The Ultimate Sourdough Starter Guide

This is a guide a lot of people have been asking me to do for a while. I really hope you guys find this helpful. Everyone's always asked me what my secret was to such an amazing starter. Ironically, the process is actually really easy to do. Feel free to comment on here or DM me on Instagram with any questions you might have about making this! Also feel free to send me pics of your active sourdough starters. I love seeing you guys getting into this stuff!

*Reminder, the written feeding schedule is linked to at the bottom of this description*

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Feeding Schedule Guide:

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Chapters of The Video:
Tools And Ingredients - 1:38
Sourdough Process - 2:48
First Feeding - 4:14
The Standard Feeding - 6:17

[JoshuaWeissman]

Thank you guys for all of the support on this video! I appreciate all of you so much! Leave a comment letting me know if you want more sourdough bread videos. <3

[robinholbrook]

I’m a 73 yr old Gramma who is learning some new cooking cooking methods: sourdough, croissants, to name two! And you, dear boy, are my mentor! Lead me on!!! Lol 🌹

[rodneysmart]

I've had my starter for over twenty years and I take it camping with me all the time. My mom's starter is like 100 years old, it was started by my grandma and bits of it now live in dozens of kitchens.

[DatsiKxModz]

Here’s a tip! Instead of throwing out the starter mixture each day… put it in a separate jar each time to create another whole starter to give away/use or use it as a batter for frying things

[Q_The_Rabbit]

My sour dough starter came from my aunt's crockery after her funeral. That was 1996. She got hers on her wedding day in 1952 from my Granny. My Granny got hers from her Granny in 1923. The flour has always been fresh ground, soft white wheat & malted barley flour. I use the starter reduction/feed cull to start my Sunday boule fermenting Thursday.

[Cycke]

Isolation day 21, I started watching a guy who talks to a kitchen cabinet about feeding my imaginary yeast pet.

[Turd_Ferguson]

Your starter shares my birthday. I'm much older and more sour though.

[carolinaoliveira]

This is a 5 years old video and you probably wont see this message, but I just wanted to thank you for this video. After 4 failed attempt to start my own starter, Ive followed your step by step here and guess what? It worked. On the second day I could see the difference already and I kept going and now I have a beautiful starter. Im watching your "No Knead Beginner Sourdough Bread" video now and I had to come back here to thank you for this one. So again, thank you.

[svjetlixoxo]

Hello. This is me, a person who has without success tried to replicate german style sourdough bread. It had haunted my dreams and I could sometimes even smell it in the air, but I could never ever make it myself. Not to lack of trying. But I just failed so gloriously every time, for yearsss. But this time I didn't. This time I followed your recipe, step by step, for the starter and then for the bread and there it was.. a few months later it was in the air. The familiar smell of sourdough bread. And I want to thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I thank you for bringing this recipe into my kitchen. It is as I remember it, fresh from the bakery when I was a child, and even better. I thought it wasn't possible, but you made it possible, so thank you. Thank you soooo much.

[honestchin]

Since my mom won't let me get a dog, this will be my pet

[NLtrickNL]

I didn't know that skrillex made cool bread

[terrierickson]

I must have watched 25 sour dough videos but yours was the most detailed, confidence building and included the feeding chart. I’m on day 3 and “Clint” looks great! Yes! More sour dough content please. Love your videos!

[dthomascful]

Thanks to you, I’m now producing the best bread I’ve ever done in my 30 years of baking! Thank you Josh. You’re adorable!

[SpikeAnimeReviewsundmehr]

"do not use bleached flour"
Me, living in Germany, where you are not even allowed to sell bleached flour, absolutely confused about wtf bleached flour is supposed to be, untill I looked it up.

[jamma]

Sourdough starters. The new Tamagotchis for 30 year olds.

[melissapowers]

Used this guide to make 2 sour dough starters back on 2/2/22. One was called Odo, a control following this recipe. The other was called Patricia, using a 50/50 mixture of bread flour & unbleached AP. Both survived the first week, Patricia made an excellent sandwich bread, but was noticeably more runny (runnier? English is weird). They have since combined into Patrodo & has been doing really well with a 1:1:1 starter, flour, & water ratio. Thanks so much for your informative videos Josh!

[luisamendoza]

Thank you so much for this starter recipe ! I am your follower since I got marry almost 2 years ago, I ve cooked some of your bread recipes before and they all came out amazing! I cook Challos every week and I am planning to use this starter as a new way to feed and pray for my family and friends. Wish me good a luck since I will include you as one of them! I will be posting pics of my first sourdough loaf! Lots of blessings to you !

[stevethetree]

To anyone for whom feeding this thing every day is a dealbreaker: YOU DON'T NEED TO FEED IT EVERY DAY.
I keep mine in the fridge. If I'm not baking with it, I just pull it out every 7 days, feed it and put it straight back in (feeding every 7 days keeps it active enough to be ready to use any time).
Also: YOU WON'T KILL IT IF YOU DON'T FEED IT EVERY 7 DAYS IN THE FRIDGE. I have forgotten about my starter for 2-3 months on end and it still survived. I just fed it up again and it came right back to life. 
If you think you will likely forget about it for long enough to kill it, spread out a very active portion of starter on parchment paper and put in front of a fan to dry it until brittle. Break it up into flakes and store in a small airtight container. If you kill your main starter, you can simply hydrate this one, feed it, and it will come back to life. Stores for 6 months to a year so date the container and make a new one of those every 9 months or so. It's foolproof.

Edit: I have successfully revived the dried starter after 1 year. But a 5 year old dried starter could not be revived (found it in the back of a cupboard). 5 years is too long, it turns out.

[tee_sees]

I made this about a year ago, and the dough smelled soo good. I baked mines in a ceramic crockpot and when I tell you that thing was cracking when it was done, I mean it. My fam ate it right up! Perfect with a bit of Nutella and It wasn’t too much work too, so I’ll probably make it again 👍🏾 thanks for this!!!

[hayleynachtigal]

I was on day 3 with my first starter and she was bubbly, I was excited, going to feed her for the first time and my husband preheated the oven to 400 with my starter in there 🥲 (I keep it by the light bc my house is cold and I’m in WI). I was so upset. Here’s to #2! 😂