10 Day Journey to a Sourdough Starter

I started my sourdough journey well over a year ago. I found the idea of “growing” my own wild yeast and good bacteria for leavening bread fascinating. It sounded like a cool science experiment that ended with delicious bread and other baked goods to eat. The long fermentation process of sourdough can also make the bread easier to digest. As usual, when I get interested in a new topic, I dive in head first, gathered information and started mixing up my own sourdough starter, thinking how hard could it be? Well it took forever!!! Weeks and weeks of feeding it everyday, not seeing much for results, and wondering if I was doing something wrong. I would stare at it, wondering if it looked like it was growing, searching for various discard recipes to use the “buckets” of discard I was creating. I tried several times to make a loaf of sourdough, only to produce something that didn’t rise and looked like the offspring of a rock and a breadstick.

Finally, I took a break, stuck it in the fridge, and fed it once a week. After several weeks, I finally found the urge to try again, pulled it back out of the fridge, and low and behold I quickly had a sourdough starter that would easily double in size. It was a gooey monster that I aptly named Venom.

At some point I started posting about what I was making. As I have said before, I like making whatever I can, whether it be bread, a bed, or a backpack rack. I love sharing my making journey to help others realize that it isn’t hard and they can do it too. In the case of getting a sourdough starter going though, it did seem a little hard, or at least frustrating, so after getting lots of questions I decided to do it again.

Meet Hulk. Hulk is my second batch of sourdough starter and he was born in 10 days. It was soooo much easier this time around and I took plenty of notes so that it can be easy for everyone else too. Follow along and in about 10 days, you can enjoy some fresh sourdough bread as well.

THINGS YOU NEED

• Bread flour. Let me say that again - BREAD FLOUR. With Venom, I thought, I don’t need no stinkin’ fancy flour, I can just do this with all purpose flour. Don’t try it. Bread flour has a higher gluten content and that is what the little buggers in the sourdough starter need to feed on. It will help you be successfully and you will want it in the end for making delicious bread. If you have a Costco membership, you can get a 7lbs bag of King Arthur bread flour for super cheap. (You can use whole wheat or rye flour as well. Just don’t use all purpose flour unless you like a real challenge.)
• A container for your starter to live in. I like to use a Ball 1 Quart Wide Mouth Mason Jar. Actually I have two so that once one gets a bit messy I can switch to the other one. Mason jars have some drawbacks. The main one being the threads for the lid can get all gummed up with flour. Whatever you get, make sure it holds at least 2 cups so that your sourdough dough has room to grow.
• Cheese cloth and a rubber band. This is what is going to cover your container. I picked up these 15x15 precut cheese clothes off Amazon. With my first try, I just put the mason jar lid on loosely, but with the cheese cloth you can keep the bad stuff from getting in, but it will allow lots of air to get in as well, which is where the good bacteria and yeast lives that we want to take up residence in our starter.
• Get a food scale, trust me. We have an older version of this Taylor Glass Top Food Scale on Amazon. This was another thing that I didn’t think I needed to bother with the first go around, but guess what? Not only is it more accurate, but it also means less dishes to wash. Yep, I bet I just sold you with that last tid bit. Instead of using tablespoons, teaspoons, and measuring cups, you just put everything carefully into a big bowl while watching the scale.
• A discard container. I just use one or two of these 2 Cup Rubbermaid containers. As you feed your starter you are going to discard some as well. If you didn’t, your starter would get huge and you would be feeding it a lot of flour to keep it going. Instead we discard some, but there is no need to throw it away. The internet is full of discard recipes to use that combination of flour and water that you are removing. I like to use this discard pancake recipe. It tastes great and uses up an entire cup of discard.
• I would highly recommend using filtered water. I just use what comes out of the fridge filter, but some people use a Berkey for filtering their water. (I've never used a Berkey, but they seem to be populate if you don't have great tap water.) In the end, you are probably just fine using what comes out of your tap so I will count this one as optional but helpful.
• Lastly, you may also want to get a silicon jar spatula for scraping down the sides of your container and mixing. A jar spatula has a longer handle and narrower end for cleaning up the inside of you container, especially if you are using a jar. I just use a spoon, but I also end up annoying my wife when a spoon comes out of the dishwasher with some sourdough starter cemented to it.

That’s it. It's not much of a shopping list to get you started on your way to fresh, delicious, sourdough bread. Now let’s dive into a few tips.

TIPS

• It’s best to pick the same part of the day each day to feed your starter. It may be the morning, it may be at night. Try to be consistent. One thing to note on this, if you decide to feed your starter before bed, you are most likely going to miss it increasing in size as you sleep. We want it to double in size, but it doesn’t stay doubled in size, it goes up and then goes back down. If you are sleeping you may get up in the morning and think nothing happened, especially if your container is a bit messy already so you can't see the residue on the sides from it rising at night.
• You’re going to miss a feeding, it happens. Just don’t forget for too long. When you don’t feed your sourdough it sits stagnant and can start to grow mold or harmful bacteria. If you see something on the surface, then it’s time to throw it out and start over.
• Watch for hooch. Hooch is a cloudy liquid on top that is part of the fermentation process. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is a good sign that your starter is hungry. If you see hooch then give your starter an extra feeding.
• Starter likes a warm temp. This means as we get into the cooler and colder months, your house will get colder and it could take longer to get your start going.
• I like to warm my water up in the microwave a tad to take the cold off. Like I said, I use filtered water from the fridge so it is chilled. I’m not trying to get the water hot, I just stick it in for 35 seconds to take the chill off.
• Whether we are taking about starter or the dough, you’ll know when it has risen. I have spent plenty of time staring at both wondering if it had increased is size. Trust me, it is obvious in both cases if it did. You may not be able to tell if it exactly doubled, but you will have no doubt that it increased significantly in size. I have had plenty of times where my starter overflowed the quart size jar and made a mess.

That’s it for the tips. I provide them for guidance in your 10 day sourdough journey, but now it’s time to start that journey so get your container ready!