed. I made my 100% Rye starter last night around 5pm and it appeared to peak, bubbling up to the top of the jar, around 6am when I checked this morning. It is now noon and it appears to have fallen about an inch since 6 am. Is this a concern? Is my temp too high? I have it in the oven with the light on, which ranges from 78F to 88F. Please let me know what you think and thank you kindly for all the knowledge you pass on!
That’s likely just fine, Liz. In fact, that rising and falling is a good thing we want to see, but it’s likely this is just that initial spurt of activity that’ll typically fall off in day 3-4. Keep with it, though, as activity will eventually return and be predictable, which is key.
Hi, I’m on my day 4. And my starter has risen significantly and overflowed. What should I do with with? Should I remove some and refresh it again?
Yes, you can certainly do that! Try finding a larger jar to hold your starter, eventually you can reduce the amount of flour and everything else.
Thanks so much for your steps! I’m new to the world of sourdough and have found it a challenge to get things going… my 1st attempt molded, even wrapped in a towel at room temperature-my 2nd attempt would not respond, my 3rd try (with your instructions) seems to be slowly moving in the right direction. The oven with only the light on proved to provide an environment of about 85* in the midst of a cold Indiana winter where my house is only about 68*. I had crazy activity the first 2 days… the starter tripled. Then, on day 3,4, and 5 the starter did nothing(no rising, no bubbles) aside from a slight change in consistency- It was fairly thick when I put it in the jar, but I could pour it out when it was feeding time. However, I kept going (warding off the inner insecurities that maybe sourdough just isn’t for me LOL) and this morning there are bubbles! YAY! I’ll be excited to begin experimenting with your recipes.
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/82799891_2506196332955428_4567694390696345600_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ohc=7-xrDuGTyU0AX_oluLp&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=cb9e01ef12cdae0a182768751ae82ad8&oe=5ECAD356
Great to hear that, and your progress is very typical. It can be hard in the winter, but you’re making the right moves with the oven. Keep at it!
Hi, can I use all purpose flour only?
Sure, that will work. It might take longer to get things going, but eventually it should happen!
At the end of the process, yes, you’ll have a 100% hydration starter. I do start off with a higher hydration when using 100% rye flour, but eventually drop it down to 100% hydration (meaning there’s as much water as there is fresh flour). You can certainly take the water in the mature starter carried over each feed, but rare do bakers do this because it’ll eventually be a rather small amount relative to everything else.
At the end of this process, when you have a starter that’s rising and falling predictably, I like to feed with the same amount of water as flour, making it 100% hydration.
Hi! Has anyone done this using only Organic Unbleached All Purpose flour? Would the results be the same? Or would the ratios need to be tweaked? Thank you!
This should work, but I do highly recommend using whole grain rye flour or whole grain wheat flour in the beginning. It’s not mandatory, but it’ll speed the process along. If you do end up using all white flour, I’d recommend always keeping the hydration at 100% (so the first day reduce the water I call for to match the flour weight). Hope that helps!
Hi there,
Love your work so much, been an inspiration for me to do my own sourdough one day. Just a question, all of your recipe starts with a mature starter of 100% hydration, but when I read your post on starting own starter culture, the ratio of water that you’ve used is not 100g water to 100g flour but rather 100g flour to 150g water or 100g water to 125g flour. If I followed that, would I get a 100% starter? If not what percentage of hydration would that be and how do I come to that? Thanks.
Regards,
Megan
Thanks, Megan! That’s correct, in this process I start with a higher percentage of water in the very beginning when a lot of rye flour is used, but eventually taper down to the same amount of water as flour, making it eventually 100% hydration. If you follow this process you’ll end up with a starter that will work for any recipe here at my website.
Hi, My house is quite dry now in the winter. I plan to keep my starter in the oven with the light on. Would it be helpful to have a pan full of water in the oven as well to bring humidity up?
I leave my starter in the oven, with no pan of water. I live in Chicago where it is also quite dry! You should be just fine w/out the water!
As Kate said below, you should be fine just in the oven!
From what I understand that the starter should have good bacteria like “Lactobacillus”, so that the starter will have a nice pleasant acetic acid smell. If this is the case, why not add some plain yogurt at the beginning of the starter preparation? What is the downside of adding some yogurt on day one? I would appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you and keep up the excellent work you are doing.
I’ve ready about some bakers who do use yogurt but I’ve never done this and have never found it necessary — everything we need (yeast and bacteria) is present on the flour 🙂
Hello! First, thanks for the incredible website. I had attempted twice in the past to begin a sourdough starter using some rudimentary tips from other web posts, and the results were…. hmmm…. pretty disgusting. Being recently retired, I needed a good hobby that others maybe could enjoy, family, friends. The career was in R&D with a lot of chemistry, so baking is a natural. I had already had pretty good results with other bread types, ciabatta from a sponge, baguettes, but sourdough had remained elusive. Your detailed descriptions of “loving” a sourdough starter up absolutely smashed it! I did purchase a Brod and Taylor proofer, and no doubt that helped. With the proper flours, the starter took off first try. I’ve worked through the beginners recipe, a whole wheat recipe, and your favorite “best sourdough recipe” a number of times with nice results, but two things remain that I would like to get by. First, the crust, while I love it, is really thick and tough, and my grandkids (all less than 6 years old) can’t get their teeth around it. I use a pizza stone below the cast iron dutch oven I bake in, and that helped but still tough. Second, often the inside (the crumb?) is a little “wet” feeling on the palate, though it has a great looking structure. Maybe I should reduce the oven temperature as well as give a longer cook time to address both? Dutch oven too hot? Thanks for any insight!
Right on, Bob! Glad to hear all this. With your chem background you’re a natural for sourdough 🙂 To address your crust issues check out my guide to baking in a Dutch oven, this post has several suggestions on how to improve your bake there. I’ve noticed that, in general, baking in a DO will cause the bread to have a slightly thicker, crunchier crust. First off, I’d definitely remove the pizza stone below the DO when baking, it’ll cause the DO to get too hot.
Regarding the damp interior, it could be several things, but likely you need to reduce the baking temperature and try to bake it a little longer. The unfortunate thing about this, though, is that it might make your crust even thicker. Try a few of the suggestions in the link I gave above in combination with increasing the bake time (with lower temperature) to find that sweet spot you’re looking for. You will, it might just take some trial and error!
Hope that helps and sorry for the delay. Have fun!
Pardon me for asking this – did you work in the wire and cable industry? I remember meeting one Bob Overton at one of the International Wire and Cable Symposiums (IWCS) many many years ago. Just curious
Sure did. Optical fiber, first with Bell Labs and then with Alcatel.
Hi, is it normal to see the water separated in the bottom and the grub floats on it? There is fermentation, it doubles volume and I smell a slight sour yeasty smell, so not too worried, but also the starter looks so thin like porridge, I can easily pour it after I stirred it gently (its really fluffy whats on top). I reduced the water with the first feeding on day 2. I used 100% wholewheat flour to start as I did not have rye flour on hands and wasnt able to go get it yet. I will today.
I saw someone mentioning the same thing, and the reply was the starter is probably hungry. So I added 50 grams of flour and it is bubbling happy now. 😀
Great!
Hi! Excellent website, very informative and well written! Thanks a lot! So, I´m from Brazil (Niterói – Rio de Janeiro) and I´m currently on day 9 on my first starter ever, refreshing it twice a day (6am and 6-7pm) with 50g of previous starter, 20g rye flour, 40g AP flour (couldn´t find unbleached), 40g whole wheat and 100g spring water, changing jars every time. The average temperature here was around 25 – 28 ° C (77 – 82°F) and the starter actually rises pretty nice every day, but it is peaking (in terms of rising level) around 4 – 6h after the feeding and desceding to almost initial level after 13h, while your starter peaks in 12h (according to the maintenance page)… Now, after writing all of this, I realized that on the maintenance page you told us that you refresh it with only 20g of mature starter. Could this be the reason? Well, I do want to ask you one more thing anyway: I´ll follow your schedule/recipe to make my first bread this weekend and I was wondering if there´s anything I could make with the 12h deflated starter leftover after taking ~40g for the Levain and ~25g for the starter refreshing (to be put into the fridge) on saturday morning. My 12h deflated starter is very bubbly, smells really nice and has little to no hooch and the discarding seems so wasteful to me. Sorry for the long comment and mixing three guides. Thanks in advance!
Yes, if your starter is peaking faster you can slow things down by reducing the amount of starter you’re keeping around in the jar each feeding. If it’s very warm, you could even go all the way down to 5-10g in the jar (sometimes I even go lower!). Adjust as necessary through the seasons through the year.
I wouldn’t recommend making bread with the saved up leftover starter/levain, but you could make a lot of other very tasty food like: banana bread, waffles, and pancakes.
Hi! I’ve followed your instructions to the “T” even down to the same jars. I’m on morning 5 and there are only bubbles on the top and not on the sides and the starter doesn’t looked to have risen much, if at all. It has a nice sour smell though. Should I just wait until later in the day and hope to see bubbles down the side and some rising activity before I refresh?
Lesley — yes, I’d wait to refresh. What you’re experiencing is normal, though, so don’t get discouraged! Stick with the process and keep some rye flour in the feeding each time until you see more and more activity. Keeping the jar warm will also help, 80-85F would be great (but hard in the winter, I know).
Thank you so much for your prompt reply! I live in Hawai’i, so normally keeping it warm wouldn’t be a problem, but yes I’ve had to keep the jar outside due to the air conditioning. I’m so glad what happened to my starter is normal, because I’ve wanted to learn how to make old world sourdough bread for such a long time. Thank you for your well designed blog with great photos, I’ll be using the beginning sourdough bread recipe as soon as I can!
You bet, happy to help. Keep at it and let me know how it’s going 🙂
Hi Maurizio,
Why do you use two jars and not just discard and top up from the same one like with all of the other starter processes i’ve seen online. Does using a clean jar make a big difference and can i get away with using the same jar?
You can definitely just use the same jar, I just find it cleaner in the beginning to keep swapping in a fresh one. After your starter is up and going, you can use that same jar for quite a while before cleaning (I usually go a few weeks up to a month, depending on how clean I keep it) — I know some bakers who actually never change their jars.
Thanks for the quick response, i’ll see how i get on with 1 jar and swap/clean when it looks like it needs it. Looking forward to making bread with this!
Hi Maurizio — I’m wondering your thoughts on the issue of how “local” we should view our starters. Some people receive or buy a starter sample from some famous locale, say, Naples or San Francisco, and bring it home to use. That’s all well and good, but I’m wondering how long you think that culture retains whatever it is that made it unique to its old location. With local yeasts in our kitchens (air and all surfaces including containers/utensils), outside air, water, and flour — does an established sourdough starter resist all of those intruders and stay “San Francisco” or does it become “suburban Maryland” which might not sound as exotic but could still taste plenty nice?
There seem to be conflicting opinions and research of all this. Some people say they’ve carried the same starter all over the world and it’s retained its unique flavor, and others like King Arthur’s Bakers Companion book and their helpline say any starter is local to that particular kitchen in a matter of a few weeks. Would love your take. Thanks for everything! I’m a happy sourdough baker largely thanks to your website.
My feeling is that your starter, after a sufficient amount of time and number of refreshments (generations), will eventually take on a different mix of bacteria/yeast that’s suited for the temperature it’s kept at, the flour used for feeding, and the rations you maintain. There might be some truth to the fact that “older” starters have a different mix of bacteria/yeast than a “younger” one, but both will work suitably well to leaven dough! In other words, I prefer not to put a lot of weight behind statements saying older starters are “better” than newer ones.
Hi this is my second try with this recipe. The first one became too runny and showed no activities after three days. My second one is on day three, and it is already too runny in texture. Should I reduce water? My starter is in a proofer at 82 degrees now. Thanks.
Sure, you can if you’d like a more firm consistency. Either way!
Hi Maurizio,
I’ve been an infrequent sourdough baker for the last 3+ years. As such, my starter often dies in the fridge from neglect and I find myself having to start a new one from scratch. I wanted to let you know that each time I follow your directions here, I get a stable starter in about 7-8 days. I still get nervous around days 4/5/6 when it seems like not much is going on despite twice a day feedings and then boom, it starts doubling. Day 8 now and it’s just on the counter in my 65 deg F or less kitchen, but I’m confident it will be double again come tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for such a foolproof recipe!
Thanks so much for reporting that, Nivedita!
Hi! I’m on day 6 with my starter, it’s been rising and falling well, but its not making bubbles on top….I wanted it to be made from 100% rye, but I think I’m putting too much in? At each feeding I’m doing 75 g of the old starter, 100 g of rye and 125 g of distilled water. is this correct??
thanks!
Emily — depending on the temperature you have in your kitchen you might be keeping too much of your old starter at each feeding. I’d suggest you try keeping 25g-50g at normal room temp for about 12 hours. Do know that a 100% rye starter will show signs a little differently than 100% wheat, it might have less bubbles and rise less, but it should still show some signs of fermentation (bubbles throughout, a sour smell, some rise, etc.).