Make Your Own Sourdough Starter
If you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you may want to try creating your own sourdough starter from scratch. Baking bread from scratch is satisfying in its own right, but when you’ve also had a hand in the creation of one of the most fundamental components, the leavening agent itself, you’ll feel an even greater satisfaction and connectedness to the process.
Are there kids in your house? This little science project is ideally suited to sharing with any children you can convince to join in. Culture their budding scientific minds while creating your own bread culture.
This video outlines one simple method that worked for me the first time I tried it. In the video, I give credit for this technique to Peter Reinhart. It has since come to my attention that Debra Wink, a chemist and accomplished baker, is the mastermind and author of this Pineapple Juice Technique. A lot of research and testing went into developing and refining the technique. The choice of pineapple juice over other juices is from much trial and error. Debra was kind enough to email her essay on the Pineapple Juice Technique. Click here for a printable copy of it.
As I mention in the video, the wild yeast spores and lactic-acid bacteria that give your starter its leaving properties are all around you. You are simply creating the conditions ideally suited for them to thrive and multiply. I used whole wheat flour in this recipe because fresh whole wheat flour may harbor greater numbers of yeast spores than ordinary all-purpose flour and so increase your likelihood for success. It worked for me, so you might try the same. If, at any time, you wish to transition your whole wheat sourdough starter to a regular white flour starter, it’s super easy to do so.
I’ve listed the ingredients and approximate steps here to save you the note taking.
- Step 1. Mix 3 ½ tbs. whole wheat flour with ¼ cup unsweetened pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for 48 hours at room temperature. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. (“Unsweetened” in this case simply means no extra sugar added).
- Step 2. Add to the above 2 tbs. whole wheat flour and 2 tbs. pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for a day or two. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. You should see some activity of fermentation within 48 hours. If you don’t, you may want to toss this and start over (or go buy some!)
- Step 3. Add to the above 5 ¼ tbs. whole wheat flour and 3 tbs. purified water. Cover and set aside for 24 hours.
- Step 4. Add ½ cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 to 1/3 cup purified water. You should have a very healthy sourdough starter by now.
Notes: I do wonder if the fact that I bake all the time with a sourdough starter (and so theoretically have wild yeast floating around our house by the gazillions and covering everything we own) would increase the likelihood that I would have success creating my own sourdough culture from scratch. So I anxiously await feedback from anyone who attempts this process at home. (You’ll see a nifty little form below for comments and feedback. If you’re shy; you can use the Contact link at the top of the page. While I may report your (mis)adventures, I’ll keep your identity anonymous. 
{ 1288 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
I used the pineapple recipe first and could not get any fermentation. So I substituted bottled water instead and it worked great. Maybe the juice was the wrong kind? Thanks for helping with my own starter, I cannot wait to get baking!
Carl, in the end, I believe your starter in most part is going to be what it is going to be, from your environment, your home. I would not use an air tight container. Since I converted to the pineapple starter last year, I have been using one of those little plastic containers you get chicken salad or something in from the supermarket. The lid snaps on, keeps unwanted critters out and it pops off easily if the starter should get out of hand. I keep my starter in the frige and the plastic container works for me.
Hi Carl,
Using whole flour is fine, of course, but just know (if you don’t already) that whole wheat starter requires more frequent feeding than white flour starter. The germ oil, absent in white flour, is prone to spoiling at some point.
You should always allow for air access to your starter to release the CO2. I don’t think you can, or necessary want to, keep whatever yeast is floating around your kitchen from getting in your starter. Sooner or later, your starter is most likely going to take on whatever indigenous yeast is dominant in your house or locale and it with become authentic Carl starter or something along those lines.
Thanks for that advice Wil. For whatever reason, no mold had grown between writing my comment yesterday morning and getting home last night.
For the record, I am using Dole pineapple juice out of the carton and King Arthur whole wheat flour. For anyone else living in an urban area wondering if they can expect good results, I can attest that at 72 hours my starter is very active.
One more question, even though it’s moot at this point. Is an air-tight container recommended or advised against? Mine is air tight but I read in the comments above that people rubber-band a cloth across the top or put a lid on loosely, so I put mine on loosely. If I had put it on air-tight would it make a difference? I have also read that the CO2 build-up sometimes blows the lids off, so I’m aware of that consequence, but just curious about the effect an air-tight container would have on the starter itself in the beginning stages. Open lid means more opportunity for air-borne yeast to make their way into the starter, or is that not really a factor?
Carl, your starter is ok. This happens sometimes. What you can do is take some (maybe half) of your starter out of the jar. Cllean the jar out really good, return the remaining starter to the jar and double it. You didn’t mention if you used the pineapple juice or water. Pineapple juice helps to guard against mold in the starter but mold can still grow on the jar above the starter. Clean the jar and you should be ok.
Wil
I’m a bread beginner, have been making the Jim Lahey NKB for a year or so, but I wanted to try some sourdough so I searched and found this site and decided to try creating my own starter. I live in Manhattan and wasn’t sure what quantity of wild yeast we might have floating around our city. I just passed the first 48 hours last night, did step 2, and this morning: lots of bubbles!
One question, I am developing small amounts of white fuzzy mold where some starter is sticking to the side of the plastic jar I am using. I haven’t seen anyone mention this so thought I’d ask about it. I’m scraping it off when I stir, but my starter hasn’t begun climbing yet. I’m thinking at some point my starter is going to grow and swallow it up.
I’m guessing the citric acid and/or the alcohol being produced in the starter prevents mold from growing on it and perhaps that on the sides of the jar the liquid drains away leaving slightly moist, unprotected wheat flour solution which the mold loves to grow on.
Any thoughts?
Hi Kirsten,
I think you’re right about the local. True San Francisco sourdough contains the bacteria Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, indigenous to SF. I wonder about the water and only hope the chest slapping thing has no basis in reality. I’d be surprised if human hands even touch the stuff anymore.
If you are able to consistently duplicate the flavor and texture you’re after, I hope you’ll share some details. I thought I received an email recently from the SF Baking Institute (in SSF) offering a course in authentic San Francisco french bread making. But I just checked their website and don’t see it now. Either it sold out or I dreamt it. Anyway, good luck with your most worthy quest.
Hi Eric! I was born and raised in San Francisco, so sourdough bread is like Mother’s Milk to me.
Sadly, we are down to one really good sourdough bakery here — Boudin is the last of the old City bakeries standing. From the bakers I’ve talked to here, the “sour” is really all about locale — from the water used to the air. Much like real cheese will take on taste/smell very specific to the cave it was stored in, sourdough starter takes on a taste/smell specific to where it is made. So “San Francisco sourdough” can only be made in San Francisco. Local sourdough lore has it that when one of the old bakeries moved its operation out of North Beach to a new SF bakery, they continued to ship in water from the old location to ensure the same bread taste. Also, the REAL old-timers talk about how the bakers used to slap the sourdough bread against their sweaty chest as an integral part of the breadmaking process — once health codes required that be stopped, old-timers swear the bread never tasted the same. 
I think I am going to have a friend in North Beach work up a starter for me and see what I get!
I had a look for oval dutch ovens and the only ones I could find were Le Crueset and that’s more then I’m willing to spend on a pot. I love my Lodge stuff but they don’t seem to make ovals. Maybe I’ll try TJ Maxx and such, see if they have anything cheaper.
Rhonda,
If what you are doing works for you, than I would consider picking up an oval dutch oven and make oblong loaves in that. I greatly prefer the proportions of the loaves I make in my oval roasters and swear they last longer as we get more slices out of it. Use an oval basket lined with a floured towel to shape your loaf for the second rise. I NEVER make round bread anymore.
Finally decided to take the plunge and make my own starter and it’s coming along nicely. It’s been going for 4 days and I just added the first flour and water combo a few hours ago and already it’s climbing towards the top of the container, quite impressive given the container holds about 4 cups of liquid! Can’t wait to try it out, it’ll make a nice change from my usual yeast based NKB.
Quick question: has anyone tried a cold start using the La Cloche oblong baker? I use a cold start method I found on the KAF website in my cast iron dutch oven and it works great but the bread is a pain to slice and store so I’d like to try making a more loaf shaped loaf. I can’t find a rectangular cast iron vessel anywhere other than a few small terrine type dishes. I’m hesitant to order the clay one because I know that pizza stones don’t do well with a cold start and I’m assuming this is similar.
Just tried it out, worked great! I even totally neglected it the 2nd 48 hours by not stirring it, and it still worked fine. Now I just need to try it in bread!
Wil…. thanks…!
Welcome Gary, your mason jar will be just fine for starting out. Don’t screw the lid down though. Loosen it to the point that if you had water in the jar and you turned it upside down it would run out. Some people use a sheet of paper towel held with a rubber band. The reason people use smaller jars or plastic containers is you really don’t need to culture and keep more than a half cup of starter. It is much easier and less costly to maintain a smaller amount of starter and use that later to make a larger amount / and type if needed for your baking.
Wil
I’m pumped to give this a try….! I’m using a quart mason jar… one of those Italian ones, so my starter will be impressed. In the video, you use a plastic container with a snap lid…. My question is: Do I screw my lid down tight…? I have it on kinda loose for now…. until I find a more suitable container.. or will this do? Is there a consensus of the “best” starter vessel…???
I’m a beginning beginner, so I used white AP flour and canned juice…. Just to see what happens… I’ve read all the posts, so I know other flours do better, fresh juice, etc… Just having fun for now….
I decided to start a starter this past Thursday. I used a fresh pineapple, for the juice. After 24 hours, it had “hooch” on the surface, so I went ahead with step two. After 24 more hours it was there again, and I moved onto step three. It darn near doubled within a couple hours! At only 48 hours into the process! It’s now day three, and I just did step four, and am looking forward to making some pizza!
Thanks!
:~)
I love bread (too much probably) but can’t eat home-baked bread made with commercial yeasts,even if it is several days old. I get severe headaches whenever I try (possibly the so-called tyramine reaction.) I can eat commercial baked products with no problem. Anyone else ever experience this? Assuming the yeast is the problem,are there any alternatives that might help? I’m just beginning to make a sourdough starter according to Eric’s direction (it’s going fine) and hope that might be the answer.
Tom
Dear Eric,
I just wanted to thank you for your wonderful website. My husband and I have been enjoying making your no-knead breads for sometime.
I just recently began making my first wild yeast sponges. i tried your pineapple wild yeast recipe and was very successful. i used it to make your whole spelt sourdough last weekend. it made a beautiful bread.
I have read some folks comments on how they seem disappointed in the lack of sourness that their breads are tasting.
Since it was my first wild yeast starter, I was lacking in faith as to whether or not my bread would rise, so when I was making it I added about 2 more tablespoons of my starter to the 1/4 cup recipe that you advise. My sister has a proofing feature on her oven (nice and warm to assist rising) and to say the least my dough bloomed beautifully. The result was a lovely loaf of bread that was VERY sour. To some, more than they liked!. I enjoyed it, though, and toast it with a bit of butter and honey to temper the sour.
The other thing that I did that was a little different than your recipe, was to use the juice from a real pineapple. I blended a juicy, ripe pineapple in my blender and strained the liquid for my starter. I don’t know which act-the additional 2 tablespoons of starter, or the fresh pineapple that I used was responsible for the intensity of my “sourness”, or, if either, but for the folks that are saying their dough isn’t sour enough, perhaps, they should try what I did and see if it reaps the same results.
Today i am baking a bread, from a raw-potato starter that i made. I’ll let you know how it comes out…It smells amazing!
thanks, again. Nan
Dear Eric, I began a wheat starter on Sunday evening and intended to do the second step on Tuesday evening but got waylayed and didn’t get to it until Wednesday morning. By Wednesday evening I had lots of bubbles and a sweet, clean, sour aroma. I’ll continue on with steps 3 and 4, and I’m hoping to try a recipe this weekend. Thanks you for all of this! I’ve been wanting to do this for years but didn’t know where to begin. Your video made it look easy . . . and it was!
ive been looking for a decent starter mix for a while but most use rotted grapes and alot ive found online have youput yeast into the mix which is what i didnt want so i was excited to find yours and try it out. The only thing i did diffrent from you is i used OJ instead of pineapple juice both are high in citric acid so hopefully it dosent make a diffrents, plus i add 1/4 tsp of cumin to it i saw it on tv a while ago its supposed to help the yeast culture so ill post in a few days to tell you how it turns out.
some testing I did
1. white flour really sucks for feeding starter…the only white flour that works good that I have found is all purpose flour..of course I never bought King Arthur Flour
2.whole wheat flour works really good I had fed two starters one with white one with wheat and the wheat one double in an hour.The white did nothing until.
3.RYE flour is the best I have seen for starter.its crazy
I took my worthless white starter which gets beat time and time again from my whole wheat starter and added 2 spoonfuls of rye flour.Well the white/Rye starter showed me it was not dead and proceeded to over the course of the night remove its unsealed lid and spill out.Its still double its size after 8 hours
Rye Flour is the king for starting starter for feeding starter
If u want a white starter just keep feeding it white flour and a couple spoon fulls of rye and watch the show.
I was just wondering if anyone has ever used an air lock such as the kind home brewers use to vent off fermentation gas from a sour dough starter. It seems to me that once your starter has been inoculated, the introduction of more bacteria or yeast spores isn’t necessarily a good thing. The air lock also seems to be an idea for preventing erupting or exploding starter containers.
Maybe it’s time for a DIY project.
Wow! What a wonderful site! I’ve just spent part of the past two days reading all the posts on this thread. You are such a patient and generous man, answering all these questions (some repeatedly!) and offering so much information here on your site (and so far I’ve only viewed a few pages.)
Thank you!!
I do love yummy bread. It’s been years since I made my own, and I’ve never tried sourdough. I shall have to try this.
:~)
Thia
Thank you for this easy starter technique! I accidentally did step 2 a day early, but it still came out fine. I used “white whole wheat” flour instead of the traditional kind, and I was afraid it wouldn’t work as well, but within four days my starter was cheerfully stinking up my whole kitchen. I can hardly wait to make something with my newly domesticated little yeasties.
Eric. . .I have used your technique several times, all with great success. I have found that fresh rye flour and the juice from canned pineapple seem to be foolproof at get things started. Thanks for your video.
Good to hear Yana. Rye is my favorite as well. I keep two starters now, a white w. wheat and a rye. Although not really all that old yet, they are both doing a very good job.
Wil
Adam and Wil, thank you for your comments!
I only used a small amount of sugar in the beginning by mistake. I haven’t added any sugar to my starter since. My breads are turning out perfectly! I even took some of my “mother” starter and turned it into rye starter that works amazing. My rye breads (that’s what I’m really after) are improving with every attempt.
Adam, I think you may have nailed it. The lactobicilli to yeast ratio would certainly explain your results. As far as my starters ever being runny, they were when I first started but I learned and it is recommended, that starters be kept on the thick side, something like mud. That is not the wrong way. When the starter is dryer, it might not show as many bubbles and froth on top, especially a whole grain starter, but it will more than double after a couple of hours. Let us know how everything turns out.
Wil
I think I’ve figured out the problem, but I still don’t know the solution. I think the starter I have now is very much a sourdough starter, where the lactobacilli outnumber the yeast by a large factor, causing it to be more acidic, which weakens the gluten structure. (That would explain why it’s so thin and gooey and sour.)
My previous starter, which I preferred, was probably a yeast-dominant starter which doesn’t add any sourdough taste to the bread, but also doesn’t destroy the gluten structure.
Perhaps the environment of this country is more favorable to the creation of sourdough starters. Now my project will be to see if I can create a yeast-dominant starter. If I have any success with that, I’ll post the solution.
Thanks Wil,
The starter certainly “works” as far as leavening bread goes. It ferments the dough and produces plenty of gas. But it nonetheless seems poorly suited for bread-baking to me. It always overferments to the point where the dough loses all its strength… and it does smell pretty bad. I haven’t actually tasted a big enough piece to get a sense for the flavor. (I don’t want to put it in my mouth.)
But then, maybe I just don’t have enough experience to say. The starters pictured on this website seem pretty gooey, like mine is. Some of the comments from people say that their starter also stinks and weeps some foul liquid. Some even say that’s how it’s supposed to be.
My old starter wasn’t like that. It was basically like dough that slowly rose if I left it at room temperature. It looked, smelled, and felt like dough. But maybe other people would say that’s the one that’s wrong — too weak, they might say.
I just want to hear from more experienced people to know if I need to adjust my baking style to work with the different qualities of this starter, or if this starter is just hopeless and I should use regular yeast or try to buy somebody else’s starter.
Also, I’ve always used the pineapple juice method and it’s worked pretty reliably at getting a starter going. But all three starters that I made in this country have turned out the same — same smell, same qualities.
I ditto Adam’s remarks re sugar. You should avoid continued use of sugar in your starters. Best not to put anything in your starter except flour and water. Continued use of sugar in your starter to give it a “boost” (and it is used by some when beginning a starter) will eventually lead to a rubbery mixture not to mention inviting an environment you do not want. Put your sugar in your bread, not your starter.
Adam, I would say if you don’t like the way your starter smells or tastes, you most likely won’t like the results of your bread —if it even works. Maybe if you try the pineapple juice method, found on this site, you will be giving your starter the best possible chance of succeeding. I have made lots of starters over the years using different methods and I have ended up with good ones and not so good ones but, never any that could be considered revolting in smell or taste.
Wil
To Yana,
I’d like to say that it’s probably not a good thing to use sugar in general. Although it does provide more food for the yeast, it also provides food for undesirable bacteria. One reason starters normally don’t get contaminated is that very few microorganisms can digest the starch in the flour, but most can digest simple sugars, so by adding sugar you invite competition from all sorts of other bacteria.
Hi,
In one post you said “You’ll probably know, or at least be highly suspect, if it’s gone bad. It will either discolor, smell bad, not rise, bubble or show signs of life or some combination of things like that.”
I’ve just moved from Washington State to a small, bread-impoverished country in Eastern Europe, and have tried a couple times to make a starter. The starter I made in Washington smelled pleasant (a bit like vinegar), had a fairly strong dough-like consistency, and seemed to work well, although it didn’t produce much gas.
The ones I’ve made here smell disgusting, have a gooey batter-like consistency, produce large amounts of gas in a short amount of time, and greatly weaken the structure of the dough, it seems. I ended up throwing away the first two that I made without using them because I thought they were contaminated, but my third starter is the same as the first two.
In your experience, is this normal for some types of starter? I don’t really know that it’s bad. I only know that it’s a lot different from my Washington starter, and it smells, in my opinion, awful.
I’ll try making a loaf with it today, but I’d like to hear others’ opinions on whether the starter I described falls within the range of what’s considered normal.
Thanks.
Yes, it was the pineapple juice method I used. It worked beautifully until I ruined it. I now have a new jar that 24 hours old – so hopefully it’ll work well this time.
I’ll let you know.
Thanks,
Angie
Angie, that could be it. Sometimes you can get away with it but sometimes they treat more heavily depending on the weather. Have you tried the pineapple juice method yet? It really works and makes a great starter.
Wil
Will – thanks for responding. The room is the kitchen and is centrally cooled to around 72 F.
I used tap water, now that you mention it. It is city water and highly treated. I won’t make that mistake again.
Thanks.
Angie,
Did you by any chance leave it sitting in a hot room, say around 80 degrees “F”? The starter yeast can take cold but not hot. The other question is what kind of water did you use?
Wil
I made a beautiful starter. It was bubbly and spongy looking. I decided to move it to another container, add a cup flour and 2/3 cup water so I could use it right away. That afternoon, i noticed it looked limp. The next day it looked like the material I began with. No bubble, no sponge – flat. I waited another day -same thing. I tossed it. Today a started a new one.
Any idea what went wrong??
Hi Yana,
The sugar shouldn’t be a problem at all. It’s just more food for the yeast and will likely result in faster “growth” of your starter. Just proceed as normal and it will dilute as you say. The carbs in the flour provides sufficient nutrients for the yeast.
Eric, thank you for the recipe of this sourdough starter, it’s a first time I’m able to get some action with my starter and I’m really excited.
Everything was going fine the first 4 days, the starter was kind of stiff (I think because I used heaped TBS of flour and regular TBS of juice/water (can’t really get heaped tbs of liquid;) )
But on the very last step i added 1/2c flour and 1/8c white sugar! Don’t ask me why! I did add 1/3c of water after I realized my mistake 3 hours later
Is my starter ruined now? Or should I just feed it with flour and water every day to “dilute” the sugar?
Thank you!
Thank you Mikhael, now I know it is just not me. Yes! How about that flavor? Way better than what my old starter produced. Thanks for getting me to try the “fresh” pineapple culture.
Wil
Wil,
My pineapple starter also gets to the over-proofing stage real fast so it may not be the summer weather, it just seems to be real active. The other day it over-proofed and I had to start over and that was when we had the AC set at about 68 degrees! I really like the flavor of it though…
Mikhael
I have started making my own Kefir using kefir grains. Wow, this stuff is good. My eye is on the bottle of fresh kefir on the counter and my bread making supplies. I know some on here, including Eric, has already used kefir with good results adding flavor to the bread but, I wonder how far it can be taken as a reliable starter. Does anybody have kefir starter / bread making stories? I have read that pineapple (again) has found it’s way into the kefir camps.
Wil
Hooray for Debra Wink’s pineapple juice solution! I tried with water/flour only and…eww. No way I would eat anything made with that smelly stuff. Threw it out and started over, and about a week later, I have beautiful, sourish smelling starter that I’ll keep feeding for a week, and then try some bread with it. Thanks for the tremendously helpful website!
Yes Jeannie, I have made spelt bread using a spelt starter. I took 1/4 cup of my w.wheat starter and mixed it with 1/4 c of spelt flour and a little less than a 1/4 c of water. I let it on the counter until it was all bubbly and doubling. I took out half of the starter and dumped it, added another 1/4 c of spelt, a little water into the remaining starter and let it get active again. I did this three times. My starter doubles within 2 hours (on the counter) when I feed it, so the spelt starter was ready to go for an afternoon spelt bread mixing session. Honestly though, I am not sure what using a spelt starter did for it, except as Eric pointed out, it is a pureist thing. I am going to use my regular starter the next time.
Wil
If using the regular starter with whole wheat flour.. then slowly adding spelt white flour will the same results occur. I have always started mine with whole wheat flour, but I thought that I would be adventurous and try different flours like spelt and kumut to make my sour dough breads. Any luck with that Wil.
thanks Jeannie W. : P
Hi Jeannie,
You don’t really need to keep a whole lot of starter on hand. Some people keep their starters in old pill containers and keep 4 or 5 different batches in the frige, using little space, saving flour and time. Having said that, I like to keep a little over a half cup of starter, one whole wheat and one rye. If I use a quarter cup of starter, I replace it with a quarter cup of flour and a little less than a quarter cup of water. I mix it up right in the starter jar, stir it up real good and put it right back in the refrigerator. If I don’t bake for a couple of weeks, I take my starter out of the frige, throw half of it away, repleace it with quarter cup of flour, a little less than equal amount of water, stir and put it right back in the refrige. I let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours before I bake to make sure it is active (I try to use it just before it doubles in vol.)
The only thing I can see about my new pineapple starter is that it may be over-proofing at a faster rate than my old starter. It is more likely the summer weather.
Wil
Hey Wil….
Thanks for answering my question at the beginning of May.. I asked the question again.. because I did not read up above.. its just so exciting to make the starter and see if working.. spelt bread does not rise too much but its so good. Thanks everyone for helping on our mission of Bread making.. this is a great site.
Jeannie
Sour Dough starter worked great this time.. Now what I need to know is once I use the amount I need to make a batch of bread. Do I just start back again as I did originally or what do I do.. in other words.. do I use all the sour dough starter up and save say 1/4 cup.. then restart the process all over again.. please let me know.. I love this starter and its so easy.. I just need know about this information to restart again.
Well, the first loaf of the basic NKB using the new pineapple based starter did a good job. It was in the refrig about 12 hours. I need to mix my dough in the morning, put in the frige, then take it out and put on the counter at night. It was ready to go in the morning and rose very nicely in the basket after folding. However, I was distracted and didn’t get back to it for over an hour and it looked like it was going to burst. I tried to flip it very gently into the baker but, you guessed it, “plop” it went and it deflated. It recovered though with an acceptable spring. Long story short, I like the new starter. It seems like it is going to be a very active one. It has lost it’s pineapple scent I think. At least I can’t smell it but, it still has a wonderful smooth sour taste, not overpowering. The bread had that nice smooth SF sour taste.
Wil
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
{ 5 trackbacks }