Sourdough Starter Instructions

Congratulations on being the proud new owner of a sourdough starter!

If you bought sourdough starter from our bakery, what you have taken home is some of Tabor Bread’s sourdough starter that was leftover from our baking. This leftover sourdough starter is often called sourdough “discard”. Once you start feeding your own starter, you will have your own discard. We’ll give some resources at the bottom for some of our favorite sourdough cookbooks for home bakers, many of which include ideas for what to do with discard (besides give it to your friends so they can bake sourdough too!).

Before we get into how to feed your starter…let’s go over what a sourdough starter even is. Most simply, it is water and flour mixed together and left to ferment. All the good bacteria and wild yeast in the flour and water come together and ferment into an alive, active ingredient. This fermentation process is active enough to make bread rise. So with 100% sourdough bread and pastries, there are no other added leavening agents (e.g. active dry yeast, baking soda, or baking powder), it’s just flour and water! And this is why your flour matters! Using a local, whole grain flour will give you all kinds of good bacteria and wild yeasts, which are important for sourdough fermentation. And while there’s nothing wrong with those other leavening agents (who doesn’t love Irish soda bread?!), there are unique qualities and benefits to sourdough that only sourdough can provide, especially sourdough made with quality whole grains. To name just a few benefits of whole grain sourdough:

A more complex flavor. Bread and pastries baked with whole grain sourdough often have more depth to their flavor, which with proper fermentation should be distinct but not overwhelmingly sour.
Improved digestibility. The fermentation process breaks down the enzymes and starches in the dough, making it easier for your gut to digest.
More nutrient dense. By using whole grains you get a lot more nutrients than if you used a more refined flour.

Okay, let’s feed your starter! So remember how we said your starter was “active”, that activeness is on a timeline. Think of your starter as being on a bell curve. When your starter is most active, it would be at the top, most peak part of the bell curve. That is when we want to use the starter to bake bread. After that peak time, the activeness begins to slope down, and the starter needs to be fed again to build back up to the peak of the bell curve. Fermentation speed is controlled mostly by temperature. Warmer temperatures = faster fermentation and colder temperatures = slower fermentation. That is why when you bought our starter it was in the fridge, to slow the fermentation down until you can feed it again.

Okay, now let’s actually feed your starter. Quite simply, just feed it equal parts flour and water. If you use a kitchen scale (we really recommend it!), a good quantity would be:

50g starter
200g flour
200g water

If you use cups, a good quantity would be:

¼ cup starter
2 cups flour
2 cups water

And remember what we said about temperature controlling fermentation speed? This means the temperature of your water and the temperature of the room your starter is left to ferment in matters. We recommend using room temperature water or slightly tepid water, and leaving it to ferment at room temperature for 8 -10 hours. Right after you feed your starter, it is starting over on the bell curve, and needs time to build back up to peak over the next 8 to 10 hours. You’ll know your starter is at the peak of the bell curve when it's doubled in size, looks bubbly and alive, and has a nice alive smell to it.

Depending on how happy your starter was when you took it home (maybe you ran a few extra errands and it sat in the car all day…this happens), you might need to do a few rounds of feeding before it is happy enough to be able to make your bread rise.

And remember how we said flour matters, ultimately you should use whatever flour you have…but if you can get your hands on some quality whole grain flour, do so! For sourdough bread, any bread flour or “hard red wheat” flour will do, this just usually indicates a higher protein level in the flour which is ideal for making a nice loaf of bread. We sell Camas Country flour in the bakery, and we use a lot of their flour in our baked goods. We love their flour! Cairnspring, Chimacum Grainery, and Fairhaven Mills are some other great PNW flours to check out. Just start scoping out the flour aisle at your local grocery store.

And from here, it’s up to you what recipes you want to follow! Happy baking!

Here are just a few books you might consider checking out from the library or buying from your favorite local book store to find recipes and keep learning:

The Long Loaf by Andrew Barton
Josey Baker Bread by Josey Baker
Mother Grains by Roxana Jullapat
Breaking Bread by Martin Philip
The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo
Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
Richard Hart Bread by Richard Hart
New World Sourdough by Bryan Ford