sourdough starters, one skill per page
Thirty skills for people who keep meaning to start a starter: the jar that doubles, the feeding cycle and the discard toll, grams not cups, the baker's four numbers, bulk fermentation and the temperature that sets its clock, stretch and fold instead of kneading, the fridge pause that fits a job, scoring and the Dutch oven steam trick, the wait after the oven, hooch and the starter that isn't dead, one skill per page.
A diagram, the classic trap, and one thing to go try this week. That's a page.
sourdough starters, one skill per page
Thirty skills for people who keep meaning to start a starter: the jar that doubles, the feeding cycle and the discard toll, grams not cups, the baker's four numbers, bulk fermentation and the temperature that sets its clock, stretch and fold instead of kneading, the fridge pause that fits a job, scoring and the Dutch oven steam trick, the wait after the oven, hooch and the starter that isn't dead, one skill per page.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Baking behaviour and numbers checked against King Arthur Baking's official guides and recipes (sourdough for beginners; the sourdough starter recipe; feeding and maintaining your sourdough starter; ripe sourdough starter; scoring bread dough; the no-knead and rustic sourdough bread recipes and the tools list), fetched and read during this build; The Kitchn's beginner guides (sourdough starter from scratch, the sourdough for beginners guide, hooch and fridge maintenance); and The Sourdough Journey's recipe basics FAQ (the typical formula, grams versus cups, bulk fermentation, folds, shaping, proofing, the cold retard, baking and cooling). Ratios, times and temperatures are quoted as those sources state them. Concepts are named as the sources name them. Teaching conventions (name the jar, one skill per page) are named as conventions. This book quotes no verbatim passages and is an independent guide not affiliated with or endorsed by King Arthur Baking Company, The Kitchn, or The Sourdough Journey.
General information only. Not professional advice; verify against your own ingredients, oven and the current recipe pages.
Your purchase is for personal use only. You do not have redistribution rights: please do not share, resell, or republish this book or its pages.
© 2026 Steve Hodgkiss. All rights reserved. Personal use only; no redistribution rights.
Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
The model
What sourdough actually is: the starter as a farm you feed, the discard arithmetic, the two honest schedules, hooch, and the doubling test.
- 01Four ingredients, no yeast
- 02A starter is a farm
- 03Feeding is swap, not add
- 04Hooch means hungry
Sourdough bread is made with four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter, a wild yeast culture. Per The Sourdough Journey's recipe basics.
Four ingredients, no yeast
Let's say you read a sourdough recipe, count the ingredients, and get stuck on the missing packet of yeast. It isn't missing. The yeast is already in the flour.
Sourdough is flour, water, salt, and starter, and starter is a wild yeast culture, the Journey's whole list. It does yeast's leavening job, slower and with more flavour. You're farming the rise, not buying it.
The rise comes from the jar, not the shop.
Look at a bag of flour tonight and remind yourself the yeast is in there. Then start reading jar labels in your kitchen: one of them is about to become the leaven.
To make your own sourdough starter you only need three things: flour, water, and time; combine equal parts flour and water, let it rest at room temperature, then regularly discard some and refresh with more flour and water. Per King Arthur Baking's sourdough for beginners guide.
A starter is a farm
Let's say you mixed flour and water in 2020, watched it do nothing, and concluded you killed it. You didn't. You stopped feeding it.
A starter is flour and water that collects wild yeast and bacteria, and you keep it by discarding some and refreshing with more flour and water, King Arthur's whole method. The colony eats, bubbles, and multiplies. Skip the feedings and it starves. Keep them and it's ready in five to 14 days.
It's not a chemistry experiment. It's a small farm.
Mix 50g flour and 50g water in a jar tonight. Mark the level with tape. That's day one, and the tape is your first instrument.
To feed a starter you discard some of the existing starter, then replace it with flour and water; once fed the starter becomes active and bubbly, doubling in volume before it exhausts itself and begins to sink back down. Per King Arthur Baking's feeding and maintenance guidance.
Feeding is swap, not add
Let's say you can't face the waste, so you just keep feeding, and by Friday you own a bucket of starter. Without discarding, a starter grows infinitely.
King Arthur is blunt: discarding is unavoidable, you remove some starter to make room for the flour and water you're adding. It's arithmetic, not failure. Feed it and the starter goes bubbly, doubles, then sags.
Discard is the toll, not the waste. Budget for it.
At your next feeding, discard down to a spoonful before you feed, and put the discard in a container in the fridge instead of the bin. You'll use it on page 27.
A little brown or grey liquid on top is a sign of an underfed starter, not a dead one; stir it in and feed; trash starter that grows mould or has a pink or orange hue; exposure to high heat and long neglect at room temperature will kill it. Per The Kitchn's beginner guide.
Hooch means hungry
Let's say you open the fridge, see grey liquid on top of your starter, and pour the whole jar away. That liquid has a name and it isn't death. You threw away a hungry starter, not a dead one.
That layer is hooch, and The Kitchn's read is simple: brown or grey liquid means underfed; stir it in and feed. What you do trash is mould, or any pink or orange hue, plus long neglect in a warm room. The starter forgives forgetting. It doesn't forgive those.
Grey on top: stir and feed. Pink inside: bin.
If your starter has hooch right now, stir it in and feed it, and mark the last-fed date on the jar. If it's pink, toss it and reread page 2: day one is 50g flour, 50g water.
The dough
The four numbers of a loaf, grams not cups, the strong flour, bulk fermentation and its temperature clock, folds instead of kneading, and leaving it alone late.
- 01Five hundred, and the rest
- 02Bulk makes the bread
The most typical one-loaf recipe by weight is bread flour 500g (100%), water 375g (75% of flour weight), starter 100g (20%), salt 10g (2%); sourdough is a sticky, high-hydration dough and traditional hand kneading is usually not possible. Per The Sourdough Journey's recipe basics.
Five hundred, and the rest
Let's say every recipe you find quotes different cups and spoons, and no two loaves agree. Recipes aren't drifting. Your measuring is. Cups are volume, bread is weight.
Here's the whole typical loaf, The Sourdough Journey's baseline: 500g flour, 375g water, 100g starter, 10g salt. In baker's percentages that's 100, 75, 20, 2. Learn the shape and every recipe on earth becomes a variation you can read.
Five hundred is the anchor. Everything is a percent of it.
Write 500 / 375 / 100 / 10 on a card and stick it inside a cupboard door. That's the last recipe card most beginners ever need to copy.
Bulk fermentation is the step that lets the dough rise and ferment, taking 4 to 12 hours or more depending on dough temperature and starter strength; it is the most important skill for new sourdough bakers: bulk fermentation makes the bread. Per The Sourdough Journey's recipe basics.
Bulk makes the bread
Let's say you shape early because the recipe said five hours and the kitchen is cold, and the loaf bakes into a brick. The clock lied. Bulk time is a range, and temperature picks the number.
Bulk fermentation is the rise, and it runs 4 to 12 hours or more, set by dough temperature and starter strength. The Sourdough Journey calls reading bulk the most important beginner skill, and says it plainly: bulk fermentation makes the bread. Everything else is detail.
Watch the dough, not the clock. Bulk makes the bread.
Next mix, put the dough in a straight-sided container and mark its starting level. Watch the dough itself rise past the mark. You've just replaced the recipe's clock with evidence.
Sourdough baking is challenging and frustrating at times, but the way through is to enjoy the bread and keep going: always take time to enjoy the bread, every loaf is a small miracle; keep notes and document each bake as the best way to improve. Per The Sourdough Journey's recipe basics.
One loaf per weekend
Let's say you binge six bakes in one heroic weekend, then bake nothing for a month. Binges teach less than rhythm. One weekend doesn't build a baker.
The Sourdough Journey's last two steps are eating and learning: take time to enjoy the bread, every loaf is a small miracle, and document each bake, the best way to improve. One loaf a weekend, notes each time, discard pancakes midweek. Four weekends in, you won't recognise your hands.
One loaf a weekend. Notes every time. That's all.
Book the next four weekend bake slots in your calendar now, one per week, notes page beside each. That's the whole syllabus, and it's already in your diary.