When normal people hear the words "homemade sourdough"
they either scoff or shudder in terror.
Sourdough can be some bakers' Mt. Everest. The starter takes time, repetitive care, and a good dose of luck. Some professionals will say that anyone can make a good starter, but they lie. It took me two years and three different apartments in three different parts of the country to get it right.
A successful starter needs:
1. Flour
2. Water
3. 1 week
That's it. Truly. However, there are many problems that can arise in the week between a flour slurry and an aromatic colony of glorious little yeasties.
Sourdough bread gets its flavor from wild yeast that floats in on the breeze and sets up shop in your starter. It can also come from your flour. The yeast takes about a week to grow into an unstoppable force that can only be killed with fire. But in that week, they are vulnerable, like baby bunnies, subject to predatory molds, chlorine, and neglect. Here are some tips from my years of failure to help you succeed!
Tips:
- Use only a sterilized container and sterilized utensils for mixing and keeping your starter. The best way to do this is to run them through the dish washer. If you don't have a dishwasher, just clean them the best you can. Boiling them would work as well, but this is not generally an option for lazy people such as myself. Bottom line, the less contaminants you expose your starter to, the better
- Use ONLY filtered or bottled water. City water usually has chlorine and can kill your critters, and well water may have too high a mineral content and funk up your starter. Filtered water was my key to success.
- Keep your critters warm! 80-85 degrees F is ideal. If they get too cold they won't want to grow. An oven with the light turned on is a pretty good place if your house is too chilly or drafty. Just don't turn the oven on, even its lowest setting will kill your yeasties. Yeast dies at 100 degrees F.
Day 1:
Take a large canning jar or glass container, big enough for 4 cups, and add
1 cup bread flour
1/2 cup filtered water
Mix until thoroughly combined. Cover with plastic wrap. I used plastic wrap under the outer ring of my canning jar. I also drew on a smiley face with fangs and little bat wings, because my starter is a bad ass. This is a good time to name your starter. It is a living thing which you nurture, love, and lose your figure over, so it needs a name. Let sit for 24 hours.
Day 2:
There probably won't be any activity today. It will look pretty much the same as yesterday. If there are weird black or green streaks, this is not normal and those nasty molds have invaded and all your base are belong to them. Start over. Otherwise, let your critters be. Let sit for another 24 hours.
Day 3:
Feeding time! In a separate sterile container, mix up 1/2 cup bread flour with 1/4 cup water until well combined. This is the standard meal for your starter. Toss out half your starter and add the flour/water mixture. Mix them up to give your baby yeasties access to all that new food. Cover with the plastic wrap and let sit for another 24 hours.
Day 4:
There should be some real activity now! There should be some bubbles in the mixture and the starter should have grown and have a smell. It can smell like everything from beer to citrus. If it smells like fish, this is not good. My first starter smelled like fish on day 4, and never made it. Give it a day, but it probably isn't going to take off. Feed your critters per normal. Throw out half your starter and add 1/2 cup bread flour mixed with 1/4 cup water. Let it sit for 24 hours.
Day 5:
Your yeasties should have been getting busy. Your starter should have more bubbles than yesterday and have grown at least some. Maybe it even has a little bubble action on top. If your starter doesn't have bubbles, it could be because it is too cold, or just needs a little more time. Wild yeast can take some time to grow. Toss out half the starter and feed it the 1/2 cup bread flour, 1/4 cup water mixture. Cover and let sit for another 24 hours.
Day 6 and beyond:
From this point on, your starter either sinks or swims. An active starter has bubbles all the way through and has a froth of bubbles on top. It should smell complex, sour, and a little like beer. As the weeks progress, the beer smell will intensify and the flavor of the yeast will intensify and become a glorious creature to be shared with friends and family, or horded like the one ring. My precious.
If the starter is inactive (not bubbly) :
feed as normal every 24 hours until it is active. If this goes on for 2 or more days without any activity, or a dead fish smell starts, your starter is either contaminated or never got off the ground in the first place. Game over, start again. Don't give up! Sometimes you can do everything right and it is all those fickle wild yeasts' fault.
If the starter is active:
Your starter is active when it is bubbly and can double itself in 24 hours. If it can't double itself, it won't be able to raise your bread. Toss out half and feed it the 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup water. Tomorrow, you can make bread! At this point the yeast is unstoppable, only to be killed with fire. Frankenyeast. It is now, officially, mature. When sourdough recipes call for sourdough starter or mature starter, this is what you use.
To make bread with it, the general rule is to feed it 24 hours before you want to bake with it, and feed it after you take out the amount you need to bake with.
Caring for your mature starter -
If you aren't baking bread every day, keep your critters in the fridge. The cool temperatures will slow them down to a manageable level. Feed your starter three times in its first week. After that, once a week is good. No amount of neglect can kill these babies. When you want to bake delicious, delicious bread, take your starter out of the fridge, feed it, and set it some place warm for 24 hours. After you take what you need for the bread from it, feed it and put the starter back in the fridge or it will grow and take over the world. Beware, you have created a monster and it is your responsibility to manage it.
