Simple Sourdough

No-Bullsh#t Bread

Starter: No-BS

Sourdough Starter

What the hell is a sourdough starter?

It's goop. Sticky, bubbly, goop made of flour and water.

It's your yeast. It's natural, and you're about to grow it - unlike the fast-acting, dried stuff that goes into ultra-processed bread.

Top tip

I use rye wholemeal flour for this bit, because you get turbo-bubbles. You can use plain flour, or bread flour, but it might take longer because it's less bacteria-ey. Don't use 00 grade pizza flour, and definitely don't use self raising. Absolutley avoid bleached stuff.
We want au naturel - full of the bacteria we need.

Ingredients

Instructions

Get a clean jar. (Here's the set I use). Put in the flour and water, and mix it to a gloopy paste.
Rest the lid on top of the jar (don't screw it on), leave it on the counter or a shelf or whatever, then let it brew for a day.
You can get lost now.

The next day, do it again. Just shove another 50g water and 50g flour on top and mix it in, then drop the lid on top (don't screw it on - like, ever), then leave it alone to brew for another day. Get lost again.
(You'll start to notice a theme that involves you getting lost. You'll do 3 mins of work, then you're not needed, so go away).

You know what you did yesterday? Do it for another two days.
Yes, that means you'll have a lot of goop in your jar. We'll deal with that.

WTF is happening? Is it working? Am I doing it right? Yes, yes you are. Yes, the jar filling up is normal, and yes, it stinks.
What you're doing is 'feeding' your starter.
You mix the water and flour and leave it, and the bacteria in it starts to do its thing. Bubbles will form. The top will rise!

...and then it'll start to deflate. Awww. No problem, it happens to everybody. Just feed it again.

By the 5th day it's probably bubbly and stinks of puke or alcohol or both, and there's tons of it.
So, today we will chuck away all but 50g.

Yes, really. Now add 50g water, and 50g flour, and mix it to a gloopy paste again. Drop the lid on top.
Can you guess what's next? That's right - be gone, wretch! See you tomorrow.

Is it tomorrow already? Awesome.
All being well, you now have about 150g of bubbly starter, a lot like the image at the top of the page.
If so, go and bake some Bread.

Now, you will note that the recipe demands 100g of starter. This will leave you with 50g.
Add 50g water and 50g flour. Mix. Drop lid on top. That's it fed, so leave it alone. Sometime in the next 8-24 hours it'll be bubbly and ready to go again.
Tomorrow, take out another 100g of starter and either bake with it or chuck it away... that's right, discard it, because that's your Discard.
Then feed it by adding 50g water and 50g flour and mix, drop on the lid, leave it, and go away - because you've fed it.

And thus, the cycle is born and will continue for as long as you keep it going.

Congratulations! You've done it - you have a sourdough starter. Have a cookie!
No, I don't have a sourdough cookie recipe for you.


More info: the BS, tips, and reassurance

So what have you just done? Well, you've taken some flour which naturally contains bacteria, and you've mixed it with water and you've left it to ferment and create yeast so that when you bake with it, your bread rises.
Why do we want our bread to rise? Well, if it doesn't, it's a pancake. I assume you're here because you want a loaf.

It takes a few days to get your starter going from scratch, but once it's bubbling, rising and deflating, you've pretty much done it.

When is it ready to use?

The water test: after day 5, when your starter is at peak bubbles and risen as high as it goes in the jar, just drop a teaspoonful of it into a glass of lukewarm water.
Did it float?
If it did, it's ready. If it didn't, it might need a few more days of feeding to get it going.

I still don't understand what feeding is

Yeah, I didn't either. Honestly, it's just a stupid name for topping up your starter mix, after you either use, or throw some out.
It's feeding because your mixture contains live bacteria and you are literally feeding them.
...well, you're feeding the ones left behind, because you've callously dicarded, or murdered-by-baking all the rest...

Why the hell don't we screw the lid on

Because the bubbles contain gas, and if you seal the jar the pressure will build, and if you really screw it up and have too much starter and gas it might explode. Only screw it on when you put it in fridge, and even then, not tight. You do not want an air seal.

On that note: the fridge?

Yeah so your starter will bubble and rise beautifully when it's warm, but maybe you don't want to bake every day, or even every week.
Well, just store it in the fridge - the fermentation slows to a crawl, and it can stay in there for weeks - months even! However. When it comes out, it won't really be usable, so you'll have to discard a bit, feed the rest, and give it a while to come back to life before you can bake with it. If you leave it for too long, it'll get a layer of dark, absolutely rancid smelling fluid forming over the top. This is called 'hooch' and it's basically moonshine. Don't drink it, ya filthy animal; just stir it in for tangy flavour or pour it off and down the sink.

Sometimes it rises fast after a feed and sometimes it's feeble. What did I do wrong?

Nothing. The bacteria in the starter likes warmth. In the summer I found mine was epic, but now the weather is getting cooler, it's not so fizzy. Sometimes I'll put mine in the utility room near the tumbledryer, if I want it to hurry up and bubble after a feed. Or on the counter over the dishwasher overnight. Gentle heat only - obviously don't microwave it or cook it. Direct sunlight has a pretty decent effect.

What's going on with the 50g/50g/50g amounts

So it might seem like a lot to discard, or it might seem like it's not enough to do anything. That amount is just what you need for the bread recipe on the Bread page.
It doesn't have to be 50g, in fact for pizza you'll make a whole bunch more - but just remember the golden rule: The ratio of starter:water:flour is 1:1:1

Holy hell, but that smell

But yes, the pungent smell is normal. Early on in the first days you might get a pukey smell too - also normal.
Eventually it's just pungent - you'll soon work out what passes for normal.

Even with the option to store in the fridge, this seems like a lot of work

It's not. And if you miss a day or two you won't kill anything but the starter will go dormant and stop doing things.

If you find it's gone mouldy, specifically if you have nasty pink or orange crap, you've screwed it, and it's poisonous.
Throw it away, wash the jar properly and start again.

I'll add some photos soon, so you know what we're dealing with.

Summarise what I'm doing from here onwards?