Unbleached bread flour (I recommend Lehi roller mills "turkey" flour, with King Arthur as a second choice)
Bottled water
2 half pint jars
2 lids
A rubber band
A dry erase marker
Put 10 grams of flour and 15 grams of water in a jar. (About 1 lightly mounded tablespoon of flour and one level tablespoon of water.) Mix well and add the lid. Write the time on the lid with the dry erase marker. Let sit at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours, until it looks bubbly and smells pungent.
Day 1 of feeding: In the second jar, add 10 grams of flour and 15 grams of water, plus 13 grams of the bubbly, stinky starter. (About 1 lightly mounded tablespoon flour, 1 level tablespoon water, and half the starter.) Mix well and add the lid. Write the time on the lid and mark a single slash mark with the dry erase marker to indicate 1 feeding. Discard remaining starter and wash out the first jar really well. Set aside.
Day 2: In the first jar, add 10 grams of flour and 15 grams of water, plus 13 grams of the previous day's starter. Mix well and add the lid. Mark a second slash mark on the lid with the dry erase marker to indicate 2 feedings. Discard remaining starter and wash out the first jar really well. Set aside.
Day 3+: repeat the steps, feeding every 24 hours. Use the slash marks to help you keep track of how many times you've fed it. It may look less bubbly after the first few days, and the smell should change from super pungent and vinegary to more pleasant and yogurty. This will take about 3 to 7 days more. Once it smells like this, it's time to feed every 12 hours.
Feed every 12 hours until it begins to double in the jar within 12 hours. Once it does this, it's ready for making bread. Takes 2 to 7 days.
*Note - if you see liquid accumulate on top of your starter, that's just fine. But if you see pink or brown in your starter, that's mold and it needs to be thrown out.
In the morning the day before you want bread: in the empty jar, place 20 grams of flour, 25 grams of water, and 25 grams of starter. Mix well and add a new lid to this jar. Write the time on the lid.
[Meanwhile, in the old jar, you should have 13 grams of starter left. Add 10 grams of flour and 15 grams of water to it, mix well, and put it in the fridge. Feed it or use it to make bread at least once a week. At this point, instead of discarding, you can collect the discard and mix it into things like waffle batter, muffin batter, pancake batter, etc.
On the scaled up starter jar, put a rubber band around the jar at the level of the starter. Let sit 12 hours. The starter should rise above the level of the rubber band by 50% to 100%.
Proceed with the recipe for sourdough bread, using all of the starter.
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