Techniques › Baking and pastry
Sourdough starter basics
Intermediate Baking and pastry
Sourdough starter basics is a living mix of flour and water full of wild yeast and bacteria that you feed regularly and use to raise bread.
Written with AI help from the sources listed, and published by Cory. Spot a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.
How do you do it?
- Feed it by mixing equal weights of starter, flour and water, for example 50 grams each, and discard the rest.
- Keep it at about 75°F. A healthy starter doubles in 4 to 8 hours, smells pleasantly sour and is full of bubbles.
- Use it at or just after its peak, when it's domed and bubbly, before it collapses.
- Between bakes, store it in the fridge and feed it about once a week; give it a feeding or two at room temperature before baking.
Why does it work?
Wild yeasts eat sugars from the flour and give off carbon dioxide, which raises the dough. Lactic and acetic acid bacteria living alongside them make the sour flavor, and the acidity keeps unwanted microbes out. Regular feeding gives them fresh food and dilutes the acid. A new starter often bubbles wildly for a couple of days from other bacteria, then goes quiet before settling down.
What are the common mistakes?
- Giving up on a new starter in the first week — it usually needs 1 to 2 weeks to stabilize.
- Using it after it collapses — weak rise and an overly sour loaf.
- Panicking over gray liquid on top — it's alcohol from a hungry starter; pour off and feed.
Still stuck? Watch someone do it on YouTube.
Learn by cooking. In Pantry to Pan, technique words in your recipes' steps link straight
to guides like this one, right when you need them.
Try it free for 14 daysMore baking and pastry
- FoldingMixing something light (whipped cream, beaten egg whites) into something heavier without knocking the air out.Intermediate
- Creaming butter and sugarBeating soft butter with sugar until pale and fluffy — the start of most cakes and cookies.Beginner
- KneadingWorking dough by hand or machine until smooth and stretchy.Beginner
- Proofing (letting dough rise)Letting yeast dough rest and rise before baking.Beginner
- Cutting in butterWorking cold butter into flour until it's in small lumps — pie crust, biscuits, scones.Intermediate
- Blind bakingBaking a pie crust before it's filled.Intermediate