Learn how to make a sourdough starter recipe from scratch with just flour and water. This versatile ingredient can be used to make breads, cakes, cookies, and so much more.
If you hang around the traditional foods community, chances are you have heard of making homemade sourdough starter from scratch.
I have had my homemade starter for over six years now. It is vital in my traditional food kitchen.
What Is A Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is a live active culture made of fermented flour and water that is full of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.
It is used as a way to ferment recipes and naturally rise bread.
Why You Will Love Sourdough:
If you are unfamiliar, let me fill you in on all the reasons why crazy folks, like me, go through the effort of handcrafting, and maintaining, a beneficial colony of yeasts and bacteria in their kitchens.
Before yeast was isolated and sold in little packets, sourdough starter was a valuable commodity in homes and families, passed down for generations.
Health Benefits
Have you ever heard of phytic acid? Basically, it’s an antinutrient found in grains, beans, and nuts that interferes with the absorption of certain nutrients. They are present on grains to keep them from spoiling.
There is a reason they are there, but there is also good evidence that our bodies weren’t meant to handle them. Proper preparation of grains eliminates most, if not all, of the phytic acid in offending foods.
This is the very reason traditional cultures soaked and fermented their grains, seeds, and beans. These days, we’ve lost that art. And what have we found? People can’t handle grains anymore.
Instead of using instant yeast packets, people in traditional cultures leavened their bread with a fermented starter that captured all the yeasts in the environment.
AKA Sourdough starter
How on earth do we capture native yeasts? Read on, because I explain how to make your very own starter.
Because I love good food
I already confessed my foodie tendencies with you all. I reckon it’s the same inclination that led me into the world of homemade sourdough.
Locally made sourdough starter, with the native yeasts of the area present, is certainly the thing a foodie’s dreams are made of. A jar of healthy, productive starter is teaming with life, as evidenced by all the bubbles you will see rising to the surface.
Once you’ve experienced homemade sourdough baked goods, store-bought breads and pancakes simply don’t cut it. Sourdough has a depth of flavor that just can’t be found in something made quickly with a packet of instant yeast.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
FAQ:
How long does it take to make sourdough starter?
It takes about a week to create an active sourdough starter, but sometimes it can take about two weeks to make a starter ready to bake bread.
Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it?
When you are first creating your sourdough starter, yes. If you don’t discard you will have so much starter that it will be hard to keep healthy. This is because the more starter you have the more flour and water you will need to add for the yeasts and bacteria to feed on.
After having a starter for a while rather than discarding you can just use it in discard recipes. This is a much more useful way of removing some of the starter rather than throwing it in the trash.
How do you know your sourdough starter is ready to use?
You will know your sourdough starter is read to use when you feed it and after 4-12 hours it doubles in size and is super bubbly. A good way to be able to determine this, is to place a rubber band where the top of the starter is after you feed it. Then after a few hours have passed you can see just how high it has grown.
Another way is to perform the float test. Take a small glass of room temperature water. Add a quarter sized dollop of active starter. If it floats, it is ready to bake with. If it doesn’t it is not active enough.
Sourdough Starter Recipe:
By now, you know why you want to have a bowl of sourdough starter bubbling away in your kitchen, but how the heck do you make one?
Ingredients
Flour (Whole grain wheat, unbleached all-purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.)
Filtered water (I use a Berkey water filter. We have the Royal size for our family of 7. You can find my full Berkey review HERE.)
Tools
Glass bowl (Metal can react with beneficial bacteria and yeasts.)
Tea towel
How To Make Sourdough Starter
Day 1:
On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
Day 2:
On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
Why do you have to remove half the mixture? By day four, you would have sourdough starter overflowing from your bowl. Also, removing half ensures that the right amount of flour and water is feeding the growing colony of beneficial yeast. If you weren’t discarding half, the cup of flour wouldn’t be enough to feed them on days three and four. Basically, you would end up with a lot of extra starter by the end of the process, and none of it would be mature.
Day 3-5
Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
Day 6-7
On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins.
You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In the refrigerator for occasional use
Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding per week, or every other week, is sufficient.
I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I will pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go.
I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe, and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On the counter for daily use
Since the “little guys”, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if keep it in this state.
If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking every day to use up all that starter.
Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Helpful Resources
Every day I get loads of questions about sourdough starter, so I devoted a whole post called, How to Care for Sourdough Starter filled with your questions and my answers. You can use this post a reference guide.
Thank you so much for stopping by the farmhouse! I hope this is just the beginning of our sourdough journey.
Check out my other sourdough recipes and posts
- Sourdough English Muffins
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Healthy One Pot Meal- Sourdough Skillet
- Sourdough Tortillas
- Easy Sourdough Focaccia
- Dry Sourdough Starter
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Also, tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
- Flour, Whole grain wheat, unbleached all purpose, and einkorn are all great choices.
- Filtered water
Instructions
- On day one, mix one cup of flour and one cup filtered water. Stir vigorously, making sure to scrape down the sides and incorporate everything. Place a clean tea towel over the bowl and set aside. Allow it to sit for 24 hours.
- On day two, discard half of the mixture and repeat the process. Add one cup flour, one cup water, stir vigorously, and cover.
- Repeat the day two instructions for days three, four, and five.
- On days six and seven, do the same but feed it every 12 hours, instead of every 24.
- By day seven, there should be enough beneficial bacteria and yeast present to bake sourdough bread and other fermented sourdough goodies, like pancakes and english muffins. You will know it’s working if it bubbles, and doubles in size.
Notes
Sourdough Starter Maintenance
- Once your sourdough starter is alive and active, there will be some maintenance to keep it going for years and years.
In The Refrigerator For Occasional Use
- Storing it in the refrigerator slows down the fermentation process, so one feeding every week, or every other week, is sufficient.
- I usually use my starter a couple times per week. If I plan to make pancakes Saturday morning, for example, I pull my starter out of the fridge Friday morning and add flour and water. By Saturday morning it is bubbly and ready to go. I remove the two cups of starter needed for my pancake recipe and put the “master starter” back in the fridge. Since it was fed the day before, it is good to go for another week, or whenever I need it next.
On The Counter For Daily Use
- Since the “little guys”, as my kids like to call the bacteria in the starter, are active at room temperature, they will have to be fed more often if kept in this state.
- If you leave your starter out on the counter, you will need to add flour and water every day. You will also have to be baking daily to use up all that starter.
- Most people probably won’t use the starter quite so much, unless you own and operate a bakery. I would recommend storing it in the refrigerator between uses.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Lisa!! I recently bought a bread maker. I was wanting to make your sourdough starter. Is there a recipe that I could use your starter and my bread maker? Thanks!!!
Hi Rache! I’m not sure. Are you able to set the bread maker to different rise time settings?
I have used a sourdough starter for years that was instant potato flakes, sugar, and water.
I love your recipes but don’t think just my starter would work if it doesn’t contain flour. When I make bread I add One cup starter to 6 cups bread flour ( also add 1.5 cups water). Do you think I could just add 1 cup flour to one cup of my starter in order to follow your recipes??
How was your strter made? If it has the beneficial bacteria and yeast in it, it could turn any flour and water into a starter.
Hello,
I am wondering about a gluten free starter. Any information about starting with an all purpose gluten free flour?
I love all your info. Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.
Myleena
Hi Myleena! I don’t personally have experience with it, but there is some good info here: https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/how-to-make-a-gluten-free-sourdough-starter-gluten-free-sourdough-dinner-rolls/
Hi Lisa,
I have a rather embarrassing problem with my starter. I mixed up 1 cup unbleached bread flour and 1/2 cup filtered water in a ceramic/glass bowl and covered it with a tea towel the first evening (used a wooden spoon). The next evening, I removed half the mixture and added the same in again. Yay! It was bubbling and rising so I knew it was working! (The last time I tried with bleached flour and I got zilch results so I was pretty excited this time.) Well, something weirdly strange happened. Tonight just before feeding my starter again, my husband (who wasn’t aware of my starter which was sitting by the sink) said, “Whew, something stinks really bad, like vomit, in this sink!” I went over and sniffed and sure enough, it smelled like puke. We knew that smell because recently we had been bombarded by the latest stomach bug and it was not good. Anyhow, I just had this thought that maybe, just maybe, it might be my starter? Welp, that was it. It was the starter. It was large. bubbly. and smelly. I went ahead and stirred it down, removed half the starter, and fed it again hoping that perhaps this is a part of the process? I expected a fermenty and/or sour smell, but it really, honestly just smelled like vomit. Did I go wrong somewhere. Do I just have super-yeast in my home and need to do this a different way? Or, should I just wait it out and the smell will change? I’m tying to get my husband on board with healthier eating, but I’ve got to up my game a little better I think. I’d love some advice. Thanks for your very informative blog! Learning bunches!
Marsha
Hmm Marsha. Its hard for me to know exactly what went wrong. Maybe the house is too warm now that its summer. Perhaps, you cold try feeding it more often the first couple of days.
Marsha! Hello from 2022! Haha
I have the same question, except (luckily) mine smells like a dirty sock. I say luckily because I cannot STAND the acidic smell of vomit. Socks arent much better, but hey. 🙂
I’m only on day 3 and I’m considering dumping it and starting over. It smells soooooo bad…I’m not sure what to do!
I have the same problem, I hope you can answer.
I’m on day three I uncovered my bowl and noticed a hardened yellow on the top along with a bad smell like vomit/rancid.
I don’t if to discard my sourdough or keep feeding it.
I’m leaving my bowl next to my stove and covering it with a paper towel since I don’t have a tea towel.
Am I doing something wrong? The 2 day I feed it when I seas water on top and it wasn’t even 24 hr. It was bubbly I just dump half the starter because I already fed it.
That smell is fine early on. It just means yeast is accumulating and it’s hungry. It will eventually stop smelling like a dirty sock and start smelling sweet and bready. I keep mine in a mason jar with a piece of plastic wrap loosly on top. There will probably be low activity between days 3 and 10. Keep going!
Hi Lisa, Just a quick question. I have just started my starter and after the 1st 24 hours when I divide the dough in half to discard it I noticed that the top was dried out and hard in a small area of the dough. Is this normal? I went ahead and added the 1 C. flour and the 1/2 C. water and mixed it up and put the towel back over it.
Just add a little more water next time you feed it. It is normal for the top to harden a bit. 🙂
Hi Lisa! I saw that someone asked a question about “crusitng” and the response was to add water. I’m also wondering At what point should it not be “dough like?” Form the beginning? Or later on? I’m wondering if I should start over and do more water every day…or just start adding more water tomorrow ( day 4)
Can the part of the discarded started in the beginning be put away separately and become a separate sourdough starter?
Lisa
I am starting Sour dough starter. When I did 1 cup flour to 1/2 cup of water it was just a lump so I added another cup of water and the consistency looks better. I’m using wheat flour. Will it work like that?
Love your site! I’ve already tried the pickles as well. Also my love of stoplights goes back years!
Regards
Mary
That should have said my love of drop cloths goes back years!
Hey Mary! I love drop cloths too. 🙂 Whole wheat flour will work great! Just add a little more water, so it isn’t so dough like.
Hello.
In your video you say one cup of flour to half a cup of water and on your recipe it says one to one…
I’ve been going with the one to one. Hope it’s right.
Anyway, I thought our bowl was big enough and on day two my sour exploded out. No biggy, I just fed as normal and got a bigger bowl. Now I’m not seeing any growth. Should I have started over after the day two explosion?
I noticed the same thing on what amount to use. Came here to find answers but didn’t see anything. Did I miss it somewhere? Or does anyone know?
Awaiting the same answers. Recipe says 1:1 ratio. Video says 1/2:1. Not sure which is correct.
Hi! Love your posts! I have recently (4 days ago) made my own sourdough starter. I have a couple questions that I have not been able to get an official answer on.
1. After I establish my starter and store in refrigerator, how many times To I need to feed it before I use it?
2. When I do use it, do I feed it immediately after or do I wait and feed it before I use it the next time?
3. How much do I feed it? I have started mine using approximately 1 cup flour to 1/2 cup water.
Thank you so much!
Felt like I should clarify. I mean how much should I feed it after I use it? Do I feed back what I used or do I stick with the 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup water?
Also, my starter seems to be stretchy consistency. Yours is more smooth. Is this normal for a beginning starter or do I need to adjust my water/flour ratio?
I have the very same questions! Could you please take a minute to reply? Thanks for the amazing blog and videos!
Hey Mattie! Just answered the question above. 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hey Heather! So sorry I missed this question. I never worry too much about ratio. It will ferment either way. I just throw in some flour and water. Also, you can leave several cups in there for next time, or as little as a quarter cup. Just depends on how much you will want next time you pull it back out. Sometimes I put my bowl in the refrigerator with only a cup, or so, of starter. I pull it out to make pancakes and realize I don’t have enough. Total bummer! So, I try to at least put enough in to make whatever recipe I am going to want to make again next time. I guess the point I’m trying to drive home is, you can’t really mess it up. There are no exact measurements. Just make sure to not get rid of the whole thing, like one my friend’s husband did when he used the entire starter to make pancakes. LOL Also, once your starter is established you’re all ready to use it. Hope that helps! If I didn’t answer your question, definitely let me know!
Hi, Lisa! I have a year old starter that I’ve been using mostly for crackers and pancakes, etc, but I’m starting to play with it a little more. I love having homemade convenience foods, so I’ve been making large batches of waffles to keep in the freezer to reheat in the toaster, etc. I would love to make large batches of dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls to keep in the freezer to reheat as needed, since there are only two of us in the house, and I never need a whole batch. Have you done this at all? Does it work? I’m thinking doing the first prove, then making the cinnamon rolls, rolling and slicing them, then freezing before the second prove, then pull out to rise on the counter the night before. Does that sound like it would work or would I be wasting my ingredients? Thank you!
I have never tried that, but I feel like it should work! My kids always eat everything up too quickly! Haha.
HI! I just discovered your site and I am really enjoying it. I am expecting my 10th baby in 4 weeks and am enjoying feeding them more real foods. I have 2 questions for you. Once the starter is mature and I am storing it in the fridge, do I still have to discard some when feeding it weekly? How much should I be feeding it (quantity of flour/water). Also, I noticed your gray baby wrap in one of the videos (cast iron). I love it. Can you tell me where you purchased it? Brand?
Thank you!
Jackie
Hey Jackie! Congrats on Baby number 10! Wow!
Once the starter is nice and established, and stored in the fridge, you no longer need to discard half. This is because you will just be using it, not feeding it constantly to establish it. The flour/water ratio isn’t super specific. I like to keep mine thick, because I think my pancakes and English muffins turn out better that way. But they work when it’s more liquid too. I never measure when I feed it. Just pour in some flour and water. 🙂
I did a video on the wrap here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM3eoQ_xeLQ&t=40s
Lisa, do you keep your sourdough covered tightly, say nearly air-tight with saran wrap or just cover it with a cloth? Perhaps you do it differently when it’s in the fridge versus on the counter?
Hey Melissa! When its out on the counter, you don’t want an airtight covering. I just put a tea towel over it. I put a more airtight silicone lid on it when its in the fridge. 🙂