Sourdough

It has been a while since I wrote anything about food…. and given that this blog is supposed to be about life and food, and that we do still eat, it is about time for me to write about food again.

My latest project involving food is the growing of a sourdough starter.

I have thought about, and read about this many times, and finally decided to take the plunge and actually try it.

So, last Friday was Day 1 of the Sourdough Saga.

I chose to use the River Cottage Recipe, which I had recently seen on a River Cottage episode on TV. It seemed fairly straightforward on TV, so I thought it would be worth a try.

The only ingredients in the starter are flour and water… a mixture of wholemeal and white to start with.

Day 1 (Friday) was fairly boring… mix the flours and water together in a container, cover loosely and leave on the bench. Nothing to see really.

Day 2 (Saturday), looks fairly similar, a few bubbles… discard half the mix, add more flour and water, leave.

Day 3 (Sunday)… what is that terrible smell? It smells like vomit! Discard half, add more flour and water again, hope it will stop smelling so bad.

Day 4 (Monday)… hmmm, maybe something has gone wrong - vomitous smell still there. Discard, feed, Google "sourdough starter smells like vomit" and discover that around day 3-4 this is a fairly common occurrence, just keep going seems to be the advice offered on numerous websites.

Day 5 (Tuesday)…tentative sniff…maybe not so bad. Discard, feed.

Day 6 (Wednesday)… sniff… very different smell, not like vomit this time - more like an alcohol smell perhaps? Discard, feed, observe….. few hours later - we are on the right track I feel. The starter has lots of bu

bbles, and has doubled in size in the container. Phew.

So, now I continue the discard and feed routine until we get to Day 7, when I can try using the starter and see if it has matured enough. If not, then continue the discard and feed routine till Day 10 and try again.

Watch this space.