Wrong Way Sourdough
Created | Updated Jul 9, 2002
Or how to make and eat natural yeast bread, while breaking a few rules.
Basically, put some flour in some water, let it percolate a couple of weeks, throw some out, add more flour/water, repeat, repeat...Instructions are easy to find on the web. Ditto bread recipes to learn and then ignore or break. The longer you use your starter, the better it gets. Months, years, decades. No limit.
Measure nothing. Don’t let loaves come out the same way twice. Twice is boring. Just don’t over/under do the salt. Dead yeast don’t rise. Bland loaves grow old and hard, get feed to pigeons or bloat landfill.
Recipe? Add starter to water to flour. Knead until you’re tired. Go to work or to bed. Add more water and flour. Knead until you’re tired. Go to work or bed. Add more water, flour, and any flavorings you wish. (I like rosemary polenta, a red skin potato cut no finer than eighths and with the skin, or nothing.) Knead until you're tired. Go to work or bed. By now it’s huge. Make loaf or loaves. Add any late-type flavorings. (Walnuts left hole or crushed to a powder or in-between, rosemary, flax meal or seed, other seeds, olive oil, pears, apples, potatoes chopped coarsely enough to still be apple, pear, or potato after the bread’s baked. Knead some more, or perhaps just a little or not all at this stage, depending on your mood. Put the loaves in the frig to rise slowly or leave them out. Go to work or to bed. Preheat the oven or don’t. Start dead cold and it’ll still wind up baked. Temperatures from, say, 350F to 600F all work, just each differently. Try dialing it with your eyes closed.
Score sparingly or irregularly. Pros call three-inch air holes errors. Errors are fun, and seldom or never produce duplicates. If your loaves are boringly regular, try squirting air or water into them, then sealing it in. I’ve never quite perfected these techniques. Maybe you can.
Cut the bread right out of the oven. Not the whole thing, unless you’re a crowd. Just enough. It's still baking inside itself. That's all right. Avoid finger burns by using a padded mitt. Wave the slice around a bit, if necessary, to avoid a tongue burn. Your bread’s never going to be better than this. But three weeks later, at least in my California climate, because this is sourdough, that part you didn't cut will still be good, maybe even better than after a single day.
Basically, put some flour in some water, let it percolate a couple of weeks, throw some out, add more flour/water, repeat, repeat...Instructions are easy to find on the web. Ditto bread recipes to learn and then ignore or break. The longer you use your starter, the better it gets. Months, years, decades. No limit.
Measure nothing. Don’t let loaves come out the same way twice. Twice is boring. Just don’t over/under do the salt. Dead yeast don’t rise. Bland loaves grow old and hard, get feed to pigeons or bloat landfill.
Recipe? Add starter to water to flour. Knead until you’re tired. Go to work or to bed. Add more water and flour. Knead until you’re tired. Go to work or bed. Add more water, flour, and any flavorings you wish. (I like rosemary polenta, a red skin potato cut no finer than eighths and with the skin, or nothing.) Knead until you're tired. Go to work or bed. By now it’s huge. Make loaf or loaves. Add any late-type flavorings. (Walnuts left hole or crushed to a powder or in-between, rosemary, flax meal or seed, other seeds, olive oil, pears, apples, potatoes chopped coarsely enough to still be apple, pear, or potato after the bread’s baked. Knead some more, or perhaps just a little or not all at this stage, depending on your mood. Put the loaves in the frig to rise slowly or leave them out. Go to work or to bed. Preheat the oven or don’t. Start dead cold and it’ll still wind up baked. Temperatures from, say, 350F to 600F all work, just each differently. Try dialing it with your eyes closed.
Score sparingly or irregularly. Pros call three-inch air holes errors. Errors are fun, and seldom or never produce duplicates. If your loaves are boringly regular, try squirting air or water into them, then sealing it in. I’ve never quite perfected these techniques. Maybe you can.
Cut the bread right out of the oven. Not the whole thing, unless you’re a crowd. Just enough. It's still baking inside itself. That's all right. Avoid finger burns by using a padded mitt. Wave the slice around a bit, if necessary, to avoid a tongue burn. Your bread’s never going to be better than this. But three weeks later, at least in my California climate, because this is sourdough, that part you didn't cut will still be good, maybe even better than after a single day.
