Recently, a friend gave me a bread starter. It was a Herman starter. I made several loaves from this recipe and even made some cinnamon rolls. I liked it, but I wanted something else.
When I think of sourdough, I don't think "sweet." And Herman is definitely a Sweetie.
So I did some research and discovered that you can convert one starter to a different type of starter simply by changing its diet.
Now for those of you who aren't up on sourdough care and feeding, you probably aren't aware that "care and feeding" are even necessary steps to certain types of bread-making. Sourdough starters are alive: they eat and they breathe.
So, I am attempting to convert Herman into something not so sweet .... something more .... what?
This called for a trip to the thesaurus.
And there, I found that the antonyms for sweet were not what I was looking for: acid, bitter, salty, sour, mean, unfriendly, unpleasant, (it gets worse), malodorous, stinking, stinky, cacophonous, discordant, ugly. I think I just go with "savory."
Anyway, instead of feeding Herman sugar and spud flakes, he got a half cup of "highly fermentable" (according to The Bread Bakers Forum) rye flour with his drink of warm water. We shall see what becomes of Herman.
This made me start thinking: Aren't we all defined by what we consume? If you live on junk food, your body starts to look and act and feel like junk. And that goes for your spirit, too. Are you feeding your spirit what it needs to thrive? Living Water and the Bread of Life are great spiritual health foods.
Oh, back to Herman. He may need a new name to go with his new identity.
How about Harrye?
No comments:
Post a Comment