Flour. sourdough culture part 3

sourdough culture, part 3

Sourdough starter, a great loaf of bread, the love of baking, maybe even my hopes and dreams, they all begin where this post does… in a bag of flour.

We can’t talk about the greatness in a jar of goo without starting with grains and milled flour. Or as I call it, potential. For most sourdough starter needs, that means that golden grassy harvest we know as wheat.

As tiny as it is, its packed full of a surprising amount of nutrition and possibilities. Layered in nature’s perfect little kernel. There’s a lot of science-y stuff to unfold here, most of it more pertinent to an upcoming series. So, for now, let’s stick to the fundamentals of what to put in your jar.

You get out what you put in. 

My husband (aka Mr. Amazing), as fun loving as he is, has had an err of competitiveness ever since he was young. It’s like his Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Suddenly, the guy who takes life in stride with a laugh, becomes grimacingly serious. With the kind of determination I’d love to see finishing our to-do list (but I digress). When he was in middle school he decided to join the swim team and, to his credit, has was long, lean and fast. All the things a swimmer needs to be, except one. He could swim down a lane faster than nearly everyone he encountered, but he could not get those long legs to flip around and change his direction against a gunite wall. He would try to flip turn, occasionally, but decided it was awkward and eventually decided it was ‘good enough’ to swim to the wall, grab it, turn and push off with his arms. A compromise that cost him time in the turn, a fervor of additional energy in the lane, and -in the end- the race. A life experience he still grimaces about.

As an adult, with limited time and resources, I’ve done my share of thriving and failing as I’ve learned to navigate the path to life’s compromises. I’ve also learned that this isn’t where to make one. Yes, you could buy any old flour and pour it into your jar. And, depending on your ambitions, it might do a reasonably acceptable job. But this is where I remind you that this isn’t one loaf of bread you’re going to hurriedly make into a PB&J. This is the beginning of every loaf of bread you’ll ever make with it. This is the jar that, despite all the mixing, folding and baking you’ll do, will largely determine the flavor, texture and performance of your loaves. And this little jar of beginnings might last you, and your grandchildren, a lifetime.

Flip those legs around and push off the wall with intention.

The world of grains and flour is vast and largely unfamiliar (and sadly made to be a little intimidating). We also live in a world of overly developed marketing, buyer-beware-doms, and an ever growing temptation to accept the simplification offered for a price tag.

Sigh. Neither life, nor flour, should be lived in those terms.

Sometimes life requires a few questions and just a little complication. At least until it starts to make sense. With just a bit of knowledge, so much becomes simple. And possible.

Simply put, it all begins here

Organically grown, because there’s just no need for awful stuff in your food, when possible with regenerative practices, because the best food (and future) comes from healthier and resilient efforts. Objectively and third party verified, because human nature isn’t without flaw.

After years of hunting for high quality ingredients and spending months testing them in our kitchen, we love nothing more than sharing the very best things we find. Especially flour.

For so long grains and flours have been handled and managed by large production processes and standards, limiting availability and choice. We’re so incredibly lucky to be living in a resurgence in small farming and artisan mills, giving each of us more and more access to mindfully grown and milled goodness, often directly from the hands that grew or milled it.

What’s better than that?

Day by day, more amazing sources are popping up all over the country. Here are some of our favorite farmers and millers:

Janie’s Mill https://www.janiesmill.com/pages/our-story

Living Sky Grains https://livingskygrains.com/pages/about

Carolina Ground https://carolinaground.com/

Central Milling https://centralmilling.com/store/#central-milling-organic

What we love about them

Organic, regenerative, unparalleled first hand knowledge and experience, and truly passionate about their craft. And, of course, third party verified to be all the goodness they promise.

What we don’t like about them

Well, not just them, the whole industry. American flour has been dumbed down for far too long. Grown, milled and packaged by marketing that pre-determines its intended use. All purpose, bread, pastry, blah, blah, blah. The truth is, there are no standards for these titles, so an all purpose flour from one source could be vastly different in performance from another. The deeper truth is, many of these purpose intended flours come from the very same grains. Leaving those inclined to ask questions to wonder, what’s the difference?

What happens if I go rogue and make cookies with bread flour? Maybe great things…

Convenience is inconvenient.

Call me crazy, but I think we should know what we’re actually buying. And, to be frank, I’m a little tired of the notion that I need someone else to tell me what flour to use in bread. Or sourdough starter, for that matter. What if it doesn’t work for me? What if I want something more? Those answers only comes from knowing what more is.

A good life isn’t lived by someone else’s per-determined standards. Neither is good baking. Much like the wooden ceiling that abruptly stopped our starter’s rise, they install mediocrity on potential.

Ask more questions. 

Every recipe I’ve seen posted online, shared in a class, or sold by a retailer for a sourdough starter has you follow a standardized routine of mixing an all purpose flour in a jar with water. Or worse, marketing a sourdough starter blend that is pre-mixed for you. Their marketed version of a one-size-fits-all starter flour. Then they tell you to do the same thing, over and over again. But, inevitably, something goes wrong. The starter slumps or explodes, or just doesn’t produce what you want in a loaf of bread. What then?

Have I mentioned? convenience is inconvenient.

What this over-simplified, ultra-convenient (sounding) marketing and instruction doesn’t tell you, is that things change. All the time. We, and our starters, don’t live in a vacuum. Just like any living thing, adjustments are needed.

What’s the saying? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is… 

The truth is, the type and amount of flour needed to build and maintain a starter depends on the day, your starter’s health, and what you need from your starter. Bread is born in the goo. More importantly, your best bread is born in your best goo.

The trick is to stock your pantry with the basics and feed based on those needs. Not a recipe. Not a blanket repeated process. Not someone else’s standards and limitations. For this reason, we won’t tell you to buy “all purpose” flour (or any other pre-determined title flour for that matter). We won’t tell you to use a standardized percentage of flour everyday. We’ll refer to flours by what they actually are. Transparently. Their grain type, protein content, and sometimes sifted percentage and ash content. Then we’ll teach you to adjust the flours, how to change the blending percentages, and the timing to make something truly great. Truly yours.

Know your starter, know your needs, and feed to create the very best.

Stock a small pantry real, honest, organic, third party verified flours. A hard red spring flour with 10-12% protein content, a hard red spring with a higher protein content of 12-13.5%, and a dark rye. Despite all the distractions out there, this information should be transparently available on every single flour you ever buy (otherwise, move onto a better source). From there, with just a little bit of knowledge, you can build all kinds of goodness made just for you.

Oh, the potential.

It’s time to gather your flours, filtered water, an instant read thermometer, a long handled narrow spatula (something like this), a kitchen scale, and a few clean, tall jars with wide mouths. Links are provided for inspiration, feel free to find any similar items you’d like. The world is yours to make great. See you next week, when the mixing begins.