Beginners

New to sourdough? Start here

You need flour, water, salt, a jar, a scale and some patience. Here is the order to read things in, from a jar of flour paste to a loaf you can learn from, with the free tools that do the arithmetic for you.

Sourdough has a reputation for being fussy. Most of that comes from recipes that give times written for someone else's kitchen. Learn to read the starter and the dough instead of the clock, and it gets simple fast. Here is a path through the guides that works for most first-timers.

1. Get a starter going. A new starter usually takes 7 to 14 days to become reliable, and a quiet spell around days 3 to 7 is normal. Then learn the signs in how to tell when your starter is ready to bake: doubled, domed, bubbly and smelling yeasty and mildly sour.
2. Pick an easy dough. Around 68 to 72 percent hydration is soft enough to open up and firm enough to shape. Sourdough hydration explained shows what the numbers feel like.
3. Learn bulk fermentation. It is where the loaf is made or lost. How long to bulk ferment covers the signs that bulk is done, whatever your kitchen's temperature.
4. Use the fridge. The cold proof turns a one-day marathon into two easy evenings and makes shaping and scoring far more forgiving.
5. Read your first loaf. Cut it only once it is cool, then use the sourdough crumb, read it like a baker to see what it is telling you. Change one thing next bake.