by Beth Anderle

Created on: February 18, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

I had long been intimidated by those artisan bakers who produced wonderfully crusty loaves with the tell-tale enticingly sour smell. I longed to make this delectable bread myself, but was convinced that I could never rise to the level of expertise needed. Instead I contented myself with simple yeast breads, always dreaming of the day I would finally produces the mystical Holy Grail of breads.

A few years ago I decided it was time to quit dreaming and tackle the dreaded sourdough. After all, what did I have to lose besides a bag of flour?

I immediately did some research and almost quit before I started. It turns out there are as many ways of making sourdough bread starter as there are people who love sourdough. As a timid sourdough virgin, I chose what seemed to me to be a no-fail starter recipe: one half cup of flour mixed with one half cup of water, poured into a one quart canning jar and left to sit in a warm place, uncovered, for a few days until it is ready.

That seemed easy enough, so I mixed up the starter and set it to ferment. By the next day, however, I was beginning to have my doubts. Re-reading the recipe I noticed that you could "seed" your starter with a pinch of commercial yeast. So in the interest of hedging my bet and having something to show for my time and effort, I prepared the same starter again, but this time added roughly 1/8 of a teaspoon of yeast to the mix. I placed this jar right next to the first jar and waited.

Within two days I noticed that things were starting to happen. There were a few bubbles and a bit of an odd odor was developing. By the end of the first week the starters were ready.

My original no-yeast starter had an odd, off-putting sort of smell. It quickly became obvious that something had gone horribly wrong, and I quickly got rid of this noxious brew and started again (pun absolutely intended!). I made the same mix without the yeast and waited patiently.

Eventually I was rewarded with a wonderfully sour-smelling starter that had a subtly different smell than the yeast-seeded starter.

The yeast-seeded starter, however, had a wonderfully sour, yeasty, beery sort of smell. Misunderstanding the instructions, I added another half-cup of flour, and another half-cup of warm water, stirred it up. I covered the jar with a piece of waxed paper, put the jar ring on over the paper and punched a few holes in it before placing it in the fridge. (Only later I discovered that I was supposed to pour off half the starter before adding more

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