Thread by @sravi

A good fermentation requires a very active and healthy sourdough starter in the first place. Unlike commercial yeast which you can purchase from the store, sourdough starter has to be cultivated (or get from someone) and maintained by feeding it regularly. #Sourdough #Starter

Creating a healthy sourdough starter from scratch can take anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks. This is when different colonies of bacteria found in flour fight for their survival until the acid producing bacteria makes the environment not suitable for other microbes to survive.

The starter you are creating is a crude petri dish which requires flour, water and right temperature for the microbes to thrive. The actual strain of microbes will vary. But eventually it stabilizes when only acid producing bacteria takes home the starter.

Flour blend for creating starter: Any wheat based or rye will work well. Some common blends:
1:1 whole wheat & AP flour/Maida. Fully whole wheat. Fully rye. Or you can start with whole grain flour initially for the first 5 days and switch to AP flour.

Water you use should not be chlorinated. You can also use pineapple juice for the first few days to speed up the process. Pineapple juice creates an acidic environment from the get go to create an environment suitable for acid producing bacteria

In warmer places, you might have to feed the starter twice daily. In colder places it's even ok to feed once daily. If you still need to slow down, add 2%(wrt flour weight) salt to slow down fermentation further.

Don’t ever throw the starter if it smells bad. In the process of 2 weeks of feeding, you will smell sweat, dirty socks or what not. This is different colonies of bacteria claiming their home. Just keep continuing with feeding, eventually the good bacteria will win.

Look for bubbles due to fermentation. Smell every time before feeding. If it smells overly sour & vinegary, it means the microbes need food. Feed them to keep them happy.

If it smells fruity like pineapple, ripe apple, lactic acid you are on the right track. Finally the starter should reach its peak (2.5-3x volume) in 4 to 12 hours. If it reaches peak much early, you need to salt or inoculate less and find a way to bring it down.

Finally, when feeding use AT LEAST 1:1:1 ratio of starter, flour, water. Don’t underfeed. But you can go upto 1:4:4. I use a 1:2:2 ratio. Play with the ratio that ensures your starter doesn’t deprive of food before your next feed.

The best video of making sourdough starter from scratch - I found from Northwest Sourdough. This goes over the entire process everyday. She also explains the smell and what to look for each day

youtube.com/watch?v=BIFPzo…