Skip to main content
Bread

Sourdough Starter

A basic sourdough starter made by feeding flour and water over several days.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 2 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Sourdough Starter

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix ½ cup of the water with ½ cup of the flour in a bowl until smooth.

  2. Cover the bowl with a dish towel in a warm place (~70–80 °F; 20–27 °C) and place in an open, clean spot on the counter to catch wild yeast floating in the air.

  3. On the second day, add ½ cup flour to the mix and enough water to make it like a thick pancake batter. It should have had a few bubbles on the surface before you fed the mix.

  4. On the third day, the starter should have a lot of bubbles all over coming up from deep inside. Feed it again with ½ cup flour and water.

  5. On the fourth day, it should be very bubbly. You can start making bread with it, and then feed the remaining starter again with flour and water.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Feeds wild yeast and bacteria, providing starches and proteins that the culture ferments and grows on.
Water
Hydrates the flour so microbes can move and ferment it, setting the batter's thickness.

The step that matters

Feeding the starter on schedule. Feeding replenishes the flour that yeast and bacteria consume. If the mix is fed too rarely or left too stiff or too runny, the culture can weaken or turn sour and fail to rise. Check for bubbles before each feed.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes