How To Make a Sourdough Starter at Home.

Learning How To Make a Sourdough Starter is one of the most satisfying kitchen jobs. Watching the starter come to life and knowing there is some great sourdough bread to come. Spring and summer are ideal time to start the process. The warmer air temperature and abundant of natural yeasts helps the process along. Yes, it can go wrong, but with a few simple steps it becomes a lot more reliable.

I think making a starter and then the bread is a little like gardening. It’s a living thing that needs nurturing to grow and succeed.  You watch the dough grow and mature and finally develop into a grown-up loaf. Good bread is fundamental in the kitchen, and nothing makes better toast than a sourdough loaf.

How does bread work?

When making bread we need natural gasses and steam in the dough to expand in cooking and force the dough to rise and give us a light texture to the loaf. In most cases we use yeast added to the dough to feed on the carbohydrate in the flour and give off carbon dioxide. This is trapped in the dough and provides the lift.

Not all bread however needs yeast, flatbreads like chapati rely on steam created by cooking a fierce heat. Soda bread uses bicarbonate of soda activated by buttermilk or yoghurt. Traditional Naan bread used natural yeasts to ferment and produce the gas. I like most people put a little fast action yeast in the mix to seep things up a bit.

We have not totally lost touch with the past, today sourdough bread is tremendously popular and has numerous advantages.  It will go stale slower, has a better flavour, creates a great crust, and no additives. The entire process is completely natural only using air born yeasts to make the starter.

How to Make a Sourdough Starter.

If you have had children making a sourdough starter will be second nature, regular feeds, cleaning and a bit of love are all that’s needed. The Sourdough Starter is a combination of flour and water, which, when mixed together, activates and produces carbon dioxide bubbles. This chemical reaction helps bread rise. I also like to add a little live Bio Yoghurt to help boost the process.

You will need: –

• Suitable containers, 2 x 1lt Kilner jars or similar are ideal.
• Scales
• Small measure
• Something the mix the starter with.
• The flour mix, I use a 2 to 1 mix of white and rye bread flour.
• Mineral water
• Live bio yoghurt

What flour to use?

You will get the best results with unbleached flour, but to get started you can use what to have in the cupboard. Make sure the flour is strong bread flour, not ordinary plain (soft) flour used for cakes and pastry.

I like to use a mixture of white and Rye flour mixed in two parts white to one Rye. If you want to use all white flour that’s fine, but you may only need 50ml of water for each mix depending on your flour. The Rye flour adds a sweetness to the starter and produces a good fermentation.

You can still make a white sourdough loaf with this starter. The Rye will just enrich the bread a little

Temperature.

Yeast cells lie dormant at 0˚c and will be active right up to 49˚c when they will die. At the temperatures in between the yeasts will feed and grow. The best working temperatures are between 21 to 28˚c, I aim to have the water for the starter at about 32˚c to 38˚c. The flour will be a little cooler so when mixed with the water we should be near the optimum temperature for the process to begin.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter – the best water.

I had difficulty in first getting my starter to work. At that time, I was using mains water, and I noticed that it sometimes had a whiff of chorine. Now this might have been due to our rural location, but a high chorine content will spoil the reaction.

To get around this, use a water filter or leave a jug of water uncovered for 24 hours. If you’re in a hurry boiling, then cooling the water will also reduce the chorine. I find I get the most reliable results by using mineral water. Remember to have the water at about 32˚c to 38˚c in order to get the fermentation going.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter – The process.

This will take about six days, but it will vary depending on the time of year and the room temperature. It’s important the keep the starter out of the fridge until fully developed. If it’s the hight of summer and your kitchen is like an oven you may need to use the fridge to slow things down a bit.

Don’t be overly worried if your starter reacts a little differently to the recipe. Your conditions will be different to mine, the air born bacteria needed will be different according to where you live. And that’s the beauty of it your, sourdough is unique to you.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter – Mixing the starter.

Measure the flour mix into a clean bowl and add the water slowly and mix to form a firm batter. This method should avoid lumps of unmixed flour in your starter. Once you have a smooth batter work in the remainder of the flour and the yoghurt, you should finish up with a consistency like half-whipped cream. Spoon the mixture into your proving jar without spilling it down the sides of the jar.

Remember not to close the lid of the jar, if you’re worried about fruit flies or dust getting into the jar drape a sheet of muslin over the jar. Find a nice warm place out of direct sunlight to store the jar and just leave it to do its thing.

Use the chart below to monitor your starter, print it off and stick it onto the fridge door to guide you through the process.

On days one and two, not much will have happened. By day three bubbles should be visible in the starter, and it will have expanded up the jar. 

On day four we now remove half of the mix and feed it with fresh flour.  This discard can be thrown away, but keep the discard produced on day five. This can be used to make other sourdough products like sourdough crumpets.

By day six your starter should be ready for use. If its bubbling but not really active, repeat the twice daily feeds for a day or two. Don’t expect your starter to react the same as a friends. Ingredients, location and the time of year all have influence on how a sourdough develops.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter – Schedule.

Makes roughly 500g of starter

Day 0ne	Day Two	Day Three	Day Four	Day Five	Day six
Mix 75g flour blend With 90ml water and 1tsp bio yoghurt   Mix and add to jar.   Leave 24 hrs.	Add 75g flour blend With 90ml water and 1tsp bio yoghurt .     Give the starter a stir and Leave 24 hrs.	Mix 75g flour blend with 90ml water.   Mix in half of the old starter and pour into a clean jar.   Discard the remaining old starter.       Leave 24 hrs	In the morning Add 40g flour blend with 3tbsp water.   Add to starter And mix well in. Leave 12 hrs   ….     In the evening   Mix 40g flour blend with 3tbsp water.   Add to starter And mix in well Leave 12 hrs	In the morning Mix 40g flour blend with 3tbsp water. Mix in half of the old starter and pour into a clean jar. Leave 12 hrs …. Add a tbsp. of flour into the discard, put into a clean jar and pop into the fridge …. In the evening   Mix40g flour blend with 3tbsp water.   Add to starter And mix in well Leave 12 hrs	Mix 40g flour blend with 3tbsp water.   Add to starter And mix well in.   The starter should be ready for use. See below for ongoing storage.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter – storage

If you love to bake frequently, keep the starter in a cool part of the kitchen and feed it each day as part of the baking process

Once the starter is ready for use, you can keep it in the fridge . Remember to close the lid and put it in the colder part of the fridge.  The cold will put the yeasts to sleep but not kill them. If you are not baking that week, feed the starter twice a week with 50g of flour mix and 50ml of water. Remove half of the old starter on the second feed to keep everything fresh. And use a clean storage jar.

I like to do the second feed on a Sunday morning and use the discard to make my Sourdough Crumpets.

Long Term storage.

It’s even possible to dry your starter and store it in a sealed jar for 6 months or more.

Thinly spread the starter onto a non-stick baking mat and leave to dry. It’s a good idea to leave the tray in the oven to keep the fruit flies away. Don’t turn the oven on, you will kill the yeasts. If you can turn on the oven light on without the element it’s an effective way of drying out and stubborn damp spots.

Once the starter is completely dry lift it off the mat and break it into pieces. Store the pieces in an airtight container in a cool dry place. You could also use a vegetable dehydrator to do this if you have one at home.

Or Just Freeze It.

It’s also possible to freeze the starter in ice cube trays. This is great if you are going away for a couple of weeks and have nobody to tend to it. It should be fine in the freezer for up to six weeks. Whichever method you use the preserved starter to begin a new batch of starter. Don’t try and use it directly to make sourdough products.

You should be able to keep your sourdough starter alive for years, it will become part of the family.

There are even sourdough groups who will take your starter on a holiday and look after it if you are going away for a break.

Now we have our starter up and ready to go its time to make some bread!!!!

F.A.Qs.

Enjoy Life!

John.

©John Webber2025