What is a Sourdough Starter?
A sourdough starter is basically a live fermented culture of “flour” and “water”. When flour and water are mixed, the culture begins to ferment by capturing the microorganisms (wild yeasts and bacteria) found in our environment. It is the combination of wild yeast and bacteria that makes sourdough bread rise and also gives flavour to the breads.
Wild yeast (aka natural yeasts) are living microorganisms that exist everywhere, in the flour, in the air, on the baker’s hands, and even on the surface of fruits. They feed on carbohydrates and release carbon dioxide and alcohol. It is because of their ability to release carbon dioxide that enables the yeast to leaven bread.
Wild Yeast vs Commercial Yeast
The difference between wild yeast and commercial yeast is that all commercial yeast started out as wild yeast, and over time, a single strain yeast known as “Saccharomyces cerevisiae” was cultivated to produce consistent results and flavours.
Wild yeast, also known as natural yeast, is always better than their artificial counterparts, that is, commercial yeast. Natural yeast is able to suppress gluten intolerance and curbing celiac disease. Even though natural yeast takes a longer time to ferment and is less predictable compared to commercial yeast, the time taken for the bacteria and yeast to ferment produces not only a versatile and distinct flavour but also a lower glycemic index (GI) compared to their commercial counterparts.
How to make Sourdough Starter?
Is it hard to do?
NO! It just takes a few minutes everyday to feed the starter. Other then that, all you need to do is be patient and wait for the wild yeast and bacteria to multiply and grow (become bubbly and increase in volume) over seven to ten days into a stable culture.
The first step you will need to do is to mix the flour and water. After that, the starter is left to ferment before it is being fed again. Fermentation starts when the wild yeast and bacteria begins feeding on the sugars found in the flour.
The only two ingredients you need to make a starter are “Flour” and “Water”.
For the flour selection, I would recommend starting with wholegrain flour. Reason being is that the wild yeast is more likely to be found in wholegrain flour compared to bread flour or all purpose flour. In this case, I have tested with both rye flour and wholemeal flour and found that rye flour seems to work faster for me. If you don’t have rye flour, by all means use wholemeal flour or bread flour.
There is more than one way to make a strong and healthy sourdough starter. Based on my side by side experiments of different types of flour and flour mixtures, many options work well. Other factors affecting fermentation may be the temperature, hydration level, feeding ratio and feeding schedule. Some may take a bit longer than others but you will eventually get there.
As for water, tap water is fine. I normally use boiled water from the tap that has been cooled to room temperature. If the tap water in your area has chemical smell and not clean, then you may have to use filtered or bottled water.
Please visit How to Make A Sourdough Starter to get started.
Feeding and Storing
Feeding (aka refreshing) a sourdough starter means adding fresh flour and water to the starter to keep it healthy and active.
Once the starter is mature, you can keep it in the fridge and feed it at least once a week. Unless you plan to bake everyday, keeping it in the fridge slows down the speed at which the starter consumes the “food” i.e. flour. This is because the starter is full of wild yeast that gets hungry and needs more “food” to eat.
If you plan to store it at room temperature, how often you feed is highly dependent on the temperature. The higher the temperature, the more often you will have to feed the starter. However, to make it easier, most bakers will usually feed it twice daily and increase their feeding ratios to correspond to the room temperature. For example, a lower ratio during the colder months and higher ratios when it gets hotter.
As for long term storage, I would highly recommend drying the starter and revive it back when needed.
For more detailed information on feeding and storing your sourdough starter, please visit Feeding and Maintaining A Sourdough Starter.
For more detailed information on how to dry and revive a sourdough starter, please visit How to Dry and Revive A Sourdough Starter.