Don’t you
love Michael Pollan’s Netflix documentary series, “Cooked”? A few nights ago I watched the episode about
bread and it’s historical and cultural significance to humankind. It inspired me to take my own bread-making
one smug step further and create my own sourdough starter.
I have
never thought very much about the yeast I use, but apparently wild yeasts in
the atmosphere create much more delicious, complex breads than those baked with
the dried packets I normally use.
I did some
research online which left me totally confused, but the basic idea is to leave
a loosely-covered jar containing an equal weight of water and flour on the
kitchen counter to ferment. Every 12
hours you have to dump out half the mixture and add some new flour and water ad
infinitum until you have this magical bubbly starter.
I’m about
72 hours into my experiment and it’s provoked all sorts of questions. For example, how much chlorine is in our
water here in Rio? I have been leaving
out the tap water overnight so that the chlorine can evaporate (more than once
my husband has poured it away – ever vigilant about not leaving standing water
for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs in).
Also, what is the best quality flour I can get hold of in Rio? I haven’t been able to find anything that
says unbleached or stone-ground on the packet.
Most disturbingly, I have opened my eyes to the nature of all the
invisible microbes that are floating around my house (or are in the water?).
Something turned my first batch a shocking pink colour.
So far, my
second batch isn’t looking too great…I’m beginning to think there is a reason
that San Francisco sourdough is a thing, and Rio de Janeiro sourdough is not a
thing…but I’m going to persevere and if I manage to make a successful starter I’ll
post an update.
