How to make a Rye Starter

I always use a wet teatowel, or rather a cut-off bit of an old and thin teatowel.

Thanks for that Leslie. I'd always put a wet tea towel over my bread when rising. Never made sourdough starter before & was wondering if the plastic bag was a good idea or not. Will try the wet tea towel instead.

The flour already has the wild yeast and bacteria in it to make sourdough .

Some people do put yeast in the starter, but I have never found it necessary. Unless you are killing the natural (and harmless) yeasts in your kitchen by zapping anti-bacterials everywhere, they should descend on your flour-water mix and take up residence there. People were leavening bread with sourdough for thousands of years before anyone thought of using yeast from beer instead.

Wonderful, thanks Leslie.

Thanks for your feedback. I tried the airing cupboard because there was hardly any activity going on when I was trying to get the starter going, but you could be right, maybe it is getting overstimulated. I will have to try again & leave it in the kitchen.

How very disappointing for you. The sourness comes from the acid, which is produced by the yeast as it ferments. If you have too much acid, it suggests that you used your starter too long after feeding it.

Your starter needs be full of bubbles when you use it - if it has already peaked (the bubble have come and gone, often evidenced by tide-lines inside the jar), just throw half of it away, replenish with a new feed and give it another try. 

There are a lot factors that change the timings for feeding and using a starter - it really is a case of trial and error until you find a process that works for your particular situation. As well as changing the timings, temparature makes a big difference - warmer will speed things up, cooler will slow them down. 

Keep persevering and good luck!

Mind, I find that many supermarket sourdoughs hardly taste sour at all to me; I think it depends on what you're used to. I can cope with much sourer bread, I suspect, because I had sourdough bread in childhood, made by my grandmother, who lived in German Silesia. Germans and Poles like their sourdough rather more hardcore than perhaps Americans do. However, if I'm making white bread, which I don't often, I usually take the starter from the fridge 2 days before I bake, and feed it twice. I'd take issue with the throwing-away idea; in my experience just using small amounts of flour and water will get the yeasts working again, and modify the amount of lactic acid.

I am a complete beginner and wanted to check the recipe of Ms Leslie Wilson . If you use 3 tablespoons of flour, do you also use 3 tablespoons of hand hot water?

Yes, I meant to put 3 tablespoons of hand-hot water and apparently didn't. Well done you for spotting it! It is indeed 3 and 3, so that makes it easy to remember. Happy baking, Sarah!

Leslie maybe you can answer this for me. I started my starter exactly as this website recipe states and on the 2nd day I had bubbles but today is day 5 and nothing. Things have gone flat. Any suggestions? Was thinking about adding white flour and sugar to tonight's feed to see if that helps. In a warm spot. So far, 100% rye. Thanks

I think if it's gone flat it's failed and you should start again. Did you have it in a warm place? What I didn't say was that I cover mine with a damp cloth, to let in yeasts from the air; this is crucial. Also, beware of using bactericidal sprays in the kitchen if that's where your starter is growing. They will kill it! My daughter was putting her starter on the windowsill on mild/ warm days, to get wild yeasts from the outside air. But white flour isn't superior to yeast flour in getting a starter going, so I doubt if that would help. Everyone agrees that starters sometimes fail. Don't be discouraged! Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. Will start again and considering a starter using yeast. Maybe that's a better "no fail" recipe. This organic rye flour is too expensive to keep wasting :) most say no sugar or honey - too many contaminants but will try yours too as another option.

There are lots of factors that affect the way a starter behaves and there is no "right way". What is clear is that yours is now active and ready for baking. I would suggest giving it a go and seeing how you get on. Over time your will get to know your starter, how it behaves and how it works for you. Good luck!

How you manage your starter depends on how often you use it. If you bake daily, you will need to feed it daily. If you bake less frequently, you could put it in the fridge to slow everything down, then take it out a day or 2 before baking to get it going again. If you leave it in the fridge for more than a week or so, you should consider bringing it out for a day and feeding it, before putting it back.

Another way is to keep it in the fridge permanently, then, each time you want to bake, take out 50g of starter and feed it up over a couple of days, ready for your bake; make sure you have 50g more than you need to put back into the starter that you have kept in the fridge.

Whatever you do, I would recommend that you experiment to work out what is best for you, rather than stick to any paticular set of rules.

Thanks for the reply. I plan to bake once or twice a week. I'll feed it today and pop it in the fridge. Holding thumbs, my first loaf is just in the oven, it has risen beautifully, way better than the yeast ones I've baked!

Hi Polkadot, came across this page and your post. I just started my batch of rye starter tonight. Looked at a lot of recipes and this one seemed easiest and not as complicated as others. Did you follow these directions or did you edit the recipe? This one didn't ask to throw out half - just keep feeding. Just wondering, this is new to me. How did your first loaf turn out?