feathering the nest

[ironymaiden]

i set myself up with a cutting board, vegetables, and the pepper grinder in front of the computer before today's tech demo (i wasn't presenting this week) so that by the time it was done i had sliced all the veg and ground a tablespoon of pepper and could start braised beef shortribs over lunch. we had them for dinner, and there are some leftovers for later (as well as two cups of fond that i want to get into some french onion soup real soon now).

afternoon tea today got me thinking about cookies. so i made some after after walking the dog tonight and they're cooling. they smell so good. writing this post is all that is keeping me from burning my mouth.

i don't miss bread very often, but the opportunity to make slow food right now makes me sad that we can't have it.* i did start researching sourdough for mom though; she's cooped up and bored and has flour but no yeast. has anyone tried the fruit juice method?

*C can't have gluten, and my mental health is way better when i don't have simple carbs, so bread is right out––especially right now when there are so many reasons to be cranky or sad.

Comments

[mimerki]

Does she have yogurt? You can do a long yogurt rise (basically subbing 1 cup of yogurt for 1/2 cup liquid and all the yeast) in a normal bread: rise time is ~5 days, stirring down every other day. That seems to me like it would also be a thing one could turn into a sourdough starter in the long run. (I used to feed my starter with yogurt sometimes.)

Here's some dude talking about much the same notion: https://www.food.com/recipe/foolproof-sourdough-starter-137811

I've seen a lot of bad effects from the fruit juice method, but have not tried it myself. (lots of "has this gone bad" photos wherein it has grown blue fuzz and is not sourdough starter)

[varina8]

I did fruit juice method once years ago. As I remember, it didn't go well. Your yogurt suggestion sounds feasible.

[mimerki]

If she isn't a purist, Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix (generally found in the Pasta aisle of the grocery, often on a top shelf) contains yeast and could be used as a cheater starter. I don't have instructions because I am making this up right now, just "add too much water until it has the consistency of pancake batter, treat like a sourdough starter." I mention this because every grocery I have visited in the past 3(?) weeks has been out of flour but okay for Jiffy Pizza Crust Mix (well, except for my nearest Safeway which was low on JPCM when I left).

*
Probably a non-purist could substitute the ~3/4 cup of JPCM in a box for an equivalent amount of flour in a regular bread recipe and see how that goes. I think it'll need a long rise time, but whatever. I have a long rise time available...

*
If she's a purist, the method I would try is potato water. I'm about to be on a meeting and all the descriptions I'm seeing for it call for adding dry yeast, but I will try to remember to look later if things aren't too hectic. (I know it's in the White House Cookbook on Gutenberg, but Gutenberg is throwing me errors this morning and who knows if those instructions make a whit of sense.)

[annofowlshire]

I saw a yoghurt recipe when I was looking them up, and a friend recommended grated apple as a kickstarter (strained out later). but I’ve gone with just flour and water for mine as I don’t need it immediately (but I might in a couple of weeks!).

(Sorry that my posts may be full of bread for a while.)

[yourlibrarian]

Definitely a plus of doing things from home, the ability to multitask!