Make A Sourdough Starter From Scratch Without A Scale

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Creating a sourdough starter from scratch without a scale can be simple and easy. Here you will find step-by-step instructions with a video tutorial included. I will show you how to get a thriving starter in 8 days without the overwhelm.

What Is A Sourdough Starter?

When you bake bread you have to have to have something to get that bread to rise. You can buy yeast and make your typical bread or you can make and use a sourdough starter to do the rising for you.

A sourdough starter is fermented culture of water and flour. You will be mixing flour and water and utilizing the naturally accuring bacteria and yeast in the air to get a product that will make your bread rise (or leaven).

Your starter is alive, which means you have to care for your starter and feed it. After you create a starter once it can last forever with simple maintenance. Don’t worry, it’s not as time consuming as it sounds and we will cover this in this post!

Making your own starter is a 8+ day process depending on your environment. This means you can start baking with your starter as early as day 8, but it may take longer than that and that is totally okay and normal.

Supplies

You can get a sourdough starter kit here! (This kit includes tools for baking as well) or you can just start with the basics listed below, that you can likely find in your kitchen.

Glass jar (32oz will give you plenty of room to grow, but you can start with a smaller one if that’s what you have, just be prepared for it to bubble over at some point!)

Light weight towel (tea towel or any kitchen towel will work)

Something skinny and stiff to stir with (You can start with the back of a spatula or a butter knife or a skinny spatula. I will also link my favorite sourdough stirring stick here if you want a stick just for your sourdough. It is very comfy for your hands and also provides a narrow bottom to get the bottom edges of the jar easily.)

Whole wheat flour Gives your starter a boost of nutrients for optimal results

All purpose flour

Water

Measuring cup (1/2 cup and 1/4 cup)

Step 1: Starting Your Sourdough Starter

You will begin your starter by mixing whole wheat flour and water. It is IMPORTANT to use whole wheat to start it because whole wheat has a lot of nutrients that will help to boost your starter.

Initial mixing:

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1/2 cup of water (Whatever water you drink with, this could be tap water or filtered water)

Mix these together in a jar, cover with a lightweight towel (flour sack towel or regular dish towel) and place in the warmest spot in your kitchen. (Do not put a sealed lid on it).

Tip:

If you live in a cold or DRY environment, you will need to create warmth and moisture in the air. You can put your starter in a warm laundry room or bathroom (far away from the toilet, please!)

OR

You can boil a pot of water once a day on your stove and place the starter on the counter nearbye to create moisture and warmth to the air around the starter.

About Feeding Your Sourdough Starter

Your starter will look different each day the week you start it. This will be different for each starter. It takes about a week to establish an active starter, but it CAN take longer. So don’t be surprised if you starter takes to a different timeline than your friend’s or maybe the one you saw on my instagram page. A big part of this is the environment. every climate and home is different and has an effect on how quickly your starter develops. Once you create a starter, you can maintain it forever so you only need to really do this starting process once.

Your starter is alive and needs food. The flour is the food for your starter so you when you feed your starter it will begin to give off gases that create bubbles and make it rise. Rising may happen on day 2 or day 8.

You feed every 24 hours and in that 24 hour period you should expect your starter to get fed, rise and “peak,” and then fall before it needs to get fed again.

(The term “peak” is referring to the highest point of its rise before it begins falling.)

At the beginning it may just bubble or it may rise just a little. As it progressess each day and matures it will begin to rise and eventually double (or triple) in size.

So in a 24 our period it will go through a cycle of rising and falling and the consistency of your starter will changed in that 24 hour period.

Here is a video that goes over the consistency changes that occur in a 24 hour period.

Step 2: Feeding Your Starter

You will do your feeds every 24 hours. Your time doesnt have to be exact so if you do it early or late that is fine and you won’t kill it. No need to start over, even if you miss a day. Just pick up where you left off.

You feed your starter so that the bacteria and yeast have something to consume and feed off of. You can adjust the amount of flour you add to make sure it is a nice thick consistency like the photo to the left. The smell of your starter will not smell great as it is fermenting, as long as it’s not moldy it is good. Keep going and trust the process. I don’t like to describe smells as everyone tends to describe the smell a bit different and I don’t want you overthinking WHAT it smells like. Just know it is fermenting and the smell won’t be great.

Feeding Days 1-3:

During days 1-3 you do not need to discard because you should have plenty of room in your jar. Just feed your starter with 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup of water. Re-cover with your light weight towel and keep in that warm spot of your house.

Feeding Days 4-8:

You can begin discarding on day 4. You discard to create more space in your jar for the next feed and so you don’t end up with way too much starter. Discard about 1/3 cup of starter (you can do less or more, don’t overthink it). Then feed with 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and 1/4 cup of water. Re-cover with your light weight towel and keep in that warm spot of your house.

NOTE: The first 7 days, before your starter is fully developed, you will just throw your discard out in the trash.

You can start using your discard to bake with after about 7 days, once your starter is fully developed. You can save this discard for about a week in the fridge.

Here is my starter video that walks you through this process of making your starter

Step 3: Sourdough Starter Maintenance And Storage

Remember, your starter can last forever and the longer you have it, the more mature it is and the better it will work for your bread. Once your starter is established (after that first week and is active and bubbly, doubling consistently) you can begin to bake with it.

After you take out what you need to for your recipe, you will feed the remainder right after and then you have two options for storage.

1. You can keep your starter on the counter and feed it daily

OR

2. You can place it in the fridge with a sealed lid on and it will only need to be fed every 1-2 weeks. (To use it again, just remove from the fridge and feed it and wait for it to double again on the counter).

Note: If your sourdough starter is in the fridge for longer without feeding it and there is no mold on it, you can revive it. I once left mine for four months and saved it! (gray liquid on top is called hooch and is not mold). You can just pour off the hooch, scrape the top layer off and feed it. I like to transfer to a new jar at this point.

Step 4: Start Using Your Sourdough Starter

Now let’s get baking with your new starter! Here are some great beginner recipes:

Sourdough Artisan Loaf Recipe

Discard Sandwich bread

Fluffy Sourdough Discard Pancakes

Troubleshooting Your Starter

To troubleshoot your starter, check out this video where I go over the most common issues with starter and what I normally walk people through who come to me with issues.