sourdough starter

When in a pandemic, what else could be the perfect project to dedicate your now abundant time to?

I’ve previously pursued the ventures of bearing my own sourdough culture, and it first started off with Pillsberry (#1). I originally named her Pillsbury like the Dough Boy, but if I was going to make her a girl, my mom suggested the “berry” spelling to make it more feminine.

Pillsberry 1 was fine, but I thought I contaminated her with tap water, and after voraciously reading many articles about using the BEST flour, the PROVEN measurements, the PUREST water, I freaked out and threw her out (I know, I know).

Then Pillsberry 2 was born, then 3, and I think there was a fourth? I just remember the last one I tried maintaining was the biggest failure of all, when I opened my fridge and found blue mold spores climbing Pillsberry’s mason jar walls.

Now in my apartment lies a collection of mason jars steeped in the scent of ripely fermented flour, its dusty sweet smell now nestled comfortably in the glasses. I use my mason jars to drink water from, so now my water is sourdough-flavored (I washed these glasses so many times; I don’t know why it’s like that).

I’ve been meaning to return back to my campus apartment to start my sourdough project again, but since I’m probably not returning for a while, I thought, what the hell? I’ll just do it here.

And so, Pillsberry (#??) was born yesterday, in yet another small mason jar, and she’s beautiful.

In the previous projects, I’ve used whole wheat flour to make my sourdough, but here because I took my mom’s supply of whole wheat, I used bread flour to grow my lovely little baby.

When I went to check on her a few hours ago, I noticed the hooch (the excess liquid that forms in sourdough) rose above the flour mixture, and I was planning to dump it out when I fed her later. But when I returned around 5 o’clock for Pillsberry’s feeding time, the hooch actually mixed in by itself, and PILLSBERRY ROSE! With my whole wheat projects, it would take a couple days for the sourdough to bubble and rise, and because I wanted to prevent having hooch, I used less water so it would be more of a thick pancake batter consistency. I guess because using a white flour develops the natural yeasts faster, its height pushed past farther than when I checked it JUST A FEW HOURS AGO!

Oh God, I’m so excited.

I’ve been wanting to make bread for a while, and in my enthusiasm to start a foccaccia project, I found out we had no yeast, and since grocery shopping is a dangerous activity now, I just decided to push my sourdough efforts to the forefront. When my mom went grocery shopping at Costco recently and tried finding yeast, they were all out, anyway.

I can’t wait to fill my days going to my sourdough baby and opening her lid, smelling the aromatic and flavorful scent of fermented flour (colored with a yogurt-y tinge).

And to my beautiful Pillsberry, I’ll be careful not to kill you this time.

Wish me luck!

Update 4/10: Pillsberry outgrew her first jar, so I moved her. She hasn’t been rising, so I fed her 1/3 cup of flour with equal parts water, in addition to the already existing 1/4 plus a few tablespoons our sourdough in the jar.

Update 5/28: Oh, I forgot to update, but she died. Or rather, I dumped her into the sink because she wasn’t rising. I’ve been making a lot more noodles now instead.