Making your own sourdough starter

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It's not wizardry, witchcraft, alchemy or part of the Dark Arts. It's not sorcery or voodoo, conjuration or sortilege. It's not wonderworking or thaumaturgy.

But making your own sourdough starter is very rewarding....and so astoundingly simple. Providing you follow the rules and understand a little about what is going on. 

Sourdough has become very fashionable. It costs more than the usual breads, but then again, it's a little more labour intensive and takes longer to produce from start to finish. 

Sourdough bread is also a healthier option. If helps keep your gut bacteria happy, it's nutritious and more digestible. Further more, it also helps to keep blood sugar spikes under control. 

Once made, your sourdough starter will last indefinitely. 

Let's assemble your equipment.

You'll need:

Two glass jars - I use one-litre Mason jars.

A spatula (or 'last-lick')

A set of kitchen scales

A long thin spoon to stir the starter

Two very clean jam jars with good lids. 

A bag of rye flour

A bag of strong white flour

Water that is not too heavily chlorinated. (If your tap water is heavily chlorinated, boil some and let it go cold. Alternatively, use a bottle of cheap spring water)

A measuring container or jug

A scrap of paper and a pen. 

You'll also need five minutes a day for the next seven days.

I usually make up a small chart which I keep handy. I'll show you an example at the end if you want to copy it or print it off. 

Of course, it goes without saying that everything should be scrupulously clean. 

The recipe calls for the starter to be kept in a warm place. It doesn't need to be hot - a normal kitchen temperature will do nicely. 

DAY ONE

Put 150 gms of rye flour and 125 ml of water into a jar and stir thoroughly. Cover it lightly with a piece of kitchen roll and leave in a warm place for 24 hours

DAY TWO

Give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of strong white flour and 50 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with a piece of kitchen roll and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day One into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

DAY THREE

Give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of rye flour and 50 gms of strong white flour and 115 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with a piece of kitchen roll and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day Two into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

DAY FOUR

Today, you're going to feed the starter TWICE.

In the morning, give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of rye flour and 50 gms of  strong white flour  and 115 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with kitchen roll and put somewhere warm for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day Three into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

In the evening, repeat the whole process. 

Give the morning's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of rye flour and 50 gms of  strong white flour  and 115 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with kitchen roll and put somewhere warm for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from the morning into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

DAY FIVE

By now, you should be seeing some activity in the ferment / starter. You should be seeeing bubbling. If you're not, don't worry, it'll happen. Patience is everything. 

In the morning, give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of rye flour and 50 gms of  strong white flour  and 115 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with kitchen roll and put somewhere warm for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day Four into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

DAY SIX

In the morning, give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 75 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of rye flour and 50 gms of  strong white flour  and 115 ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with kitchen roll and put somewhere warm for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day Five into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

DAY SEVEN

In the morning, give yesterday's mix a stir. Then, in a separate jar, tip in 50 gms of the mix from the previous day and add 50 gms of  rye flour, 50 gms of strong white flour and 100  ml of water. Give it a stir, cover with kitchen roll and put somewhere warm for 24 hours.

Empty the jar from Day Six into the food recycling or general bin and wash out the jar. 

By now, you should be seeing a regular pattern in the rise and fall of your starter and in the way bubbles appear. If your starter was slow to fall into the pattern, you could continue the process for a further day. If your starter has been active, you're nearly ready for baking. 

You now have 250 gms of starter. 

Take 100 gms of starter and put it into a clean jam jar. Seal the lid and put it into the freezer. The starter keeps very well and should you have a disaster in the next few months, you'll always have a starter than can be thawed out and re-engerised (or fed) without having to spend a whole week making a new starter or ferment. Once thawed, all it will need to re-energise it will be a feed of 100 gms of white flour, 100 ml of water, a stir and for it to be left in a warm place for 24 hours. 

Once you're prepared the amount for 'hibernation',  you'll be left with 150 gms of starter. 

Depending on the amount of starter you need.....for my mix in the Sourdough section of 'Your Guide to the Recipes' (left hand side of Home page)...you'll need 160 gms of starter. 

So, take the 150 gms of starter and add 100 gms of strong white flour and 100 ml of water. Stir, cover and put somewhere warm until the next day. 

On the following morning, you'll have 350 gms of starter. By the way, you might read the starter being called 'ferment' - it's the same thing. 

Use the quantity of starter that you need for your recipe, but don't discard the remainder. 

Put the remainder in a jar with a well-fitting lid and place it in the refrigerator. The starter will hibernate until you need it for your next bake. Try to ensure that you always have at least 100 gms of starter in the fridge. 

TEN BASIC RULES

1.  Always take your starter out of the fridge 24 hours before you intent to bake. 

2. Decant 100 mls of starter into a jar, add 100 mls of strong white flour, 100 ml of water. Stir, cover with kitchen roll and leave for 24 hours in a warm kitchen. 

3. Wash out the jar you've taken from the fridge. 

3. By the next morning, your starter is ready to use. Retain 100 gms if starter for the clean jar from the fridge and pop it back into the fridge (into hibernation) until next time. 

4. ALWAYS try to bake weekly. A starter should be used within 7 days or it may well start to deteriorate. If you leave it a couple of days more, you should be OK, but baking every two weeks is not going to do your starter any good at all. 

5. If you can't bake weekly, at least take your starter out of the fridge, feed it with 100 gms flour / 100 gms water - leave it for 24 hours and then decant 100 gms back into the fridge The starter is a living thing,,,it needs feeding and it needs attention, even if you can't always find the time or the need to bake with it. 

6. If you go on holiday, pop the starter into the freezer. It'll have a good long sleep while you're away and then you can wake it up and feed it on your return. 

7. The longer you keep your starter, the better it'll be. You'll read about bakers who have been using the same starter for decades - handed down from baker to baker. You'll see people selling ten or twenty year old starters on the internet. 

8. If you find your bread develops a slight taste of vinegar, this is the acetic acid building up in the starter. Many people find this to be the true taste of sourdough, hence its name. Personally, I found my early starters a little too vinegary for my taste. The solution is simple. Keep your starter slightly loose and the acetic acid doesn't build up. A stiff starter tends to transfer a stronger 'sour' taste to the dough. 

9. Remember that sourdough starter is a combination of bacteria and wild yeasts from the air and the flour. Normal 'instant yeast' works in a totally different way. 

10. Aged starters produce bread with significantly more 'holes' (an open crumb) than new starters. Even after four or five bakes, you'll notice the improvement in the crumb. 

Happy baking.....