I’ve been baking sourdough with a rye sourdough starter for about 15 years now, and highly recommend using rye flour for your starter for more stability and a longer peak time. It allows for greater flexibility in when you start your bread and can be much easier for beginner bakers. This is a guide for readers who’d like to make a starter from scratch, but if you already have one, you can also use this method to transition your starter to rye.

Whole grain rye simply takes longer for the wild yeast to digest than white flour, meaning you have a longer time frame in which your starter is at ‘peak’ or most bubbly. Almost every recipe for sourdough bread, pizza, etc. will call for peak starter (unless it’s a discard recipe). With a rye starter, typically you can feed it before bed and it’ll still be ready to use when you get home from work the next day.

Use your starter to make ancient grain sourdough recipes like whole grain 100% einkorn sourdough bread, easy no knead honey and oat spelt sourdough, or sourdough rye bread.

Ingredients

Step by Step

Day 1: mix 20 grams of flour with 23 grams of water, stirring well so that no streaks of dry flour are visible. Cover and place the jar somewhere dark and draft-free.

Day 2: feed the starter with the same amounts again. You probably won’t see any growth on the second day.

Day 3: feed again. Several hours after feeding you may see some growth or bubbling in the starter.

Day 4: by this time, you starter should be doubled in size from the feeding on day three, but if not, don’t worry. It can take up to two weeks for a starter to become fully active. Discard about half of the starter (use for sourdough crackers, in regular pancake batter, or something similar) and continue feeding until it does double in size about 8-12 hours after feeding.

Day 5 and onward: transfer the starter to a new clean jar periodically to avoid mould forming on the interior sides of the container. Feed only when needed, storing the starter on the counter or in the refrigerator, depending on frequency of use (see how to store below).

Terminology

• Active: when a recipe calls for active starter, it means when your starter is at its most bubbly and the biggest it’s going to get.
• Discard: following the ongoing method outlined here, you shouldn’t really have discard, but this is inactive starter that’s left over from feeding and not using your starter. When doing a discard method, you feed your starter daily whether you use it or not, and discard any extra starter. It’s wasteful and unnecessary. This may also be called unfed starter.
• Feed: this refers to mixing new flour and water into your starter.
• Float test: some recipes will ask you to do a float test with your starter. If it floats in water, it contains enough carbon dioxide. This can be helpful for beginners.
• Hooch: your starter may form a grey liquid that floats to the top and smells quite alcoholic. Some bakers call this hooch and it can be poured off or stirred in (I recommend pouring it off, as it makes starter too sour). It means that your starter isn’t being fed frequently enough. This is completely fine, but mould, fuzz, pink spots, are all signs that your starter needs to be tossed and to start again.
• Hydration: you’ll see this a lot in sourdough baking, and it refers to the balance of flour and water called for. Most recipes will ask for a 100% hydration starter, which is 50/50 when using white flour. For this recipe I adjust it slightly because rye flour absorbs more water than white does, but you can use it like a 100% hydration starter.
• Kahm yeast: this is something I see a lot more of on ferments like kombucha and vinegar, but it can show up on starter too. It’s a white film that forms, usually on top of hooch, and isn’t mould. Simply discard the upper layer (don’t stir in) and feed your starter again as usual.

Recommended Tools

• Kitchen scale: there’s no way around it, unless you have a perfect eye for starter and have been doing it for a long time. You will need an accurate kitchen scale to make a good starter and sourdough (again, unless you’re already an expert).
• Glass jar(s): generally speaking metal isn’t an issue with sourdough, and stainless steel is perfectly fine, but a glass jar is easiest to see how your starter is doing. It’s also easier to keep properly clean than plastic. An old jam jar is perfect.

How to Store Starter

For frequent use: depending on the temperature of your home, you can keep rye sourdough starter out at room temperature and feed every 1-3 days. There is a risk if you don’t feed and discard daily that your starter will form mould using this method and I would recommend the method below unless you bake with it every day.

For infrequent use: place your starter in the fridge once it’s peaked. I always keep about a tablespoon of starter in the refrigerator in the same jar I feed it in, and use that like levain (you can do that once you’ve mostly depleted the starter you make here). When I want to bake sourdough, I take the jar out of the refrigerator, feed it the necessary amount, and use that. The remaining approximate tablespoon of starter in the jar goes back into the refrigerator – no discard needed.

Expert Tips

• Adjust amounts if needed: depending on how finely ground the rye flour is, you may need a bit more or less water to make it act like 100% hydration starter. With freshly milled flour from my grain mill I use 40/60 and with pre-ground whole grain rye flour I use 45/55 as outlined in the recipe card. It’s a small change but noticeable.
• Dry your starter: it’s never a bad idea to have some dried starter as back up, just in case. I do this when we travel and the trip will take longer than 12 hours or if I know I won’t have immediate access to refrigeration for my starter as well.
• Don’t stress about it: sourdough baking isn’t nearly as complicated as some bakers make it out to be. There are a lot of variables to consider – temperature, flour type, water, skill level – and you have to find what works best for you. Once you’ve baked enough it becomes second nature and you’ll have your own little tips and tricks that make the best starter and bread for yourself.

Recipe Notes

You may prefer to occasionally feed your starter with light spelt or white flour before baking something sweet. I do this for the sourdough recipes I write for the Baked Collective website but for my home baking some flecks of rye are fine in sweet bakes. If using a rye starter for something like sourdough dinner rolls, they will look like a whole wheat mix but it doesn’t alter the flavour much.

More Fermented Recipes

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Fermented Cashew Cream Cheese
Ginger Bug (Fermented Ginger)
Fermented Ginger Beer