| Making your own Sourdough Bread is easy when | | | | and smells pleasantly sour. It should smell "healthy" |
| you have a Sourdough Starter living in your | | | | and yeasty. Once established, it can live in your |
| kitchen or fridge. Here's how to make your own | | | | fridge and will only need feeding weekly and can |
| Sourdough starter today! | | | | be kept like this almost indefinitely (unless |
| First, you need a home for your sourdough | | | | something nasty infects it, which is unusual, or |
| starter. The starter itself is essentially cultivated | | | | unless it gets too hot). |
| wild yeast, with a food source and some bacteria. | | | | A genuine sourdough starter can be simple, like |
| Once established, it will live quite happily in your | | | | this. There are more complicated methods for |
| fridge in a plastic or glass container, loosely | | | | making sourdough starter, but this works well for |
| covered. I use an old Tupperware container with | | | | most people and makes a very tasty loaf of |
| an ill-fitting lid to house my pet sourdough starter. | | | | bread. The yeasts that you cultivate will be |
| Make sure the container is very clean, scald it | | | | whatever is hanging around your house at the |
| with boiling water before you use it. Whatever | | | | time, and will mutate over time, so you may find |
| you do, don't use a metal container (or metal | | | | you get a few surprises come out of the oven. |
| utensils when handling sourdough starter). | | | | This is part of what I like about sourdough, the |
| Take 1 cup of plain, rye or wholemeal flour and 1 | | | | inconsistency. There are so many variables in |
| cup of warm water. Mix to a batter. Leave | | | | making a loaf of bread, it's fun to play around and |
| somewhere warm, sunny and free of draught for | | | | eat the results. |
| a day, then loosely cover. | | | | Cleanliness is pretty important. Discard any starter |
| Each day, until the starter is well established, | | | | which smells unpleasant or unhealthy, sterilise the |
| remove some of the batter and replace with | | | | container and start again. Starter living in your |
| more flour and warm water. Warm water is | | | | fridge will develop "hooch", a liquid which sits on |
| about 60-70F, not too hot or you will kill the | | | | top of the starter - this is normal. You can mix it |
| yeasts. | | | | back in when you freshen up the starter. |
| The starter is "established" when it is quite frothy | | | | Enjoy! |