I recently happened upon something that interests me quite a bit. I have thought about it several times in the past, but never really took action. Today that all changes.

I am talking, of course, about... SOURDOUGH!

Yes, sourdough. Have you ever really spent much time thinking about bread? Bread has literally been around for thousands of years, and It has sustained many people during that time. I would even wager that every single person on this earth has tasted bread at some point in their life. Its amazing how something so simple works, and how many people perhaps take the concept for granted.

The interesting part is how incredibly easy and magical it is. Perhaps the most complicated part of sourdough is the yeast. These magical little critters are responsible for leavening the bread, causing it to rise. How does this happen? Well, in a nutshell, the yeast eats sugar, and convert it into two by-products, carbon dioxide and alcohol. I make my own beer, so I am familiar with the process, and it can be quite complicated to explore. For the sake of this post, we are sticking to layman's terms, and focusing only on the carbon dioxide output, which of course, translates to bubbles, which is required for bread to rise.

So What kind and how much yeast do you need? The answer may surprise you. Who cares, and NONE. Absolutely none. What? Bullshit you say? Negative. All the yeast you need to already in the flour you use, and you can use any type of flour you want! You want whole wheat sourdough bread? Use whole wheat flour. You want plain white? Use plain white flour.

So maybe you are wondering how to get the yeast out of the flour? Simple, add water. That's right, you truly only need two things to make sourdough bread. Flour, and water. You could get the water from any source, and the same could be said for flour. If you had to fend for yourself and try to survive, bread would be one of the easiest things to produce, and could could keep you alive indefinitely. Indefinitely? Definitely!

To get your bread going, you need a "sourdough starter". To make this you simply combine equal parts water and flour of your choice. You cannot go wrong. I assume you are not cool enough to grow or find your own wheat, and grind it into flour yourselves (you could, easily, but that's another post), so go to any supermarket on the planet, and buy a bag of flour.

So take equal parts of the flour and water and stir, and put them into a container. What kind of container? Well, anything would do. I recommend a glass jar. Mix the two things together in a jar, and stick something on the jar that will allow it to breathe a little bit, and perhaps keep any crazy bugs out. If you don't have anything to use, just use your shirt.

Let this sit at room temperature for 24 hours, at which point you will likely see some kind of weird brown juice called the "hooch" in the jar. This is a good thing. Give it a stir, and then it is time to feed your starter. To feed the starter, you simply pour out half the contents of the jar, then add more flour and water mixed together. How much? just some. maybe about the same amount as the first time. It is that simple. Amazing, aint it? After you do this for several days, you will notice that the starter grows after you feed it, then settles back down. After several days of this, your starter will double or perhaps triple in volume at its peak approximately hours after feeding. Once you know for sure that it is at least doubling its volume at each feeding, it is done. Your starter is a success, and can be kept alive indefinitely. Its true; so long as you keep your starter fed, it will live forever. Once it is completely established, you can put it in the refrigerator for a week or more at a time, without feeding it. That, my friends, is INCREDIBLE! Think about it! A Perpetual food source, and if you played your cards right in the post apocalyptic world, it could be free to you, forever.

So, now that your starter is in perfect working condition, it is time to eat. So, take out your starter, which should be pretty good sized by now, and remove some. How much? depends on how much bread you want. Let's make one loaf. So, take maybe a cup of starter and a stick it in a bowl. Add a cup of water and stir. You can now add some sugar and salt if you like, maybe 4 teaspoons sugar and 2 teaspoons salt, or don't, it doesn't matter. Let it sit and froth for maybe an hour, then add about 3 cups of flour a little bit at a time, kneading it in slowly. Once the dough has a bread dough feel, let it sit for an hour, then punch it down a bit and form a basic loaf shape. Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for maybe 30-45 minutes, then eat it.

That is really all there is to it. Now, this is a basic rundown, your mileage may vary, but you get the general idea. You will need to experiment a little in your own kitchen to get it like you like, but you can use the same concepts and ratios. I will post pictures periodically of my starter as she grows.

To me, taking two things that individually seem innocuous, and mixing them together, adding time, and being able to live off of it, forever, is mind blowing. If you are truly able to sit an ponder this for a few minutes, and not be amazed, then fuck off, and I'll see you in hell.

Via con huevos, amigo.