At last, my sourdough dreams were "jumpstartered" when a friend brought us some already-thriving starter in a jar. It came from far downeast, too, which pleased me...
So far we have used it twice, and we have much to learn about its mysterious ways. The bread we made last week was almost unpalatably sour, and lacked salt. We think we know what went wrong: too much time fermenting, not enough salt.... last night, though, we mixed up the sourdough hotcakes from Sandor Ellix Katz' Wild Fermentation, and they are good.
Sourdough baking requires at least 8 hours of forethought, and I appreciate this change of pace though it is the thing that keeps me from practicing breadbaking regularly.
The fact remains--good bread is extremely hard to come by.
Years ago, I worked in a wonderful small bakery of the sort that should be in every neighborhood. Incomparable naturally leavened breads were made fresh each morning, and baguettes twice a day, along with buttery pastries. There were no wholesale accounts--it was all foot traffic-- and it was cash only. Prices were not inflated. The owner had trained at Acme Bread Company. It was a wonderful place that succumbed eventually to owner burn-out (in its place today is a bakery producing comparable-quality pastries--though they rather shamelessly use fresh berries and summer fruits in midwinter--but the current owners are not interested in making bread. I miss the old bakery to this day, but I feel certain that one day we will see more of that sort of place, when the bakers' secrets are more widely known and a whole class of dedicated craftsmen find their place.
