No. 123 - Sourdough Starter

I enjoy cooking, especially grilling and smoking (as in smoked ribs and chicken). I don't bake much but I make a mean homemade pizza - at least the family thinks so and who else really matters - including making my own dough.

That's why I found an article I read today pretty interesting. It talked about a sourdough "starter" which was described as "a blob of wet flour, colonized by yeast and bacteria."

Instead of using store bought yeast to make dough rise, this gooey substance sits on your counter. When you are ready to make a loaf of sourdough bread, you take some of this stuff - the starter - and add flour, salt and water. It rises. Then you bake it. Voila! Delicious sourdough bread.

To keep the starter fresh - I guess fresh is the appropriate word - you "feed" it flour and water. Every few days you need to discard half the goo and add more flour and water to it.

People keep these starters going for years. In fact, the starter mentioned in the video that accompanied the article came from the King Arthur Flour Company whose website says that it "descended from a starter that’s been lovingly nurtured here in New England since the 1700s. When you feed it, it quickly becomes your own, adapting itself to your own region and climate."

Like ceviche from Post No. 121, this sounds like another interesting science project.