Not a joke - this is how you make bread starter for sourdough, and how people worldwide make bread at home to this day.
The wild yeast found in flour and in the air of your home can be cultivated by just.... leaving wet flour paste and a sprinkle of sugar out as free real estate.
Yeast moves in, you feed it a bit more every day, and that’s a bread starter!
Mine is about two months old and going strong. Some bakeries pride themselves in having bread starters over a century old. The wild yeast gives bread a complexity and depth of flavor that gives sourdough it’s iconic flavor.
When the yeast is hungry it starts to smell like wine or acetone.
When it’s eating well and happy, it smells like vinegar and fresh bread.
Keeping it cold slows its metabolism, so you can put it in the fridge if you don’t make bread every day.
In the fridge you only have to feed it every 2 days or so. Left out at room temperature, you have to feed, and take a piece off for baking every day.
Yeast is killed at temps over 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but it can withstand short periods of being frozen, so the cold fridge is fine.
As long as you have flour on-hand, it’s basically infinite ready-to-bake bread.
So far I’ve used my bread starter, mixed it with flour and water, and made:
Dumplings (rolled dough flat and stuffed with minced veggies)
Elephant ears (that cinnamon-sugar ❤️)
Plus eggs and butter = cakey bread
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