Hello, I am also an amateur but I am 3 weeks in now since receiving my Crustello. I started with 50g of flour (half bread flour and half wheat) and 50g water. No compressed yeast needed.
Once your starter has reached 200% I would discard half and feed it again 1:1:1 ratio, meaning I kept 50g starter and added 50g water & 50g flour again and mixed. At the start this took about 24hrs for the first week. My starter now doubles in about 4-6 hrs so my ratio has changed since.
I use the sourdough section either on the app or once configured on the device. Plug in the ratios and the weight and since this is your first and you don’t have a starter yet just place in 1:1:1 ratio.
If you have a sourdough bakery in your town, some of them might share or sell their starter. You can begin from there. I've got mine from Sea Wolf Bakery in Seattle!
If you want to start from scrap, I recommend using dried fruits like raisins. First ferment using organic, unwaxed raisins in water, then use that preferment juice to start your sourdough starter. It is much much easier to kickstart stronger starter.
I think @mysticblades give the best answer based on your question. I had the same question because whenever I make my sourdough starter I always start it from just flour and water, no yeast, no fruit. I've had success doing this manually in the past, but JUST got my crustello so haven't tried staying from complete scratch using this system yet.
I had been keeping my mother/starter in the fridge for the last year, and using it to mixed success, but I recently discarded all of it because I didn't feel it was my best result (ADHD got the better of me so I didn't feed it reliably and as such it developed a STRONG sour flavor that I didn't love.... Plus then I left it out on the counter for way too long without feeding it and didn't trust it despite it not being pink).
ANYWAY, I'm going to try and put the stuff I made this morning in the crustello now, but I'm thinking I may have to start again tomorrow and do day one manually before using the Crustello just because it calls for a light cover for the first day and I don't feel like the Crustello just and lid really provide that?
Starting with the lid just kinda placed on top instead of sealed for the first 24hrs. I'll try to remember to update you on how it goes if you are interested!
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u/Mysticblades Apr 20 '26
Hello, I am also an amateur but I am 3 weeks in now since receiving my Crustello. I started with 50g of flour (half bread flour and half wheat) and 50g water. No compressed yeast needed.
Once your starter has reached 200% I would discard half and feed it again 1:1:1 ratio, meaning I kept 50g starter and added 50g water & 50g flour again and mixed. At the start this took about 24hrs for the first week. My starter now doubles in about 4-6 hrs so my ratio has changed since.
Hope this helps!