Rye Sourdough Starter by Jessica Prince, Dahlia Lounge Private Dining Coordinator
Last week I made rye bread for the first time, attempting to replicate the flavor and shape of the beloved breads of Finland. It was an encouraging start, more akin to a quick fix than to a real, full blown taste memory with all of its mysterious, delectable, and addictive layers of pleasure. Appetite whetted, confidence high, I now stalked the true Finnish rye. For that I needed a sourdough starter.
I began one from scratch. After carefully studying instructions from Daniel Leader’s incredible book, Bread Alone, I was immensely intrigued, particularly by the use of a single pinch of yeast to initiate a process of attracting and putting to use the wild yeasts which are in the air all around us. Our world is intensely and constantly active at levels which evade the eye. Easily forgotten, until you make sourdough.
A pinch of yeast, a little rye flour, and an airtight plastic container were all I needed to begin. Tending carefully to my experiment, I added water, more flour, and vigorously stirred each morning. I smelled, tasted, watched, and listened. Returning from work held the anticipation of measuring the progress of this strange new being sharing my apartment. Crackling with activity, it emitted an alarmingly acrid smell on day two, but mellowed and gained dimension thereafter. My apartment began to smell a bit like beer, conjuring pleasant long-lost memories of childhood days spent at my friend’s family’s microbrewery. We would climb a ladder up into the ceiling and lay gossiping on sacks of malted barley. The smell was rich and complex, soft and sharp all at once. My starter was similar, beginning to hint at dimensions that could create the bread I longed for.
The ugly duckling….(see photo of my starter).
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April 21st, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Wow,that is pretty ugly and scary looking! I’m sure you remember to save some starter out of that batch for the next time. I never knew how to make a starter. My mother was given a starter for friendship bread along with recipe for 2 loaves of bread and instructions to divide the starter into five batches (putting each batch in a plastic zipper bag). The “friendship” part comes into play because you give 1 starter to each of four friends with recipe, instructions on passing it on to their friends and so on, keeping one for yourself to begin the process again. Well, after a few weeks, she ended up with a dozen ballooning bags lying everywhere, mature and had run of enough friends to give them to. and oh yes, her house smelled like beer.
April 21st, 2009 at 6:04 pm
There is also a fictional book “Bread Alone” set on Queen Anne, McGraw Street – kind of a woman’s coming into her own story, based on real people. She writes about starter too.