Description

This post outlines how to build a sourdough starter from scratch simply and quickly. In less than a week, with minimal effort, you will have a bubbly, active starter on your hands to use in all your favorite sourdough recipes.

Notes:

Adapted from Peter Reinhart’s method, outlined in Perfect Pan Pizza (and many of his other books as well).

If you are looking for guidance on how to feed, maintain, and store your already strong starter, see this post: How to Feed, Maintain, and Store a Sourdough Starter.

5 Tips for Success

Use a scale to measure. It is the only way to measure accurately.
Use a straight-sided vessel, which will help you more accurately see how much your starter is growing.
Attempt this project while it’s hot outside or create a cozy place for your starter to rise:
- Find a warm place in your kitchen (like on top of your refrigerator) to let it rest.
- Invest in the Brod and Taylor Sourdough Home: I do not own this, but it gets good reviews should you have the space for it
- Build your own “sourdough home“: one of you ingeniously made a homemade proofing box by placing a seed heating pad in a box and covering it with a towel.
- Try the warm oven trick: turn your oven on for 1 minute (at any temperature) and then turn it off. It likely won’t get above 100ºF — it will just create a cozy spot for your dough to rise. Consider sticking a post-it note to the oven to remind you that you have a starter in there so that you don’t accidentally preheat your oven and kill your starter. (Note: I do not recommend using the oven with the oven light on, because I discovered the hard way that the oven light can actually be too hot and cause your starter or sourdough bread to overferment.)
Start with pineapple juice.
Use freshly milled stone-milled flour. If you have a source local to you, use it! Health food markets, co-ops, or markets such as Whole Foods often carry freshly milled flour. Here are a few mail-order options:

Pineapple Juice: My small cans of pineapple juice are labeled as 6 ounces (177 ml), but when I actually weigh the juice inside, it always weighs around 192 grams. The important thing is to use an equal amount by weight of flour and pineapple juice.

Pineapple Juice Alternatives: Orange Juice or Water

Water: I have no trouble using tap water when building a sourdough starter or when making a sourdough bread recipe. If you have concerns about your water, you can:

Use water that you’ve left out overnight to ensure any chlorine has evaporated.
Buy spring water. In some places, letting water sit out overnight will not be effective, and your tap water may kill your starter.

Discard: At the end of the first four days of the process, you’ll be left with a decent amount of sourdough discard, which you can use in countless recipes. Here are a few of my favorites:

Ingredients

1 small can (192 grams) pineapple juice, see notes above for alternatives
stone-milled flour, see notes above
Room temperature water, see notes above

Instructions

Day 1: Pour the can of juice (roughly 192 grams) into a large bowl or ideally a straight-sided vessel on a tared scale. (A straight-sided vessel allows you to truly see how much your starter is growing. I’m using this Cambro.) Add an equal amount of flour (roughly 192 grams) by weight. Stir the flour and juice together until the flour is absorbed. Cover the vessel. Record the date, time, and measurements — you will forget which day you started if you don’t. Let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 2: Uncover the vessel. Stir the mixture. Re-cover the vessel, and record your work. Let it sit at room temperature for another 24 hours.
Day 3: Uncover the vessel. Add 128 grams (1 cup) flour and 128 grams (about 1/2 cup) water. Stir to combine. Cover the vessel and record your work again. Let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours, stirring once or twice.
Day 4: Uncover the vessel. You should see a little action (bubbles) and it should smell pleasant, not unlike a fruity yogurt. Measure out 128 grams (about 1 cup) of flour and 128 grams (about 1/2 cup) of water. Add them to the container. Stir to combine. Cover the vessel. On this day, record your work again, and mark the height of your mixture with tape on the side of your vessel. Let it sit at room temperature for 24 hours, keeping a closer watch this time around. You may see action — rising and bubble formation — within a few hours. If your mixture is in fact rising, let it rise until it nearly doubles in volume; then drop a spoonful of it in water. If it floats, you’re in business. Note: Your starter might rise (and possibly fall) while you are sleeping — don’t worry if you don’t “catch” it at its peak. Continue on with the process.
Day 5: At this point, you should be observing some activity in your starter, meaning the starter should have risen slightly (perhaps doubled but perhaps not) and fallen with bubbles transforming from big to small. You’ll now take a small portion of this mixture and build a new starter: Transfer 128 grams of the starter to a new jar or vessel, and add 128 grams (about 1 cup) of flour and 128 grams (about 1/2 cup) of water. Stir well to combine, then cover the jar. Mark the height with a rubber band. Let sit at room temperature. Transfer the remaining starter to the fridge — this original mixture is now your sourdough discard and can be used in all sorts of recipes, see notes above. When your new starter doubles in volume, you can do one of three things:
- Repeat this process: spoon 128 grams of starter into a new vessel and add 128 grams each flour and water. (Transfer the remaining starter to your bucket of discard.) Let the new starter rise until it doubles. Your starter will get stronger with every feeding.
- Transfer it to the fridge if you need to take a break from the process. You can pick up where you let off when you are ready.
- Test it out in a sourdough bread recipe.
Maintaining your starter: Once you have a strong, active starter on your hands, follow the steps in this post: How to Feed, Store, and Maintain a Sourdough Starter.

Category: Bread
Method: Stir
Cuisine: American