Day 2: Millions of Mouths to Feed

For the 24 hours I had to wait, I began to feel a small amount of worry in my abdomen. I had ordered only ONE wheat-based culture, and if I failed with this one, I'd either have to try my luck with the rye, wait over a week for a new culture to arrive, or attempt capturing some yeast in the apartment again; none of these options really appealed to me. This attack on my patience is one of the issues that pushed me away from sourdough after my first attempt. It's one thing to be constantly working towards a goal and seeing some level of progress with each day, but when setbacks start popping up and forcing you to put a project on hold for more than just a few days, it can be, as Liz Lemon would say, a deal breaker. I didn't mention before, but after that first successful loaf I made, I tried three more times to get a new loaf going, but not a single one rose. Your starter teases you with a bland but optimistically springy bread, only to lay flat for the next three dates? That's a deal breaker, ladies.

But, worries aside, I trusted in Ed Wood, because he had a backup plan for how to wash and reactivate a culture should anything go wrong. And, just like when I had to get... something.... checked out by a doctor, my fears were only in my head, because the culture was happily bubbling away.

6/6/2009, 9:05 pm:

Side of jar, showing how thick each layer was

View from above looking down into jar

Close-up of the layers

There was quite a bit of "hooch" (the dark liquid between the doughy bottom layer and the foamy top), but I paid it no mind, as I had read somewhere that you can just mix it right back in. This, I later found out, was not really a good move (though certainly not fatal, or even wrong if you know what you're doing in the feeding process... more on this in later entries).

I decided that there was plenty of room in the jar and I would not need to discard any of the culture yet, so I fed it a cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water (note that this was cold water for the first few feedings.... I'm thinking now that the water should be room temperature). The yeast were having their first meal, and it was to last 12 hours. The consistency of the culture was a bit on the loose side, but I could imagine a pancake batter being about the same density, so I didn't worry about it. I turned off the light in the proofing box to give the yeast a comfortable dining temperature (recommended to be around 70F), and had successfully made it to the next stage in this not so overwhelming experience.

Ed Wood estimated that it would take 3-5 days for the culture to be ready, with feedings every 12 hours. This meant I would use a minimum of 6 cups of flour and, after starting up a backup container for a second culture, up to 20 cups. I did not consider this when I bought a the 3 small 2 lb. bags of organic unbleached flour, one of which had been used for brownies and waffles already. There were millions (or at least a whole lot) of hungry yeast in my culture that I needed to keep fed, and they were capable of eating a lot!

Since I'm trying to do it entirely organic (aside from the initial culture, which I assume was probably not organic), this bread experiment was starting to sound expensive. I'd already dropped about $10 on the proofing box and $20 for the cultures. Unless I'm able to really start cranking out the loaves week after week, this could prove to be an unwise investment. To help lessen the impact on my wallet, I decided to skip the larger grocery chain stores and walk the 1/4 mile to Dover Natural Foods at the end of my street and snag a larger 5 lb bag for $6. This is much cheaper than the $3-4 price of the small bags, and it's definitely more convenient (and uses less packaging!).