Out of everything that pertains to bread baking, making and maintaining a healthy sourdough starter was my biggest challenge and my largest initial failure. Even my very first sad-looking loaf of no-knead bread was a huge success in comparison. It took me a while, through many trials and errors, to overcome those challenges and finally have what I consider a well-performing sourdough starter.
In hindsight, a lot of those challenges came from false or insufficient information and overthinking. In reality, making a strong sourdough starter is quite easy as long as you don't do it blindly and understand a little bit of science behind it. And open up your mind a little.
What is a sourdough starter?
In so many words, sourdough starter, also known as a pre-ferment, starter, levaine, chief, chef, head, mother or sponge, is a sticky mass with active, naturally occurring wild yeast in it. This mass is composed of a mix of water and flour that is fermented by wild yeast lactic acid bacteria (LAB). While many think that starter cultures are dominated by wild yeast, that's not the case. According to Trends in Food Science and Technology's Sourdough Microflora piece, lactic acid bacteria far outnumber wild yeast in starters, at about 100:1 ratio. Both are required for a healthy starter fermentation and must be in balance.
On their own, all ingredients and microorganisms in a starter culture are flavorless, only the byproduct of their activity produces those complex sweet-and-sour flavors that we love in sourdough breads. Sourdough starter lends breads a greater depth of flavor and is more forgiving thanks to the longer fermentation time.
Wild yeast composition in starter cultures
Unlike commercial baker’s yeast, which are strains of yeast within the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeasts in levain are of various specifies. They include not only S. cerevisiae but also a mix of other wild yeast species, such as S. exiguus, Hanensula anomala, and Candida tropicalis, Candida Beechii, Dekkera, Kloekera, Hansenula and other. Each sourdough starter will have a unique composition of wild yeasts, with different ratios of yeasts. It is this mix and the ratio of wild yeasts that make each levain unique flavor-wise.
Peter Reiheart in his Artisan Breads Every Day book said the following about making San Francisco sourdough bread at home: "if you don’t live in San Francisco, this won’t be true San Francisco sourdough bread because it won’t contain a large concentration of the microorganisms associated with the Bay Area, especially the famous Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis (these organisms do exist in sourdoughs everywhere, but not to the same extent as they do in and around San Francisco)." So, there you have it. From the get-go, your starter will be different from the starter made by some in another location.
Additionally, not every yeast strain is good for bread fermentation. According to Yeast Technology, such species as Candida, Dekkera, Hansenula for example, have adverse effect on taste and flavor.
All these wild yeasts in your sourdough starter will compete with each other for food. Stronger, more numerous ones will prevail, and determine the quality of your sourdough starter, and ultimately, the bread.
It's important to realize that, when you grow your sourdough starter from just flour and water, there is a chance that bad yeasts will take over. It will be different from someone else's starter, and it may not be as good. There is always that possibility.
How sourdough starter works
Flour in sourdough starter provides food to yeast and lactic acid bacteria. As soon as food becomes present, a feast begins.
Yeast works by consuming sugar and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol as byproducts. During this feeding process, yeast cells divide over a dozen times each, increasing the size of the colony, to billions of cells. Each cell produces the gas that leavens and flavors the dough.
The byproduct of lactic acid bacteria activity, on the other hand, is lactic acid.
To summarize, the yeast produces gas which leavens and flavors the dough, while lactic acid bacteria produce lactic acid, which contributes sourness and additional flavor.
Factors affecting levain
Not all sourdough starters are created equal, even if they have the same yeast strain and lactic acid bacteria composition. Ken Forkish, in his famous Flour Water Salt Yeast book points the following factors that significantly impact the flavor and how it behaves.
| Factor | Impact |
|---|---|
| Hydration | More liquid in starter leads to greater production of lactic acid. This promotes smoother, yogurt-like taste.
Stiffer starters lead to more acetic acid, resulting in sharper, more tangy taste. |
| Temperature | Warmer temperatures - 78F - 90F (26C - 32C), favor lactic acid production, faster development
Cooler temperatures - 55F to 65F (13C to 18C) - favor acetic acid production, slower development. |
| Flour | Every flour has own personality and affects starter development and flavor.
High-extraction flours, whole grain wheat or rye flours, and high-ash flours result in a more vigorous fermentation. This requires more frequent feeding. |
| Salt | Salt is used by some bakers, though most don't. Salt slows down fermentation, which may be a desirable effect in some cases. |
| Commercial yeast | Commercial yeast contains a concentrated amount of S. cerevisiae culture, which causes vigorous fermentation. This leads to commercial yeast dominating and eventually starving out the wild yeasts. It's fine to add a small amount of it to final bread formulations, but is not advisable to use in starters. |
Naturally, the ratio of seed starter to flour and water matters too. The more seed starter you add to the mix, the faster it will ferment.
Making sourdough starter
Making sourdough starter was my biggest challenge when it comes to bread baking. I tried every single recipe I could find, but I could not get a strong starter. My starters would rise on their own, but the bread made with them would have a poor oven spring, mediocre taste and dense texture. On top, my starters would turn vinegary after a couple of weeks, no matter how diligent I was with the feeding regimen. I tried every single trick I could find but nothing really worked well enough.
It's only later that I realized that naturally occurring wild yeasts in my area were just not good for leavening bread. But back then I gave up and made the best decision - I bought a packet of dried San Francisco sourdough starter on eBay. That proved to be a game-changer for me.
You will get many different opinions on how to make a sourdough starter. But here is my advice to you: if you want to get up and running with your sourdough bread baking quickly and painlessly, buy yourself a packet of a known good San Francisco sourdough starter and grow your starter from that. You will ensure that you get the right composition of wild yeasts, and that those yeasts will dominate other, less favorable, yeasts.
Making sourdough starter from scratch
If you feel adventurous, and you just want to experience the process of making your own levain from scratch, do it. Chances are, it will work as it did for many home bakers. King Arthur's starter recipe is a good one that many like. If it doesn't, do what I did and buy some known good seed starter. I think it's the best approach for a novice baker. At least when your bread comes out not as good as you'd hoped, you'll know it's not your starter that caused that.
Activating the starter
Once you have your dry sourdough starter, simply mix one tablespoon of it with 100 grams of water and 100 grams of 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat or rye flour. Cover and let sit at room temperature for approximately 2 days, until you see the signs of fermentation and the volume about double.
After that, keep feeding the starter every 12 - 24 hours for 3 days. Once you've confirmed that your starter predictably at least doubles in volume after each feeding, you can start using it to make bread.
When exactly to feed your starter?
Sourdough starter volume increases after feeding, up to 4 times the original size. Once the food source (flour) for yeast is depleted, the starter begins to fall back down. The ideal time to feed your starter is right after it starts to recede. But don't get hung up on that, the starter will be fine if you are late by a few hours.
If you wait too long after the starter begins to fall, the yeast population will begin to decrease dramatically, while acidity will begin to increase. The longer you wait the more vinegary the sourdough will smell and taste due to the accumulation of acetic acid. Such starters can be revived by feeding them, though sometimes their yeast and LAB compositions may change, resulting in flavor changes and performance. In those cases, I would start a new starter from a frozen dry culture.
That said, you can adjust the parameters (amount of seed starter, water temperature, amount of whole wheat flour) such that your starter is ready for feeding, say, every 12 or every 24 hours. In other words, you should dictate when the starter should be ready for feeding, and not the other way around.
Feeding the starter
There is no one formula or rule for feeding. Some bakers feed starter several times a day, others do it once a day. Remember, even if you are on a specific schedule, you will have to make adjustments as you go, depending on your needs, ambient temperature fluctuations, and other factors.
There is also no single recipe for a sourdough starter either. They vary by the flours they use, the amount of levain, and the water/flour ratio. It all depends on the types of breads that will be baked with that starter and other factors.
When I bake frequently, I follow a daily feeding schedule. I try to keep the amount of the starter as small as possible, enough for two loaves or so.
Below is my basic sourdough starter formulation that works very well for me and that I use most of the time. It's suitable for both white and whole wheat breads and I change it only in special situations.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Levain | 20 g (about one heaping Tbsp) |
| All purpose flour | 100 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 20 g |
| Water (filtered, about 65F - 68F) | 100 g |
This formula can be scaled up or down, or modified, to suit your specific bread baking needs, or seasonal ambient temperature changes.
My (updated) current formula uses 83.3% hydration. I used to use equal amounts of flour and water by weight but later increased the flour content as that starter had a better stability and overall health in the long term. Acceptable hydration percentages are 60 to 100. Lower hydration starters promote sharper, more acidic taste. Higher hydration levain promotes a more mellow, yogurt-like tang in bread.
All ingredients are placed in a bowl, or a glass jar, and mixed together with a spoon. The container is then loosely covered and stored at room temperature, about 68F-70F.
When making pure sourdough breads especially, I get better results (quicker and much more predictable rise) when I feed the starter twice every 12 hours before mixing the final dough. To put the starter on a 12-hour feeding schedule I increase the water temperature to 90F-95F without changing other parameters.
Here is how sourdough starters fed with warmer water (left) and colder water (right) look like after 12 hours.
Making sourdough backups
I find this part extremely important. We, home bread bakers, will never have the same diligence and consistency for feeding our sourdough starters as professional bakeries do. We get busy, we forget, we go away on vacation. When that happens, your starter may go bad. You may be able to revive it, maybe not. For those cases you need to have a backup.
Making sourdough starter backups is very simple. Line a large baking sheet or two with parchment paper. Using a pastry brush, smear some healthy, active starter on the paper in a thin layer. For better spreadability, you may want to increase the hydration of your starter.
Leave the sheets in a warm room for the starter to dry. It takes a day or two. Once dry, hold the paper over a large bowl and bend it, letting the dry starter come off and fall in the bowl. Next, using a spoon, break the dried starter into small pieces. Then package and freeze. That's all there is to it.
What to do with 'discard' sourdough starter?
It's wasteful to throw away starter left after feedings. There are ways to deal with this problem. One way is to make your batches smaller and only increase them when you intend to bake bread. Another way is to keep your starter in the fridge to limit the frequency of feedings. Finally, there are many wonderful quick recipes that utilize leftover sourdough starter. Such as:
Anatolii says
Hi Victor,
I am really eager to try this sourdough starter and eventually (hopefully) do Quick Sourdough Rye Bread. I bought SF dry sourdough starter and now studying this recipe, which has confused me. Would you mind answering my newbie's query please - Is my understanding correct:
"Once I activated my dry sourdough starter, after 2 days it'll show signs of fermentation. It'll be about 200g (100g water + 100g flour + 1 tbsp. dry sourdough). Then I take 20g and discard the rest 180g according to 'Feeding The Starter'? Feed those 20g with 220g (100g water + 120g flour) every 12hr for 3 days. After 3 days it'll become 20+3*2*220g=1340g. If it doubles predictably, I can use it for bread baking. Quick Sourdough Rye Bread needs 175g of sourdough starter. So if I use only 175g, the rest 1340g-175g=1165g(!) to be discarded? And if I want to keep sourdough starter for future bread backing, do I just take 20g and discard the rest 1145g? Looks like a huge waste to me... I think I misunderstood this process"
Would you mind elucidating the process step by step please. I am a newbie and clearly not getting it...
Thank you!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi Anatolii,
You got it right. Every time you feed your starter, you discard all but a tablespoon, to which you add another 100g water adn 120g flour.
No, you won't get to 1340g as per your example, the starter will always be 100g water, 120g flour mix and 20g old starter. If you mean cumulatively how much would be discarded over that time, I supposed that about how much would be thrown away, yes.
I agree, it's big waste of flour but c'est la vie. You can do three things to minimize waste and I've been using each one of these myself for years depending on my needs.
1 - halve the recipe and maintain less starter.
2 - build an active starter and refrigerate it to slow down the activity. I'd feed my refrigerated starter 1-2 times per week. Then take outside and re-invigorate but a couple of feedings before using.
3 - use it to make recipes that use discard starter, I have several on my blog. That will reduce waste.
4 - dry some starter and freeze it, then activate when needed if you don't bake often.
Happy baking!
Anatolii says
Thank you very much for the reply, Victor!
Now it all makes sense. I didn't realise that discard was an important part of the process.
I ordered San Francisco Wharf Sourdough Starter, followed their instructions and now have a good feel on how to handle starter (e.i. feeding volume and frequency, discarding, fridge vs room storage, smell, volume increase, etc).
Looking forward for more sourdough recipes!
P.S. Now my visits to 'boulangeries' have a twist - I look out for what breads they have and what scoring they do, so I could try to replicate it on my own kitchen armoured with your recipes and freedom to experiment!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Glad you are getting up to speed, Anatolii. My start with sourdough starter was rough and it took me a while to get to the point where I was comfortable with it. It can be tricky. I think the environment plays a large role too. In my environment I could never maintain a healthy starter for a long time if it had 100% hydration, but once I changed to 83%, things changed. It works great. Before, it would eventually thin out and become vinegary.
Anyway, I will be posting more of my favorite recipes so, please, subsribe, and stay tuned. Happy baking!
Jorien says
Hi Victor,
I have one question about your starter. You say that your formula uses a 100% hydratation but you feed with 120g flour and 100g water. Isn't that more like 83% hydratation? (5:6)
Thanks in advance for your reply!
Jorien
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Jorien, you are absolutely correct, it's 83.3% now. I modified and updated the formula but neglected to reflect that in the text below. Fixed that. Over time, I backed down from 100% as the starter wasn't very stable in the long term. I suppose a little more acidity from lower hydration and less water content are beneficial for keeping the starter stable and healthy. At least that's been my experience.
Jorien Ypma says
Hi Victor,
I recently started baking sourdough breads and love to try your recipes. I have one question about your levain: in the text above you say "My formula uses 100% hydration" but you feed with 120g flour and 100g water, which is around 83%. Is that correct? Regards, Jorien (The Netherlands)
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi again, Jorien, responded to your latest message first. Hope that clarified your question. I like the lower hydration that I use now, my starter is very healthy and it's several years old.
Jorien says
Hi again Victor, thanks for your reply! Sorry for asking my question twice, it looked like it didn't post the first time. I'm about to put my/your "rustic sourdough bread" in the fridge now, looking forward to baking it first thing tomorrow morning! Thanks for your recipes, they are very inspiring. Regards, Jorien
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
You are very welcome, Jorien. Good luck with the rustic sroudough bread. Enjoy!
Steve B says
Hi, forget the previous, just read the whole article, like I should have, and you answered the question, I’m dumb!
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Lol... too late.
Steve B says
Hi Victor, thanks for the fascinating article here, it’s (I think) the best I’ve seen on the subject.
I had been making SD for some years but gave up due to wasting starter, and began using Sekowa Backferment which is great but not the same. Now I’ve seen your recipes for muffins and biscuits I’m all raring to go again, but my starter has died.
I have one query (had to be a but), I’ve read the following on ‘fermentingforfoodies’ and elsewhere…..
“Though lots of places sell sourdough starters, within 24 to 48 hours your local strains of yeast and bacteria will have taken over the party. So it’s not worth spending money on a particular heirloom starter.”
I was thinking of buying an SF starter pack, now I don’t know, any comments??
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi Steve, you are very welcome. A quick heads up, some time ago I changed the ratio to 120g flour / 100g water, I find that it works (for me at least) more reliably over the long term. I just updated the post as well. With my once-a-day feeding schedule, my 100% hydration starter would rise and deflate too quickly, separing and smelling a little like vinegar sometimes, especially during warm weather. This one was hard to maintain so I increased the flour to 120g, 20g WW and 100g AP and it has been very happy ever since.
Now, there are many variables to consider, so my approach is just one option. I presume I could try feeding my 100% hydration starter with 1/2 a Tbsp of starter and it could work, I don't know, but my feeding regimen works very well, I have a consistently strong starter, so I am not eager to experiment any further.
As far as local strains taking over whatever strains you have in the starter... I haven't seen any scientific microbiological analysis supporting that statement while I was researching this topic. However, my logic disagrees with that. Let's take a look at three examples - people take probiotics to rebuild their gut microflora, beer makers adding specific yeast strains to make beer, and sausage makers adding starter cultures when making sausages. What happens here is we add a sufficiently high count of specific yeast cells that colonize the environment quickly and overwhelm and push out any unwanted bacteria/yeasts. Those yeast strains persist for far longer than 24-48 hours, perhaps indefinitely. Unless these strains become small/weak, I don't see how local strains would overtake. I think if you start with specific strains, maintain the starter well, keep it healthy and happy, those strains will persist. I imagine the composition will change over time, new strong strains may enter the picture but I am sure a lot of the original strains (if you keep them healthy) will still be there.
So, buy that SF starter pack, make a starter and use it in good health.
Remember to save some - dehydrate, vac seal, and keep it in a freezer. Now, here you want to make a 100% hydration starter as it will be easier to smear on parchment paper. Keep an eye on it, do it before it starts to deflate.
Manjit Dhamrait says
can i replace all purpose with all whole wheat?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi Manjit, you sure can. It will behave slightly differently so be ready for that.
Stephanie says
Hi Victor, thank you for this great explanation! I have made your no knead bread and baguettes with huge success.
I have always wanted to make a sourdough starter and now plan to do so. I was thinking to order the San Francisco sourdough starter you mentioned. Did you choose one in particular? There are many.
Thank you,
Stephanie
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Stephanie, I bought mine on eBay from someone who claimed it was organic SF sourdough starter and the seller had a lot of excellent feedback. I actually bought from two sellers just in case one failed but the first one that I tried worked and that's the one that I am still using and it's been many years. When my starter looks particularly good or has a particularly good smell, or when I feel like it, I spread some on parchment paper, dry it, crumble, vac seal and freeze for later use. I've let my starter die a few times and those frozen ones take only three days to get me back in the baking game. Highly recommend doing it. By the way, I am going to post my San Francisco bread recipe, it's a must try.
saira anwer says
Hello , i dont have levain. Even i didnt find in any market
Should i use yeast instead of levain
P.s I'm from Pakistan
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Yes, I would suggest trying my yeast beads instead. You can make very good bread with commercial bread.