How To Make Sourdough Starter

Wow cool starter stories! Thanks for sharing!

My only starter story is that I threw out my first starter. I just wanted to do it once, bake a double batch of bread and that’s it…or so I thought. A few weeks later I felt the urge and made a new starter and haven’t stopped baking since. My vacations are never so long that the fridge unfed time is a problem.

No matter what starter you buy or are gifted … ultimately it becomes “your” starter in that it has the bacteria and characteristics of your location and conditions. So, you can buy SF or Seattle or Alaskan starter, but eventually it will be “Your house” starter.

As far as “sourness”, Melissa’s link and searching will get input on making your starter and bread more or less sour.

At my house, in Northwest Montana, with a starter of a local minimally processed flour and my own well water (untreated, so I assume full of GREAT bacteria!), and a weekly/semi-weekly feed and bake … I have not much sour but a flavor I happen to very much like so have not messed with it. Side note: I keep my house VERY cool at 62-65F Fall-Winter-Spring and as close to that as I can get in the Summer (typically 65-68F). Those cool temps “theoretically” are unfriendly to starter and naturally leavened bread and baked goods. Hah! Not so for me :slight_smile:

You are so right-natural bacteria in the air is what you get to ferment foods-regardless where you live. I so enjoy fermented foods-I have 1 quart sliced cabbage curing for kraut; I’m believer in Kombucha made at home-I make Ginger influenced; Yogurt always and now & then Keifer; and when I was younger I made beer with well water; I’ve never tried fermenting grapes for wine.(but I have friends that do) I always have to check myself-do I love the process & tools or the product? Life is short-just enjoy what you do.

Lol yes, I was keeping kombucha and jun tea going for a while (so fun!) but I really don’t have enough consumers in my house to justify two gallons of fermenting tea every couple of weeks. I decided recently to pull back to just the kombucha. :cry::sweat_smile:

Hi, I probably missed it, but by using this formula what is the hydration or ratio of this starter? Thanks!

I ave not had luck withe maintaining sourdough starter. I am a widow living alone and need pointers for making and maintaining pointers. Thank you. Lissa

Lissa,

Here is a good place to starter learning. oh gosh a bad pun :wink:

I and many others on this board can help if you’ve got specific questions.

Hi eric, now i’m making this sourdough starter. Surprisingly, only for 6 hours, the starter looks bubbly, then for the next 6 hours, the starter has more bubble.
Do i need to skip the 48 hours fermentation and just feed my starter tomorrow morning? Thank you😀

Hi Anthony. Yes, that sounds like the way to go. Good that you’re adapting to what the starter is telling you.

HELP!!! I have tried this 4 different times using unsweetened pineapple juice, exact measurements (by weight) followed by Poland Spring water (no tap or RO waters here!) and barely get any fermentation activity, and ultimately ,dump the effort and try, try again. I’m using King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose flour. Stirring regularly 3-4 x a day. Nothing works! What do you think?

Hi, it’s been about 48 hours in step 2 of the starter. There are little bubbles but it still smells like pineapple juice to me. Should I proceed or not? Thx for a reply!

Starters have phases…

Phase one: initial mix: Mix an equal amount of flour wand water by weight. Do not use bleached flour. Bread flour is fine. Wholegrain flour is better. Wholegrain rye flour is even better. Then there is no need to do anything except keep it warm and wait. You will find after a day or two it’ll have a burst of activity. Only then should one begin the feeds.

Phase two: Start with a daily feeding but don’t overdo it. Once every 24 hours and at a ratio of 1:1:1 is fine. That is 1:1:1 starter:water:flour by weight. Stir well and keep warm. But only feed if you see activity as during this stage you will often find all will go quiet. If there is no activity then skip a feed or two or even three.

Phase three: Getting over the quiet stage… if your starter just slows but shows activity and you time your feedings with the rhythm of your starter then you should find that it might slow down but begin to speed up over the coming days. Very often all will have gone quiet and you’ll have to skip some feeds. If you have skipped some feeds just stir instead and keep warm. Over a few days it will become more runny and the smell should ripen. Once it’s been two or three days and it needs a bit of a boost then you can try another small feed of 1:1:1 and use wholegrain flour. Then continue to wait. But more often then not it’ll begin to show signs of life again. Then you start your regular feeds once more.

Phase four: strengthening… Once your starter comes back to life then you slowly encourage a stronger and healtheir starter by increasing the feed ratio and to twice a day. So you might begin to do 1:2:2 every 24 hours. Then should it show good activity then 1:2:2 every 12 hours. If it does well then try a 1:5:5. Once your starter can be fed at a ratio of about 1:5:5 and it has no issue in peaking in 6-8 hours then it’s a good sign it’s strong and healthy enough to bake with.

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Never mind. I’m feeding this but on the verge of throwing it out. Bubbles, but does not increase in size despite feeding it. I have another starter that is healthy.

What is s typical feed? Can you attach a photo?

Bubbles and no rise usually means the starter is too thin / too watery. Try adding more flour until it thickens up to a more dough-like consistency.

Thank you for replying, Abe. I did throw it out because it wasn’t growing much & because it didn’t smell like a sourdough starter. I do have a nice, thick, & very active starter I’ve been using. For that reason I didn’t care to try and remake another pineapple starter. Not much point, right? I did notice you had another post about a starter so I will study that info. Thanks!

Thanks, Paul. See my reply to Abe. I’m ok with my other starter and even preparing 2 batches for baking today. This is a fun learning process & I appreciate your response!

Thank you so much!
Finally, a sourdough starter, where I don’t have to throw away half of it everyday. I always hated that aspect of starting a new starter. I was feeling very reluctant.
This is my second attempt. My first was 4 years ago, I used unfiltered apple cider and rye flour. It was fine, but I felt guilty at how much I had to throw out, when starting. Sadly, the jar I kept Reggie in (my oldest daughter named it) broke, when I moved across country.
I wanted to get back into making sourdough, but was looking for a way to not be so wasteful. This is perfect.
I am on Step 2, where I just fed the starter and now, need to tend to it 2-3 times a day for the next 2 days. Within one minute of pouring in the pineapple juice, I had a decent head of foam (I hadn’t stirred in the juice, my toddler had made off with my spoon). I stirred in the flour and after a few minutes had little bubbles permeating the surface. It smells wonderful, and has been dubbed “Archibald,” I am excitedly counting down the days till I get to use him.
Thank you so much, again.

Eric, you asked those of us who do not have gazillions of sourdough yeasties floating around our houses to let you know if this pineapple juice starter method worked for us. My answer is YES! I do bake, but haven’t used sourdough for a while. I made four different recipes last week with yeast raised dough, but again, no sourdough. I followed your instructions to a tee, and each step of the way, I had great results. Started it on Monday afternoon, and had such a good starter that today I mixed up a whole grain sourdough bread dough. It has been alternately rising and I’ve deflated it all afternoon. I’m going to refrigerate it overnight and get it ready to bake tomorrow morning.
I am so happy to find that this pineapple juice method works so well! I do have one question. Somewhere on breadtopia I read or heard on one of your videos that you said the wild yeasts you are trying to trap to get a starter going are actually in the flour itself. So why would it matter if everything you own is covered with sourdough yeasties? Doesn’t that seem to be counterproductive? I used freshly ground white whole wheat flour to develop my starter this week, because I mostly bake with whole grains.
So, a big thank you for the pineapple juice starter method! Worked for me!!!

It pains me no end to report my three (count ‘em) miserable failures at using the pineapple method. If need be, my wife will attest to blue haze of profanity that still hovers around the ceiling in the kitchen, even now, weeks later. But, having recovered a semblance of fortitude, I have again gone forth to my local Hannaford supermarket, purchased a six-pack of those tiny cans of Dole unsweetened juice, and a liter bottle of Poland Spring water, and will tackle this monster again in the coming week. As they say, “bulletins as the happen, film at eleven”. :innocent: