Sourdough breadmaking is extremely satisfying. It’s super cheap even though the result is bread and other products that usually come at a premium price. It keeps much longer than commercially yeasted bread, and even if it’s a bit stale, toasting it brings it right back to delicious life. Many people with an intolerance to gluten can tolerate it, even though it has gluten. And most important, it tastes great. So why do so many people opt to make other breads with commercial yeast instead?Why are there so many YouTube videos and instructional web posts on making sourdough? Because sourdough has a lot more steps, requires more skill, and has critical timing. In fact I can almost guarantee that the first time you make sourdough you will forget steps, screw up a few things, get the timing wrong, and wind up with bread that is heavy and unappetizing–unless you follow our semi-foolproof plan. No, it’s not foolproof, but it comes close.
The Starter Rabbithole: Sourdough also has some elements that are a complete pain in the ass. Starter is like adding a pet to your menagerie. You have to feed it, pay attention to it, and baby it when it gets weak. It’s like getting a cat without the litter box thing. We’ll do an entire post and video just on starter. Fortunately there’s a way out of the rabbithole, and we’ll tell you all about it.
The Multiplication Factor: If you decide you want to learn to master sourdough, you need to maintain that “I’m going to master this” attitude for a while. You can only master the skills by repetition, and that means you’re going to make a LOT of sourdough. You really don’t want to eat all you make. As soon as you’re making a few loaves that don’t embarrass you, start giving them away to friends. Even your early screwups will be welcome, and once you’re tolerably good they will be thrilled to get an occasional loaf. Some of the skills apply to other sourdough forms, like rolls, english muffins, and even pancakes and waffles, and any kind of related practice leads to overall expertise. Timing the various steps is critical, and there are long spans of time between steps. That can be hard to plan for. But instead of just giving you times that assume you’ll be precise and punctual, we’ll tell you how wide the spread is, and what you should do if you’re early or late to the party. We’ll also show some tricks to combine steps, or better yet, eliminate them.
Great for Cheapskates: The good news is that Sourdough is just flour, water, and a little salt. Even the starter is just flour and water. Sourdough bread is crazy cheap, especially if you use a bulk source for flour. My goto flour supplier is Costco. They sell Kirkland Organic Unbleached all purpose flour in a two-pack of 10 pound bags for about 15 bucks. That’s 20 pounds of excellent flour for a little more than the cost of 5 pounds in a grocery store. A 640g (1.4 pounds) loaf of sourdough bread takes about 450g (.99 pounds) of flour. That’s 20 hefty 1.4 pound loaves of bread for 15 bucks. I started baking bread about 50 years ago, when I was a broke kid. My cheap apartment had no stove, so I bought a 1936 Gaffers & Statler gas stove for 30 bucks at a secondhand appliance store. Beside being incredibly beautiful (dark green and cream colored) it was also about the same weight as a Volkswagen and had a wonderful oven. I cracked open The Joy of Cooking and learned to make baguettes. They were pretty good, so I made a bunch and invited friends to a potluck with me supplying home made bread. It was a huge success and everyone brought dishes I couldn’t afford to make. I did bread parties every few weeks for years, and fed myself royally on the leftovers. I’d love to still have that stove, it was amazing.