The Science Experiment

Once the plague of Covid descended-upon the land and I was spending less time traveling and more time indoors at home I decided to turn my hand at bread-making.

One thing led to another and before too long the 2021 international travel budget was repurposed as an outdoor brick oven, pizza-making was introduced to the line-up, outdoor grilling over a wood fire was promoted and naturally dough-making for indoor use and outdoor applications was practiced, practiced-again and continues to be experimented-with.

Over the weekend I baked a sourdough loaf indoors.

It started with the fermentation of a sourdough culture a couple of weeks ago.  I had to feed it every day, discard waste product and repeat.  With the passage of time it became a living organism.  It was reminiscent of feeding and changing an infant.  Although I didn't have to read it a bedtime story and tuck it in at night.

A 24-hour room-temperature proof of my basic French boule recipe followed.  The only change was the substitution of the sourdough culture for instant dry yeast as the leavening agent.  Here is the bubbling blob of future bread goodness.

It was a success.  And practice should improve future results and variations on the theme.  Think: sourdough pancakes, rye bread, pizza dough, pretzels, etc.

Yeast-based breads, at least in our culture, are consumed in greater quantity than bread-stuffs leavened with a fermented culture.  It is thought that it was the Egyptian pharaohs first used lactic acid-based bacteria cultures in bread leavening.  This practice spread throughout the world and eventually landed here.

In American popular culture (pun intended) it is believed that sourdough came to San Fransisco via Europe as a consequence of the California gold rush.  Subsequent gold discoveries in the Klondike introduced sourdough to western Canada and Alaska.  

The culture that I grew is a San Fransisco strain acquired from Cultures For Health.  They've got all sorts of resources for a foodie to experiment with Lactobacillus fermentation.

I am told that by means of carefully feeding, growing and nurturing my sourdough culture (it is a living thing after all) that as the bacteria evolve over multiple successive generations its quality and consistency will improve over time.  It sounds like the art and science of raising a child to be a productive citizen.

That sounds like an artisanal challenge for a bread-making hobbyist.

So, stay-tuned.  This could be fun adventure and a delicious science experiment.....