i did this instead of applying for a job or reading about trout. so you better read it - even though its boring

Today I made sourdough bread. For the phillistines among you (Chris) (actually Philistines were culturally more advanced than the Israelites, but i guess David slew Goliath so that was that), sourdough bread is levened using yeasts naturally found in the flour, rather than isolated and cultured yeast that we generally use in the west for baking. The yeast in sourdough lives symbiotically with a bacteria. the bacteria produces lactic acid and gives the bread its sour taste. Grandma, Mom said that it may have been the way your kitchen pishi baked bread?

the culture early on

the baking is the more or less the same, but the preperation is a bit different. you have to let the culture develop over a few days in a flour/water combination. unfortunately in my room it is so cold i had to make a plan to incubate it in my travel suitcase. im not sure the sniffer dogs at nz's international airports will ever let me in to the country unharrased in the future. the culture has a sourish beer smell. doesnt taste like beer though, take it from me. a lesson: not everything that smells like beer tastes like beer.

my acadamy for talented sourdough yeasts

It was a friend of Agnes (he works with bacteria, and is aptly named Bacteria Johan -sp?) who introduced her and subsequently me too it. On one of the early occassions I met Bacteria Johan was at a braai and he brought meat in a home marinate and his own homemade bread. I knew directly he was a man of great worthiness.

pre baked

I'm quite excited to taste the bread. apparently every culture is a little different and so the taste is slightly different.

oh ye forgot to say - once you have the yeast culture made, you use most of it to bake your loaf and keep some of it aside in the fridge to use for the next loaf. so the culture can go on indefinitely - as long as you feed it a bit every week with fresh flour and water. all i need now is a nuclear holocaust and a few tons of rye flour.

PS sarah - sweet jalopy. too bad about the driver. ehehehehe. just because you have a nice coloured car it doesnt mean you are or ever will be cooler than me. how many sourdough cultures have you got? huh?.. huh? how many?! thats what i thought.




well i just got my loaf out of the oven and i have to admit the results are less than impressive. apparently my yeast academy is not as good as i thought. bloody yeasts. Hope Kim Jong-Il keeps his finger off the button till ive refined my culture...

doesnt even smell of beer anymore.