75g Strong white flour or bread flour
75ml water ideally mineral water
Note: the actual quantities of flour and water are not important, they just need to be the same.
Day 1
Mix the flour and water in a plastic tub. Leave the tub open to the air for 24 hours or cover lightly with a paper towel.
Day 2
Add another 75g flour and 75ml water and mix. Leave the tub open to the air for 24 hours or cover lightly with a paper towel.
Day 3
Add another 75g flour and 75ml water and mix. Leave the tub open to the air for 24 hours or cover lightly with a paper towel.
Day 4
Add another 75g flour and 75ml water and mix. Leave the tub open to the air for 24 hours or cover lightly with a paper towel.
Day 5
The starter should be full of bubbles and be ready to use. If it is not discard some of the starter, retain 75g and feed with 75g flour and 75ml water.
Repeat until the starter is full of bubbles. You can check if it is ready by dropping a glob into water. If it floats then it is ready to make sourdough bread.
Once the starter is ready you can continue to discard and feed it daily indefinitely or you can move it to the fridge and feed it once a week.
The quantities above of 75g and 75ml are examples figures only. As long as you start the starter with equal parts of flour and water it should work ok. Once the starter is bubbling you then need to feed it at the ratio of 1 part starter, 1 part flour and 1 part water.
You can also freeze the starter and at a later date thaw it and continue to feed it as above.
If your sourdough has not started to bubble, rise or give off a sour smell after about 7-10 days then there is probably something not working correctly. You can try the following things:
Chilli lentil stew (Linda)
Roasted vegetable soup (Paul Cordey)
Sourdough bread (recipe from Zoe)
Sourdough bread (backwards bread)
When I have that hooch, I mix it in with the new water and flour.
I know it seems hard to take care of a starter, but one day, you will find it's like children. The first one is always overprotected and the last one always end up eating worms and dirt and everything is alright.
At the beginning, I was always measuring and throwing away discard because I can't do bread everyday. Now I feed one day before my bread baking. Otherwise, once in a while, I add water and flour and I dont mesure anything anymore.
I saw a video online about how much neglect can your starter get. The guy went on vacation 3 weeks and returned home. It's a good watch for anyone doing sourdough. Since then, I feed them less often and everytime, it's always alright.
https://youtu.be/pi3lGpEBGxM?si=W1J5X_VKjUPAeb-4