Sourdough Basics - Start Here
So, you’ve reached the quarantine level of homesteading, you want to brew your own beer, grind your own flour, raise chickens, bees, cattle & lamb just to make it through the next few months, and I get it. I’m that person naturally, so to see the world come alive with homestead enthusiasts, I’m here to help.
First off, I have a LOT of experience but like all bakers, I have a LOT of learning to do, but here are some basics to get you started.
If you take anything from this post, take this:
Bread requires four things: flour, water, salt, and yeast.
Regular, artisan bread uses a packet of yeast, like Fleischmann’s that you buy in strips, like a Fun Dip situation. It’s alive, active yeast inside that packet and it does the job wonderfully at making your bread rise.
Sourdough, however, gets its yeast from a sourdough starter, not a packet. The yeast lives in the starter that you grow. It literally eats and farts the natural yeast and bacteria living in the air in your house.
Packets come from the store, and sourdough starters are made in the kitchen. If you’re in the Austin area, Easy Tiger is selling little bowls of theirs during the COVID situation.
Once you obtain a starter, it’s now your pet that you need to keep alive. Name it, feed it, water it and tuck it in at night.
If you decide to make your own starter, it’s super simple (and cheap!)
All you need is whole wheat flour and filtered water, a glass container with a lid and about 5 days.
A FEW HELPFUL NOTES
A note on flour and water: Whole wheat flour is recommended when building a starter from scratch because it has more bacteria and “live things” in it. If you only have AP (all-purpose), that’s fine too, but it will take a little longer to become active. Either way, do everything you can to avoid bleached and enriched flour.
Tap water has chlorine and other additives that are intended to KILL bacteria living in the water. For chugging, it’s one thing, but for mixing with your homegrown starter bacteria, opt for filtered.
Measure your ingredients with a scale. They’re cheap and will make your life so much easier when baking bread. A cup of flour from one company does not equate to a cup of flour from another. This also goes for types of flour. Click here for a simple kitchen scale that will set you back about $10.
Use a non-metal utensil to stir. This isn’t as important in the beginning growth, but once it’s alive and active, you want to keep metal away as best you can. More on this in phase two, but it’s a good habit to begin practicing now.
The end goal here is to turn simple flour and water into bubbly, nicely sour-smelling liquid. It should smell sour, like a bright IPA. If at any time your starter grows mold, toss it and start over.
GROWING YOUR OWN SOURDOUGH STARTER
DAY 1
Mix:
1 cup (113 g) whole wheat flour (or all-purpose, if that’s all you have)
1/2 cup (113 g) cool, filtered water
It should look like lumpy, brown cake batter. Store this doughy mix in a glass container at room temp, with the lid loosely closed. I like mason jars with the plastic screw top lids. Metal will leave rusty bits behind, and it doesn’t do well with fermented things, which you’ll soon have. Let it sit 24 hours.
DAY 2
Mix it back up. Pour out half of your mix. It seems wasteful now, I know, but if you don’t, you’ll end up with a huge tub of starter that you won’t need. Once it’s alive and active, there are many uses for the discard but for now, let it go.
Repeat 113 g flour and 113g cool water. Mix well, cover and store 24 hours.
DAY 3
Repeat.
You may or may not start to see some bubbles!
DAY 4
Repeat.
DAY 5
Repeat.
You most likely have a bubbly, possibly rising, starter! Let it sit one more night, then tomorrow, start your regular feeding (scroll down for the link to phase two.)
The way you feed your active starter is different than the way you grew it from scratch.
There you have it! Click here for Sourdough Part 2: keeping your new pet alive and happy.