Printable Recipe
Sourdough Starter
Make a reliable sourdough starter from rye and plain flour with Brian Lagerstrom’s six-day feeding and maintenance method.
Prep time
10 min, per feeding
Cook time
0 min
Total time
10 min
Yield
About 125 g active starter
Ingredients
8
Steps
6
Filed under: bread, fermented, over 1 hour, sourdough, sourdough starter, rye.
Source channel: Brian Lagerstrom
Key ingredients
filtered or distilled room temperature water, whole grain rye flour, flour/water starter mix, room temperature water, all purpose flour.
Ingredients
- 150g filtered or distilled room temperature water
- 100g whole grain rye flour
- 75g flour/water starter mix
- 75g room temperature water
- 35g all purpose flour
- 35g rye flour
- 50g room temperature water
- 50g all purpose flour
Method
- Day 1: Into a tall container with a lid, measure 150g of filtered or distilled room temperature water and 100g of whole grain rye flour. Stir. Place a lid on the container, loosely, and let sit at room temperature.
- Day 2: Remove/discard 1/2 of the rye flour/water mixture from yesterday. Into your container with the remaining mixture, add 150g room temp water and 100g whole grain rye flour. Stir to combine. Cover loosely and let sit at room temperature.
- Day 3: Measure 75g of your flour/water starter mix from yesterday and discard the rest. Return only the 75g of starter to your jar and add 75g of room temperature water, 35g of all purpose flour, and 35g of rye flour. Stir and cover with a loose lid. Let sit at room temperature.
- Day 4: Repeat process from day 3.
- Day 5: Repeat process from day 3.
- Day 6: Your starter is now ready to use for baking. To maintain it, measure 25g of starter from the day before and discard the rest. To that 25g of starter, add 50g room temp water and 50g all purpose flour. Stir, cover with a loose lid and let sit at room temperature. Do this daily, every 24 hours, to maintain your starter. If you bake a lot or had it in the fridge, feed once every 12 hours. If not baking often, keep it in the fridge and feed once monthly. When bringing it back to active use, feed once every 12 hours for a couple of days until bubbling and active.