Starting a Starter
Jul 20th, 2008 by SteveB
While bread leavened with baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an integral part of any baker’s repertoire, that repertoire would be incomplete without the complex flavors that can only come from naturally leavened bread. Known as sourdough bread here in the U.S., this type of bread relies on the wild yeast and bacteria naturally present on the grain to provide both leavening and a unique, mildly acidic flavor profile. However, before they can be used in the production of bread, these wild yeast and bacteria first need to be activated and cultured. This is the process of creating a sourdough starter.
Producing a sourdough starter can be a bit tricky if one is not familiar with the way a healthy starter looks and behaves. For this reason, I strongly recommend that a baker’s first experience with sourdough be with a well established starter. Ways in which to obtain such a starter include:
- Asking a friend or local bakery,
- Getting some dried starter, gratis, from Carl Griffth’s sourdough page or
- Purchasing one from King Arthur Flour.
For those who are a bit more adventurous and wish to create their own starter, I’ve detailed the method I use below. There are many different ways to create a starter; there is no one ‘correct’ way. As with many aspects of baking, the best counsel is to use what works best for you.
Day 1
- 50 g Organic medium whole rye flour
- 50 g Unbleached all-purpose flour
- 100 g Water
Mix together the rye flour, unbleached all-purpose flour and water until combined. Organic whole rye provides an excellent source of the yeast and bacteria we wish to culture. If desired, organic whole wheat flour can be used in place of the rye flour. Although tap water will probably be fine if it isn’t too heavily treated, I prefer using spring water. The mixture will resemble lumpy oatmeal:
Let the mixture sit for 24 hours at approximately 80°F. After the first 24 hours, the mixture may have risen considerably. Don’t congratulate yourself just yet! In all probability, you’ve managed to culture Leuconostoc bacteria which, while not generally harmful, is not a genus of bacteria you are looking to propagate. To get an indication if Leuconostoc is present, carefully smell the culture. A putrid smell is a hallmark of the Leucostonoc genus. Fear not! Leuconostoc bacteria will eventually die off under acidic conditions and as the culture develops, it will become more and more acidic.
Day 2
- 100 g Culture
- 25 g Organic medium whole rye flour
- 25 g Unbleached all-purpose flour
- 50 g Water
Discard half of the culture from Day 1 and to the remaining 100 g of culture mix in the rye flour, all-purpose flour and water. This mixture is once again allowed to sit at approximately 80°F for another 24 hours. After this time, the culture has shown signs of rising, then falling:
Days 3-5
Continue with the feeding regimen shown for Day 2 every 24 hours. As the desired yeast and bacteria begin to populate the culture, the culture will drop in pH (become more acidic) and the leuconostoc bacteria will die off. In some cases, it may take longer than 5 days for this to happen. The culture will no longer rise and it may appear as if nothing is happening within the culture. Be patient. Just keep on the previous feeding regimen until you once again begin to see small bubbles forming within the culture.
Day 6
- 100 g Culture
- 50 g Unbleached all-purpose flour
- 50 g Water
At this point, enough yeast and bacteria have been activated so that rye flour is no longer needed. Mix the culture, all-purpose flour and water and again let sit at approximately 80°F. Continue this regimen but shorten the time between feedings to every 12 hours. After a few more of these 12 hour feedings, you should have a very active, bubbly and pleasantly yeasty-smelling sourdough starter.
Because a sourdough starter is a living thing, it needs to be continually fed on a regular basis or it will die. Some choose to refrigerate their starter in between feedings as a way of extending the time between feedings. I prefer to simply feed my starter on a twice daily basis. Since I prefer a firm starter (50% hydration), I feed my starter every 12 hours using the following formula:
- 25 g Starter
- 50 g Unbleached all-purpose flour
- 25 g Water
The starter is kept at around 72°F in between feedings. Using this protocol, I am able to keep a relatively small amount of starter on hand and only build up the quantity of starter needed when I wish to bake bread. This keeps the amount of discarded flour to a minimum.
hi,
I am making a starter and I am following your recipe, so far it is going very well.
When the starter is finisht what is the amount of starter I use when I want to bake bread?
can I bake any tipe of bread that I want?
Hi Ori,
Each bread described on this website includes a formula which says how much starter, if any, is used to make the bread.
can I replace tha amount of yeast whith the same amount of starter?
Ori,
For most breads, baker’s yeast can be replaced by sourdough starter, although the flavor and texture of the bread may change. A bit of experimentation is needed to determine the optimum amount of starter to use.
Hi, Steve, thank you very much for this website and for article on sourdough starter, i’ve been baking bread at home 5 years for now, but only now became brave enough to start with starter. I started it with orange juice for 2 days (fresh loaf formula), but then found your website and switched to water, now i am on day 8 and feeding my starter with formula 100/50/50, i read through comments and other posts, that starter should be mature for the end of 12 h cycle, but mine rises and starts to fall in 4-5 hours with ambient t around 22-23C. Could you be so kind to advise me how to proceed? to decrease amount of culture? find cooler place? or just keep feeding. Thank you again and sorry if i missed similar question and answer somewhere on your blog.
Hi Daria,
A temperature of 22-23°C is pretty much where you want to be. I would try decreasing the amount of starter used during the feeding to get closer to a 12 hour cycle. In addition to the starter rising to its maximum volume and just beginning to fall at the end of the cycle, it should also have a ‘clean’, slightly acidic aroma and taste.
Hi, Steve, thank you very much for so prompt answer, i didn’t write about smell, because i am not sure… it’s definitely a little acid, but few days ago seemed to be a little vinegar-like, now less and i cannot describe it properly. If there is any possibility that other bacterias “bad” still inhabit the starter? It looks very much like your first picture with same “wave” of larger bubbles on a surface after 12 hours. Looking from side of the bowl i can see 1-1,5 cm of traces, left by growing and falling starter, in total it increases in volume almost 3 times. Thank you!
Daria,
It sounds like your starter is ready to use for baking!
Thank you! so tomorrow i try to do your pain au levain, my first sourdough bread) thanks again for website and help, it’s the most clear blog on bread baking i’ve ever seen, please keep it alive!
Steve, thanks for all the great info on your site.
I’m on day 6 with my starter and everything looks great, it’s active and vigorous and taking well to feedings. I’m going to bake tomorrow, but I do have a question:
At what point in the feeding cycle should I measure out the starter for baking? Should I wait until the starter has ‘calmed down’ and leveled out? Or should I measure it out just after feeding, or somewhere in between?
Thanks!
Sorry, I think I found the answer in a previous comment. I should be using the starter when it’s most active, and just about to ‘collapse’. Yes? Thanks!
Hello!
How would I make this 100% hydration? I’m a little confused.
Kevin
To expand, would the feeding ratio be
1 starter: 2 water: 2 flour
or 1:1:1?
Hi Kevin,
A 100% hydration starter results from a feeding ratio in which equal weights of water and flour are used. Thus, both a 1:1:1 and a 1:2:2 ratio would result in a 100% hydration starter. The weight of starter used in the feed ratio, along with the temperature at which the starter is held, determines the time it takes for the starter to reach maturity. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
I stumbled across your site when researching how to make a starter. I am hoping to use it to make pane al-cioccolato. I am just now onto day two and completed my first feeding. The recipe I was going to use it in requires 50% hydration starter and I would like to continue using 100g of starter at each feeding (rather than drop down to just 25g) so I can have enough on hand to make 2 batches of bread (recipe requires, I believe, 28g ish of started for one batch) without completely depleting my stash of starter. So my question is (and this may be a stupid question) if I started with 100g of starter and want to get it to 50% hydration, do I add 100g of flour and 50g of water at feeding time after day 6?
Hi Lauren,
If I understand your question correctly, you have 100g of 100% hydration starter and wish to convert it to 50% hydration on your next feeding.
Your initial 100g of 100% hydration starter is composed of 50g of water and 50g of flour. Your endpoint of 160g (100g for further feeding and 2x30g for your double batch of bread) of 50% hydration starter is composed of 53g of water and 107g of flour. Therefore you need to add 53-50=3g of water and 107-50=57g of flour to your 100g of 100% hydration starter to make 160g of 50% starter.
Hi again!
I finally started this recipe on Monday, and so far its looking pretty good. (on day 3) Well-smelling pretty bad like cheesy vomit, but yeah. 🙂
I have some questions regarding usage and maintenance.
1) True or false? At any point in time, I can simply store any amount of starter (as in I can remove any amount to reach my desired amount of mother starter) as long as I maintain an adequate feeding ratio.
2) With a mature starter, (and assuming this was just taken out of a fridge) how can I tell when it can be used for baking? Do I feed it, then let it double? And after I use the starter, with the remaining mother starter do I feed it again and let it rest for a bit at room temp before returning to the fridge?
3) In your response to my last post, you said that amount of starter in the feeding ratio determines time to reach maturity. So say I had 20 g of mother starter and I just took it out of the fridge. I need 120 g of starter for a recipe. Am I restricted to a specific feeding ratio of 1:1:1? or can I do 1:3:3, 1:4:4 etc? if I am not restricted, if I decide to use higher amounts of flour/water will it take longer to mature before baking? Another extension of this question is, if I started out with simply more starter, like 50 g rather than 20 g from the fridge, will maturing for baking just take longer? (maturing= doubling in size after a feeding/resting time of xx (typically 12) hours?)
I apologize for the long long questions. I just am very nervous/excited about this! I just want to make sure I do it right. I so badly want to try making sourdough baguettes. I even named my starter after my cousin (Michelle). She’s quite disturbed.
Kevin
Kevin,
When starter is stored in the refrigerator, its activity becomes substantially diminished. To bring the starter back to maximum activity, I recommend taking it through at least 3 feeding cycles before it is used to bake bread. It is for this reason that I usually take my starter out of the refrigerator and start feeding it at least 1 1/2 days (3 x 12 hours) before baking bread.
A starter can be judged as being mature when, a certain period of time after feeding, the starter reaches its maximum volume (i.e., it is just beginning to recede). That period of time is determined by such factors as temperature and the amount of starter used in comparison to the amount of flour and water added during the feeding. Regarding feeding ratios and times, this is an area with which I encourage you to experiment. See what feeding regimens fit best within your schedule and give you the qualities (flavor, acidity, etc.) you are looking for in your bread.
Thank you! And fyi, it’s smelling nicely yeasty now. looking forward to baking with it
My first Sourdough breads were Dmsnyder’s San Joaquin Sourdough Baguettes- SUCCESS! Here is the link where I posted pics of it, username is KQBui: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32906/san-joaquin-sourdough-baguettes?page=1 T
Thank you for this very helpful guide. I find the pineapple/grape thing far too fussy and complicated. This guide gets straight to the point. Nothing fancy but effective.
I have another question-can I “convert” starters from rye starter to white starter, white to WW, etc? Would I just have to change the feeding mix? Would I have to let it feed on this specific mix for a few days? I would love to try txfarmer’s 36 hour baguete rye-starter variation.
Kevin,
A starter can be ‘converted’ simply by changing what it is being fed over a number of feeding cycles.
Hello! I have a Peter Reinhart starter(75% hydration) according to his book, and it has been fed all whole wheat. My family is a bit sensitive to the sourness of bread but we have been trying to convert to a whole grain and sourdough based bread. However, they are so used to the sweetness of white flour, so I have been trying to find different ways to mask the sourness of the sourdough. One thing that keeps popping up is reducing the hydration level of the sourdough starter and keeping at cooler temperatures as well as trying to catch the starter right at or before it reaches its “peak.” My starter is only 1-2 weeks old, and I actually have to refresh it for the first time tonight. Since it’s a young starter, would you recommend feeding it normally according to my book as the 75% starter till its a bit more mature and stable before trying to convert it 50%? (I understand my first few loaves by using a relatively new starter is expected but I find I need to make necessary adjustments so I can get better results that my family will eat instead of throwing away bread that they won’t eat).
Also, I have never seen anyone convert their whole wheat starters down to 50% hydration. Everyone uses white flour, but I am sticking to whole grain. So, when I make the conversion down to 50% what would you recommend if I continue with whole wheat? Is there certain things to expect or adjust? Thanks so much!!!