While shopping at Eastern Market, I came across a new vendor, a baker, who was selling sourdough bread. Since it had only three ingredients, flour, water, and sugar, all GMO free, I bought it. It was delicous, and motivated me to finally get a sourdough "starter" started. A starter is basically a simple mix of flour, water, and yeast that's left to sit out and ferment (yeast ferments, like for beer), which is how the classic sourdough bread gets its unique flavor.
I opened up my Joy of Cooking, read about it, and followed the basic recipe, water, flour and yeast mixed in a glass bowl with a wooden spoon, then I loosely covered it with cheesecloth, since it needs to "breathe" and isn't supposed to be covered. It took less than five minutes, and I just set the bowl off to the side where I could mostly ignore it until it was time to stir it the next day.
I waited about 24 hours, and stirred it, then covered it up with the cheesecloth again. I waited about another 24 hours, and my better half did the stirring this time. I didn't know he'd stirred in the "hooch" (a greyish liquid that formed on top) until the next day, when I decided to stir in the hooch, too. Then I separated it by splitting it in half into two bowls, using measuring cups, one cup into each bowl, and "fed" it by adding more water and flour since the hooch meant that the yeast was hungry for more flour to eat. I'm waiting to see how it looks tomorrow, and if there is more hooch, I'm going to pour it off before I add more flour and water. This is my first time making a sourdough starter, so far, it's much easier than I had imagined.
