Activating My New Packet Of Sourdough Starter

Dear Nosey, I’ve received your packet of starter in the mail, but I’m confused by the instructions for how to reactivate the dry starter. There seem to be three different methods listed. Which one is the best?
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Dear Karen,

I included activation instructions from several different sources on the Internet. One from a woman, Cyndie Hamley, who has the information on her website, takes five days to follow. I’ll include it here. My opinion is that of the three I offer, the last method works best, takes the least amount of time, and has perfectly satisfactory results for any dry starter that I know about.

Baking with Sourdough by Cyndie Hamley

Activating Your Sourdough Starter Your pack contains enough for two starts. Mix ½ cup flour, 1/2 cup lukewarm pure water, and about 1 tsp. starter powder in a glass 1-quart jar. Don’t tighten the lid. Keep it at warm room temperature, 70-80F is ideal, but cooler is just fine. After two days you should see bubbles and signs of life. It’s alive.

Feeding your starter daily for about 5 days will help it reach full activity. (3/4 cup flour + 3/4 cup water = 1 cup starter) Organically grown flour and non-chlorinated water are suggested because they contain no chemicals that might kill the wild yeast. At day five you may continue to keep your starter at room temperature feeding it daily or put it in the refrigerator and feed it at least once weekly.

Feeding Schedule: Day 1 put starter powder in 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Day 2 add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water Day 3 add 1 cup flour and 1 cup water Day 4 pour off about 1 cup of starter and add 3/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup water to the remainder. Day 5 pour off about 1 cup of starter and add 3/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup water to the remainder.

This should give you about 2-3 cups of starter to store in the refrigerator. You may bake pancakes or other quick bread with the starter you pour off on days 4 and 5. It will not have its full sour flavor, but it will be delicious.

This will work perfectly and is a pretty standard method. On the other hand, I read another method that uses sugar to give a little ‘oomph!’ to kickstart your activation. This is the older method that I got with my culture. Most of it is not necessary, as I mentioned up above. I’ll mark off those parts with *** ______***

To REACTIVATE the starter from the powdered form:

1. Dissolve the contents of the packet with 3/4 cup warm (90 degree) water, add 3/4 cup white bread flour, and 1 teaspoon sugar in glass or plastic container (NOT METAL!).

2. Place bowl (covered with damp towel) in warm place (the oven with the light on is about 85 degrees-Test it first!) for up to 48 hours. It will get bubbly from the fermentation. IT’S ALIVE!!

3. Mix in 1 cup warm (95) water, add 1 cup flour, ***1 tablespoon dried potatoes or use potato water*** and let sit in the warm place till bubbly again. Don’t worry about the lumps as the fermentation will take care of them.

4. Now, you can store it in the frig till needed. It may develop a clear liquid on top, if so, stir it back in as this is alcohol - keep it happy! It will need feeding about every couple of weeks, just add 1 cup warm skim milk or water, ***1 T Sugar*** and 1 cup flour. ***Once in a while add 1 tablespoon of dried potatoes (or use potato water). If it looks sick, add 1 T CIDER vinegar to give it a kick in the behind!***

Give the excess to a friend or you can keep some of it in the freezer for several months between feedings.

When you want to bake something, bring the starter up to room temperature, mix in 1 cup flour, 1 c warm water or skim milk and let sit overnight to ferment. The next morning, remove one cup to keep in a covered jar as a starter for use next time, feed it, then do your baking.

Again, these are instruction I got, but have discovered since then that you never need to use commercial active yeast. The Sourdough culture provides plenty of leavening power. The whole point of keeping a sourdough culture is so that you don’t have to buy and use commercial yeast.

*A revised, more modern method works best, and takes the least time to work.*

Tips: Get a small container. Begin with one tablespoon of lukewarm water, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of your starter and let stand for a few minutes to soften the start granules. Then mix in one tablespoon of flour. Depending on the flour, you may need to add an additional teaspoon or two of water. You want the mixture to be like a thin pancake batter. When the mixture gets bubbly, put it in a little larger container. Then stir in 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour. When that mix rises up add 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour. When this bubbles up, you will have about one cup of very active starter that is ready for use or storage in your refrigerator. The time between refreshments will depend mainly on temperature. You can expect the first sign of starter activity to take from four to 12 hours.

I use the baby formula wrist test to judge the temperature of the water. A few drops on your wrist should feel neither warm nor cold.

A baby food jar and an 18-ounce peanut butter jar work well for the small and large containers.

Established starter will do fine in any room temperature that is comfortable for humans. Warmer room temperature is helpful when reviving start, but do not go over 85F if at all possible. Cooler temperatures just extend the time required. If room temperature is under 68F, I find a warmer spot such as the top of my refrigerator or a cold oven with the light on.

Vigorous stirring of the mixture from time to time will slightly shorten the time between growth stages, but is not necessary for success. I use this method to test starter before shipping, and just stir enough to mix the ingredients. Regarding the vinegar "kick", and the use of dry yeast in a few of the recipes you might find, we don’t do it, but heck, it might work for you.

Good luck with your sourdough!