Last night Laura asked me, “Are you remembering that I posted about how to make sourdough starter last fall?” So I wracked my brains, smacked my forehead, and sure enough, found her instructions for making sourdough starter. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I had completely forgotten!
Here is an alternative method for making sourdough starter that doesn’t use commercial yeast. This method takes a little longer, but will result in a strong, sour starter that will grow happily in YOUR kitchen because it’s growing native yeasts.
The world is full of yeasts. These little beasts are everywhere. There is wild yeast in the air and on most surfaces in your kitchen. If you bake regularly, there is probably a LOT of wild yeast in your kitchen (unless you regularly wipe down every surface with bleach.)
The other place that we find an abundance of wild yeast is on the grains and flours themselves. This wild yeast is the stuff that will allow us to make our own starters without commercial yeast. Commercial yeast tends to be very fragile when it comes into contact with acids. Thus, when the starter begins to produce acids as a part of its feeding and growing process, that commercial yeast will die off pretty quickly. The wild yeasts, however, tend to be heartier and more acid-resistant.
Beginning a starter is relatively simple. Start with a small bowl on your counter with 1/4 c. water and 1/4 c. flour. Stir the flour and water together and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Discard half the starter and feed it equal parts water and flour each day. During the first couple of days, you will probably not see any bubbling or signs of life, but you should still feed it. Within 4 or 5 days, you should see bubbles and signs that things have gone sour.
It might take another week before the starter is sour enough to give you the taste you want in bread, but keep feeding it. After it reaches the sourness and consistency you want, store it in the fridge.
If the starter gets too thick, you can add extra water.
Good luck and let me know how this turns out for you.
Barb
14 Comments
December 31, 2008 at 1:42 am
LOVE your blog. So much great information here!
Have you tried starting your own sourdough starter using freshly ground whole wheat flour? I find that most recipes that call for whole wheat flour are not referring to freshly ground whole wheat flour, and I’m worried that the oils and the bran that is left on the freshly ground flour may affect the “souring” process.
Maybe I’ll just try it and see….
January 22, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I have been reading many of you blog posts, and have found myself very interested in yeasty breads.
I attempted the sourdough starter from scratch (no commercial yeast), and I am having problems.
I bought a glass jar, boiled it, and then let it cool. I added 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup water, mixed well, and let it sit. The next day I discarded half, and fed it again. The third day, I saw it was bubbling alot. I went to do the discarding, and when I took the plastic wrap off, it smelled overwhelmingly of vomit. I thought that couldn’t be right, so I discarded half, and fed it and let it sit again. It smelled even worse day 4. Day 5, all bubble activity ceased, and the smell lingers through the house. My husband is not pleased.
What is it I am doing wrong?
Also, I was given the Amish Friendship Bread starter at work, and I have maintaining and baking that for weeks. It smells just as good as when I got it and makes yummy bread. So, a starter can survive just fine in my kitchen.
Thanks.
January 23, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Jennifer, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but I’m not sure it’s gone WRONG. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order, related to how I proceed when I start a starter (with my vast experience now of TWO starters that I’ve started from scratch myself.)
First, it takes at least 10 days for the starter to be at a point where it’s really going (you don’t want to use it in bread until after 10 days). It DOES smell funny as it’s getting going. Are you keeping the lid on the jar? The smell doesn’t have to linger through the house. (If all else fails, boil some water with cinnamon and cloves after feeding the starter, to waft a nicer smell through the house.)
Second, you do not need to discard half each time you feed it. I think you might actually slow down the process by doing that. What I do is pour off the liquid that is on top (what I call “hooch”) until all you have is the smooth white pasty stuff. Then add your flour and water, mix it in, and re-cover.
Third, if it starts smelling sort of acetone-y (a bit like nail-polish remover) you can add 1/2 c. of plain yogurt. I don’t really know the chemistry behind that, but it takes the edge off that smell. I add yogurt every couple of weeks or so once I have a starter going, just to keep it from getting that bitter smell (which does affect the taste when you use it in bread.)
Don’t worry about whether it’s bubbling or not–it doesn’t keep bubbling furiously after the first several days. As long as you are continuing to feed it and it’s not turning pink (which would be a sign that it’s gone moldy and should be thrown out) it’s fine.
And finally, where are you storing it? It should not be in the fridge, and should also not be in a really really warm place. I keep mine in an ice cream bucket on the counter, and it is very happy there.
Let us know how your starter progresses, won’t you? I hope this is helpful.
Laura
September 12, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Hi, i brew beer, mead and cider from time to time which has given me some experience with yeast, and while i dont know much about sourdough i can tell you that at any given moment there are a whole range of different types of yeast flying through your house, and some of them are good, while some of them are not so good, on top of that when you open the lid you are not only feeding the yeast with flower, you are most likely also feeding them small particles from your breath and things in the air might land in the jar, etc etc any number of things can go wrong, but especially if you accidentally breath down into the jar things can go horrid, im not saying that anything has gone wrong, as i dont have any real experience yet, but if it stinks really bad it could be brewing on the wrong things.
hope this helps,
-Logan
September 12, 2009 at 9:35 pm
i mean flour not flower
December 4, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Do you feed the starter everyday?
June 29, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Hmmm I got confused in the same way at the above commentor. I thought you meant that every day you should throw away half of it and then add in a new 1/4 of flour and water.
You may want to revise the instructions. I’ve been throwing away half of it for several days now.
June 29, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Actually, Andy, I meant the instructions to say just that. If you are USING the starter each day, you don’t need to throw it out. If you aren’t using it, then it needs to be reduced by half each day. I need to review my notes to remember why, exactly, but it has to do with the acidity levels in the starter.
June 29, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Ah, I see. Gotcha.
Oh sourdough starter…so confusing. I’m over my head already.
September 3, 2009 at 2:26 pm
is this regular flour or bread flour
September 3, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I always use bread flour, but regular flour will work too.
Barb
June 29, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Okay, I see what’s going on here. YOu do realize that there are two of us writing this blog, right? My sister said that she didn’t think that it was necessary to discard half the starter each time. Everything I’ve read says differently, so I DO follow the discard-half-each-day plan. I guess you can choose which sister you want to pay attention to! We’ll be good-natured about it because we love each other a lot.
June 29, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Oh no…I didn’t catch that there are two of you.
I was reading your Instructable on sourdough and thought I’d try to make the starter myself. So I’m a real newbie honestly on the ins and outs of sourdough. Now I don’t know what to do, if the experts can’t agree!
I’ve been making the no-kneed bread for a few weeks with great success, but I’ve been wanting some sourdough.
September 12, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Very good point, Logan. If I’m not sure if the right bacteria are proliferating, I start by stirring in a couple of tablespoons of plain yogurt. Very often, that’s all it takes to correct any imbalances. Thanks for adding your thoughts!