Here’s what my jar of starter looked like this morning.
It is so exciting! When I stirred my flour into it yesterday, it was right at halfway full. 24 hours later..it has risen at least an inch if not more! And there are bubbles all through it. And I have this nice layer of froth on top. Yep…the sourdough starter is starting to become sourdough.
You’ll notice in my top picture that I instead of the brown gooey liquid sitting on top of my starter like it had been on other days, it was at the bottom. I have no idea why…but it’s not a big deal. I just poured it all into a fresh jar just like that and it mixed back in.
Jen was wondering why we need to transfer to a clean jar or bowl each day. I don’t know! My resources (Nourishing Traditions book…and my own past experiences with sourdough…and my trusty sourdough making friend, Anne) just tell me to do it! I think the clean jar just gives your starter a fresh start as you feed it (or something like that?). If you just left it in the same container and just kept feeding it in that…all kinds of crud would build up on the sides and your jar would be all yucky. Then the sourdough would have to do it’s work around the yucky crud and it wouldn’t be as effective. Yes, I think that’s the reason why. :)
Okay, so again for Day 4…put your starter into a clean glass container, add a cup of flour and a cup of water, stir well, cover with cheesecloth and put in a warm place.
I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’m going to need to transfer mine to my big glass bowl. It’s getting BIG! Oh, and it smells even more like sourdough today…just slightly…but I can tell it’s working.
By the way…yours might not be doing the exact thing mine is. Yours is working in YOUR air and in YOUR climate. Yours might be working faster…or slower than some of ours are working.
I am curious what yours are looking like though. Did you have a layer of froth today? Do you see bubbles?!
I kinda want to describe my sourdough smell as “sweetly sour”. Does that make sense? What does yours smell like?
Just getting started? Here are our previous sourdough starter days!
Jill Roper says
I have bubbles but nothing else. I am a little worried that mine is not growing. Will we be adding anything else during the week?
Laura, you are right as to why we change bowls or jars each day. It gets very gunky (is that a word) on the sides and it looks really gross.
gigi says
wow! NOone ever told me to keep changing bowls for my starter
….I think I will do that though..Makes sense to me…
Mines not really growing much either…a little bubbly…
.smells nice and soury fermenty…:o) SO I hope I get a good starter
out of it..Mine does have yeast in it..Got it from an Amish sourdough
starter recipe from ALLRECIPES.COM It’s a young starter only on
my 5th day…Wish me luck By the way…;any one have a good
TRIED AND TRUE Recipe for their starter? Thanks All! Gigi
jenny says
I am an avid lurker on your blog! :) I enjoy reading about your homeschool experiences and have tried several of your recipes…The mud balls are big hit in our house!
I am so happy you are doing a series on how to make your own sourdough starter. My Grandma was known for her delicious sourdough bread. Unfortunately, I did not get her recipe before she began experiencing dementia. I was just telling my Mom at Christmas how I wished I knew how to make homemade sourdough bread. I’m thrilled you have pictures to go along with your directions! I’m definitely going to try making some soon. Thank you so much!
Denai says
IF I ONLY had cheese cloth, I could play your game this week! Maybe next time I go to the store (oh wait DH will be going to Menards tomorrow, maybe they have some in the paint department)… OH, golly, I think I need glass jars or bowls too… UGH, maybe I can’t play… (SAD :-(
Shannon says
Hi, me AGAIN! lol I think your brown liquid is probably at the bottom because of all the lovely bubbles you’ve got! You must have some really hungry yeast critters at your house! But your froth really does look light and airy, so that’s probably the reason. :-) I haven’t got wheat flour yet, so I haven’t got a new one started, but I will soon!
Oh, and I’d love it if you’d do a step by step of the bread making, if you have time. The only bread I’ve made is with a bread machine, but I’d really like to learn how to make “real” bread. LOL
Roberta Anne says
It is looking really good. I had missed the post about the song playing over and over. I don’t know how I did that but that is really strange.
Roberta Anne
Marsha_M says
Thank you so much for this series! I have been wanting to try sourdough and this is making me want to even more. The “Herbwife’s” blog talked about making English muffins from the sourdough which I love! I agree with a previous poster that it would be great to see a step by step of the bread making also.
Marsha
Cindy S says
Hi-
My sourdough smells like…. well, my husband says it smells like some of the calls he goes on (he is a fireman/paramedic) this is not a good smell…. do you think I caught some bad yeast rather than good? Everytime I try to make this stuff it always smells like…. What am I doing wrong?
thank you,
Cindy
Andrea in MI says
I’m a day behind you. I had to switch to a bowl today (day 4 for me). Mine looked a lot like yours, but my jar has been more full the whole time. The liquid was at the bottom (like your pic) for the first time today and I had some bubbling. When I poured it into the bowl, it was quite bubbly. However, mine does not smell “sweetly sour.” I don’t think it smells good, but I don’t know what sourdough starter is supposed to smell like. Any suggestions?
I fed it again today; maybe the smell will be better tomorrow.
Thanks so much for doing this!
Andrea :-)
Bob says
Laura. From breadtopia:
“Hooch forms when the starter has been sitting around too long without feeding. Almost everybody says it’s not a problem and either pour it out or mix it back in (if the starter is dry to start with for example). On the other hand, Hooch never forms on my starter as long as it’s fairly vigorous and fed fairly often so it doesn’t seem like a particularly good sign either.
As to the hooch forming on the bottom instead of the top, I’ve seen that and always assumed that it was just forming somewhere and getting trapped if the starter mixture was fairly stiff. But that’s just a guess.”
Jill Roper. Are you getting bubbles only on the surface? I’ve had starters do that and simply changed white flour brands.
Things changed 24 hours later and the started kicked into high gear.
Notes: I wouldn’t use a starter less than two weeks old until it’s stable as a Apple computer and fully formed.
I use wide bowls to grow the culture and change every 4 days so mold doesn’t grow on the “gunky” exposed area above the main mass.
What's Cooking says
Laura,
I’ve been making this starter and I’m at the end of day 4 and I’m concerned because my started smells so bad! It doesn’t smell like the sour smell when I make started with store-bought yeast…when I go to feed it the only thing I can describe it as is vomit (sorry to be so yucky but I need a diagnosis here). After I feed it and stir it in the smell improves to a sour smell but a very fermented sour smell and not the sour smell that I’m used to getting when I make a 1 day starter from store-bought yeast as mentioned above.
Is it supposed to smell really bad? Am I doing something wrong? Am I going to give my family food poisoning?
Help!
Thanks,
Jen
http://www.thethingswedoblog.com
http://www.whatscooking4us.blogspot.com
http://www.hopechestofwisdom.blogspot.com
http://www.legacyprayerjournals.com
Laura says
Sorry for the delay in replying. It really is supposed to smell (even a little like vomit).
You aren’t doing anything wrong and you won’t poison your family. Once you make bread with it, it won’t smell so icky.
Jen says
You’re awesome! Thank you! I did go ahead and proceed and it turned out just like you said it would! It was wonderful! Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?!?! I mean your blog. =0) I mean…..ah forget it. =0)
Hope your week is going fabulous serving your husband, boys, and the Lord!
Jen
http://www.thethingswedoblog.com
http://www.whatscooking4us.blogspot.com
http://www.hopechestofwisdom.blogspot.com
http://www.legacyprayerjournals.com
Carol says
Is there anything else you could use instead of cheese cloth? I would like to try to make do with something I have around the house.:( Thanks
Laura says
You could use a VERY THIN tea towel if you have one. You need to be sure plenty of air is getting in. The only reason you use cheesecloth at all is just to keep out bugs…otherwise you’d just leave it uncovered so it could get plenty of air!
Sandra says
A thin, cheap, white cotton handkerchiefs will do just fine. I had one that was ragged on the edges from so much washing. It was destined to be a dusting rag, for which it was really too small. Acting as an insect barrier on my sourdough culture is a much better use for it.
Louise says
I use coffee filters, the kind that are flat, and a rubber band over anything that needs to breathe but still needs a cover. works great and i can throw it out when i need to.
Inna says
Tomorrow will be day 4 of my starter. So far so good! But i wasn’t clear on the pouring out of the liquid. Do I need to pour it out on day 4 or do I just mix it back in?
Thank you
Laura says
It depends on how it looks. If the liquid is dark, you probably want to pour it off. No biggie either way, but I like to pour mine off and add in fresh water with my flour.
Melanie says
OH NO!! I got busy and forgot to feed my starter yesterday! What’s a girl to do?
Laura says
It’s completely fine!!! Just feed it today and maybe tack on a day or two of feeding it at the end before making bread.
AND, as my eyes were quickly scanning all my new comments and questions this morning, I read this as “I forgot to feed my SISTER yesterday.” Yikes. That could be a problem!! :)
SarahW says
I am new to traditional sourdough breadmaking. I want to follow the ‘Nourashing Traditions’ way but as I research online, I notice alot of people using at least part of thier flour as ‘white’ flour. I do not want to do this, would my sourdough bread still turn out if I only use whole grain flour?
My starter will be made from rye.
??????
Thanks for the help!
Sarah
Laura says
You can definitely use only whole grains, that’s what I do! Using rye will be great too!
Stephanie says
I’m on Day 4 of your instructions and it’s finally starting to smell faintly sourdoughy! Prior to this it smelled like… well it smelled like someone had vomited in my kitchen and it was wafting into our family room as well! GROSS! But, no more vomity smell (thank goodness) and we’re starting to smell like sourdough! So excited!
This is my first time attempting a sourdough starter and the whole disgusting smell thing really had me worried. Not to mention we were NOT enjoying half our house smelling that way! My husband actually asked after he got home from work on Day 3 if I’d like him to take it out to the shed! ::giggle::
So, any news on how your own starter is doing now, Laura? Have you done any more baking with it since Day 8 of your tutorial?
Thanks for putting this together by the way!
Hollie says
Help… I got my recipie from betty crockers book and it says noting about feeding it untill the fourth day…also in my mothers Betty Crocker book it says to leave it for 10-15 days… Is my starter garbage??? Can it b saved???
Laura says
Sure, save it and keep feeding it at this point – I think it should be just fine.
Andrea says
HELP, I am on day 3, my 1/2 gallon jar overflowed last night. I moved it to a large bowl, but just two hours later it looks that one is going to overflow. I don’t own anything bigger. Can I split my starter 1/2 way through the process into two or even 4 different containers?
Laura says
Yes, I think splitting it will be okay. Sounds like your sourdough starter is alive and well!
Carly says
Hi! This is actually how mine looked on day 3! Before I saw that you said “sweetly sour”, that’s exactly what I thought. I was like “yep, smells sour… but… kind of sweet, too”.