It's actually ill advised to sitr sourdough starter with metal. Wood is actually the best option. You also should not be telling people to save their discard from the first several days; it still has a ton of bad bacteria in it that we don't actually want to consume. You really should not be using discard until at least day 5-7 and that's only *if* your starter is becoming mature at a relatively normal pace. Where I live the temperature fluctuates so much that my starter tends to take a little extra time to mature so I don't use discard until day 10 usually.
Thank you for this simple 10 minute video and not dragging it out for 40+ minutes. I literally searched day by day sour dough starter and this was the first video so much better than everyone else
Sourdough breads got me through 2020 , but it's amazing how quickly the techniques are forgotten I should have spread my starter thinly on wax paper and dried it for the futu . Thanks for taking me back to the basics. Sourdough got me through 2020. Instead of neglecting my starter , (it went bad!) I should have spread my starter on wax paper to dry for later use. I think that's the secret to generational sourdough. Heres to a fully vaccinated, sourdough infused 2021! Peace and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for your awesome video! I'm sticking to your recipe now. That's gonna be my second attempt for making a sourdough starter. I tried to make one earlier by following other blogger's instructions. At some point I thought it wasn't working out because after 3rd day its growth slowed down ... so, unfortunately I discarded it all. I had no idea that it was totally normal, and that I just had to keep feeding it. Well, other blogger never mentioned it, his starter was growing beautifully, so I got discouraged and just waisted a bunch of flour.😕 I'm so glad that your video popped up. Wish me luck 😊
The thing that nature sourdough special is that because of the lactobacillus bacteria creating the acidic environment other bacteria do not take over and kill off the yeast. The yeast and the sourdough bacteria live together and keep the culture stable.
I am maybe 6 days in. My starter smells good with a it of sourness, but very few bubbles and barely any rising. I think my house might be a bit too cold at around 68 degrees. Praying I can get it looking like yours!
Keep going! My house is fairly chilly in the winter and that’s when I got one going, so I believe yours can make it! ✨ You could try using part whole wheat flour if you aren’t getting any bubbles at all. But sometimes it takes 10+ days for it to really take off!
What kind of water you recommend? meniral or filterd through refrigerator carbon filters? I tried several times but failed at day 3!😢I was thinking the problem should be water.
I'm using a a pasta grammar recipe Feed every 2 days first 2 weeks then every day for 2 more weeks If house is warmish during the day but cool in the evening will it take more then a month ? Flour water ratio is 2part flour to 1 water
This was super helpful! I always get confused when it comes to the discard aspect though. What’s the difference between discard or when you just add starter directly to a recipe? What would be the need to feed the starter without discarding for volume? Or do you need the volume to make sure you have enough starter for recipes without using up all of your starter? 😅
I was confused about discard at first as well. When you're getting your starter established, you need to discard to keep the volume of starter down. That discard can't be used to make anything that needs to be fermented since it doesn't have enough beneficial yeast and bacteria to ferment anything. After it's well established, you don't really need to "discard" in the sense of throwing out any starter. You can always just use up whatever you pour off to bake with! The confusion for me what I though "discard" and "sourdough starter" were synonymous. Discard usually refers to starter that has deflated and is no longer active and bubbly. You can use it for things that don't require a lofty rise (like tortillas), or something that has an added leavening agent (like banana bread). You need to feed your starter regularly to keep it happy and healthy!
@@suew4609 It adds depth of flavor. Even before a sourdough starter is ready it's already starting to develop sweet (sometimes grassy like) aromas and it transfers to your baked goods and it's delicious. Do not take the videos advice though and use discard from a brand new starter, wait at least a week; there's still lots of bad bacteria in new starter that you don't want to consume.
I'm following your video day by day with my starter. I'm on day 3 and my results are perfectly mirroring yours. I have one question, do I want to feed the starter when it's fully doubled? I've already fed it today but if it should double again this evening, should I feed it again? And then when it's doubled again?
Thank you sooo much! You may have just solved all my sourdough issues! I've struggled and struggled with sourdough and couldn't figure out why but I was under the impression it was about feeding at approx the same time (or times) of day. Watching your video again today it suddenly hit me like a lightning bolt where I was going wrong. Thank you again!!
I tried winging mine last time, I named him Bob and used a bit to use gluten free bread for mum (I used gluten free flour to start him) and he lasted a good long time but then I forgot about all three (he got so big I needed to split him into 3) and he died :(
Hi! Loved your video. Thank you so much for sharing. I am 7 days into my starter and had doubling around day 3 … I kept on with the daily feeding of 30g/30g distilled water but have not had any more rising or doubling since day three. I have a lot of bubbles and it smells fine… now I’m thinking that when you say feed it everyday I should also be discarding everyday too, which I hadn’t been doing. (I picked that up in some of the other comments) I thought it was just first day or two. I am wondering if I can discard all but 30 g and start over with that. I am using King Arthur all purpose flour…. May I ask what are your thoughts on? And also if it doubles on day 3 does that mean it’s active and ready to use… I guess I thought it has to be a week or longer…. Thank you!
Congratulations on beginning your sourdough journey! So it's actually pretty normal for your starter to have a burst of activity at the beginning, then slow down for a while. So just because it doubles at day 3 doesn't mean it's strong enough to raise bread! Since you haven't been discarding, it's possible that your starter isn't getting enough food for its size. You want to feed it at a 1:1:1 ratio of flour, starter, and water. So my advice would be to discard all but 30 grams, feed that 30 grams each of flour and water, and repeat that for a few more days to see if it picks back up.
When you say “it smells a little acidic” (or other ways) and then you say you feed it, does that mean you just feed it and continue or do you do anything to correct the smell, also, do you pour off the hooch or stir it in?
What percent hydration do you keep your starter at? Do you feed it equal weights (not volumes) of water and flour? If you keep it at 100% hydration and it's still watery, I suggest that it's hungry and needs to be fed.
@@ButteredSideUp I yesterday I feed it but it did not rise, should I just keep feeding it everytimr it gets watery? The thing is, I dont have a scale, so I changed the grams to cups and I did 1/3 cup of flour and 1/3 water, I knew it was too much water when it was too late. But I kind of fixed it and it grew. The second day it grew double the size... but then it stopped growing and I don't know if I should discard everything and start over, don't know if it is fixable. It doesn't smell too acidic pre feeding.
You *might* be able to get it going without whole wheat flour, but it will be much easier if you start out using a whole grain flour, then switch to all purpose.
Whole wheat makes the starter more active, so it’s a good idea to use it in the beginning. Bread flour will probably activate eventually, but I recommend a whole grain flour at the start.
I am struggling with my starter smelling like Parmesan cheese . Everything I read says I don’t feed it enough , I have been discsard in the morning and feeding it . Then just feed if in the evening every 12 hours . Help
Starter should not go in the refrigerator? Leave it on the counter all the time? and i've been covering with a paper towel and securing with a rubberband. Should i use a loose lid instead?
After your starter is really strong and active (about a month after starting to make it), you can keep in the refrigerator for up to a week at a time without feeding. A paper towel + rubber band works fine, but I find a loose lid more convenient!
U can also let it go dormant in the fridge. You do not have to feed it every single week unless you want to use it…. If you only feed once a month, it will just take longer to get going again
Are there any variations to your pancake recipe? I don't eat eggs and try not to use oil. I'm on day 4 and already have about a cup or more of my discard in the fridge. Is it Normal for my starter to already be really sour smelling.
I don’t think I’ve tried making them without eggs. You could try a flax egg or gelatin egg. They would probably *work* without oil, but the flavor won’t be as good!
You discard all but 30 grams. So you should have 30 grams of sourdoughs tarter left in your jar! You should discard every time you feed your starter unless you're trying to increase the volume. If you don't discard, pretty soon you'll have the world's largest starter. This is because you need to feed your starter at at least a 1:1:1 ratio. You can over-feed it, but you can't under-feed it. So if you don't discard, the first time you feed you'll need to use 30 grams of starter, 30 grams of of flour, and 30 grams of water for a total of 90 grams of starter. Then you'll need to feed it 90 grams of flour and water for a total of 270 grams of starter. The next time it will be 270 grams each for a total of 810 grams of starter, and the next time it will be 810 grams each for a total of 2,430 grams of starter. Pretty soon it will outgrow your kitchen! Haha! So that's why you have to discard.
@@ButteredSideUp Wow! Thank you for replying immediately and thank you for answering my question. It will be my first time to make a starter and I find that all recipes on youtube to be confusing but yours because you explain it with such detail. Thank you! ☺️
@@ButteredSideUp I actually did this! LOL I hated to just throw out some of my starter, so, not knowing that I could just refrigerate it and save it all, I finally took out half and put it in another jar. Now I was feeding 2 starters! Sadly, or maybe fortunately, I broke one of the jars by knocking a spoon on it, trying to lose some starter into the jar, so as to not waste it. It was well over a cup. Now that I watched your video and see what to do with it I won't continue making more jars! Funny how it took several videos before I got that information! Thanks, great video!!!
The whole wheat flour helps to get the starter going, because it tends to make the starter more active. But then you have to feed it more often. So if you switch to all purpose flour once it starts to get strong, you won't have to feed it as often! Hope that makes sense!
Hi, I'm on Day 9 with whole wheat, RO water, and a daily feed. I have no rise at all, that I can see. Should I start over? Kitchen temps are in the 80F range.
@@ButteredSideUp smells like wet dough with a very slight sourness. Was a bit more sour smelling a couple of days ago. 1 or two bubbles, nothing serious at all. Thanks for responding! I tried to shock it tonight with a 1:5:5 feed, to see if I can wake it up.
Sorry about that! I just tried listening with headphones, and it was fine for intro, but the voiceover was only playing out of the left headphone. There must be an issue with my voiceover microphone, or the program I use to record it. Thanks for the heads up!
My wife and I have tried to make sourdough starters for months but they never work out. Usually about a week to a week and a half in there will be white mold on the side of the jars never on the starter itself I have tried to remove the mold and keel feeding but it comes back so we usually just start again from scratch. We have tried using filtered water as well as unfiltered water both at room temperature. For flours we have tried all purpose flour, unbleached organic white flour or organic whole wheat flour even different bags of them. We feed it very consistently every 24 hours almost always within the hour using a kitchen scale for accuracy. There is never hooch on the surface except on either day 2 or 3 as many others have experienced) We always wash our hands, jars and utensils thoroughly and usually leave the jars to air-dry incase there is any bacteria on the dish cloths we use. We have tried keeping the starters in different rooms with different temperatures as well as changing the jar every few days, feeding more or less frequently even trying it in the fridge. It's a shame because we really enjoy making sourdough pancakes with the leftover starter from feeding but right when we start getting that active bubbly texture and sour flavor it's only a few days until the mold sets in. I'm starting to think that there must just be mold spores in our house but selling our house to make bread doesn't seem like a practical thing to do. Is there something else we are missing that you can think of?
That sounds so frustrating! How warm is your house? If it's on the warmer side, you could try feeding your starter every 12 hours instead of every 24 hours.
Don’t save your discard until you get through stage 2 of fermentation, around day 10 of development. You mention all of the nasty smells from the bad bacteria in the first few days.
Hi i live in warm and damp weather so my starter rises faster after first feeding even it is still on its 2nd day. Is it normal or i should feed it often? How often should i feed it?
I would recommend feeding it more often if it’s already active. You can adjust if it becomes less active as well. Sometimes there’s a surge of activity in the beginning, then it goes more dormant, then picks up again. Starters are individuals though!
I have been using organic Einkorn (allergic to rye) And local springwater at 100* and in 11 days at around 77* in my Kitchen (hot this summer) I have had zero activity !! ….and my starter seems runnier than pancake batter- even though I feed it daily (weighed 30 g each )and discard….could the water or rm. Temp. be too warm? Can’t figure out why I’ve not had ANY activity/bubbles/change in level…a cpl of times I used organic unbleached whole wheat instead, but still nothing!!! Baked a lot in my kitchen and find it hard to believe I don’t have any yeast in the atmosphere or in the good quality Flour? Any ideas?
This process is so much different and unlike any process I’ve ever seen before! I don’t know about it. I’ve never seen a wild star or not get a rise not even one time in six days! I can get my starter to rise within a couple hours on day one
You can leave it in the fridge for up to a week without touching it. After that it’s a good idea to feed it, otherwise it will start to lose strength in my experience.
I've searched high and low for a regular sourdough loaf on your page with no avail! I'd love to see you take your starter and bake a regular loaf I am a beginner and love your page! Thanks
Bleach is a disinfectant, which means it can kill bacteria. Which means it could be hard on the *good* bacteria in your sourdough starter. Now is there enough bleach in bleached flour to harm your starter? Eh, maybe not? But if you want to ensure a really happy starter, I would personally opt for organic, unbleached flour. I've heard of people using bleached flour for their starter, and you could definitely give it a try! But if you run into trouble, that's something you could change up to see if your starter prefers unbleached flour.
