A homemade sourdough starter requires only flour and water and in as little as six days you can be baking bread with it. Here's how.
In a jar, combine 25 grams rye flour and 25 grams warm water and stir until no dry bits of flour are visible. Cover the mixture and let sit in a warm place for 24 hours (ideally, 75º-80ºF). You won't see much or if any activity after Day 1.
Take the 50 gram flour/water mixture from Day 1 and stir in 25 grams rye flour and 25 grams warm water. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 24 hours. You might see good bubling activity at the end of Day 2 (see blog post for more detailed notes).
Take the 100 gram flour/water mixture from Day 2 and stir in 50 grams rye flour and 50 grams warm water. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 24 hours. At the end of Day 3 you might not see much activity but proceed to Day 4 instructions.
Of the 200 grams flour/water mixture from Day 3 keep 100 grams (discard the remaining 100 grams or set aside for a discard baking project--see blog post) and stir in 50 grams rye flour and 50 grams warm water. Cover and let sit in warm place for 24 hours. At the end of Day 4 you should see strong activity and the starter should begin to smell vinegary, alcoholic and sweet. It should also have doubled in size during this time.
Follow the instructions for Day 4 for both Day 5 and Day 6. This means that after each feeding on days five and six you should end up with 200 grams of starter. By the end of each day you should see strong activity and the starter should double within four to six hours. Your starter is now ready to use.
Feed for a few more days then establish a daily or weekly feeding schedule based on how often you expect to use your starter.
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