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This was a household staple when growing up, I should give it another go.

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Do! It really is so good!

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Mar 22, 2023Liked by Fiona Beckett

There is no tyranny in sourdough if you ignore the constant feeding.

I have a little Addis screw cap plastic 'jar' holding about 200gm/ml that I mix into 50:50 flour (rye preferably) to water. If you have an old starter better still, put what you can in, then top up with the 50:50 mix to 75% full. Pop in the fridge for a day or two to when the jar is full of bubbly goodness.

Use half to make your mother overnight by duplicating the amount you removed from the jar into a mixing bowl. Also replace what you removed back into the jar. It will keep in the fridge for weeks but I usually use any that is a bit acidic or watery in my normal bread whenever I remember to, leaving a little behind and and top up the jar.

Always leave a space at the top of the jar or else the lid will blow off and go straight through the shelf above with some violence.

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Good tips and I know I’m being a bit of a wuss about it - the other reason being that I can (and do) get incredibly good sourdough where I live in Bristol!

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At £5 a loaf? Yes sourdough takes time to rise but after that it's exactly the same process to cook bread. I use an electric mixer and make it in the background when I'm in the kitchen.

For those of us Boomers, sourdough was the bread we used to eat until the Chorleywood process in the 1960s. As a student in the 70s I worked in a bread factory where we could make bread in about three hours. The only hands-on were plonking the dough into tins and emptying them out after baking.

I also heard on BBC radio's 'The Best Thing' (since Sliced Bread) that sourdough is no better than supermarket Chorleywood process bread. There is some evidence that some people can digest sourdough easier but otherwise there is no benefits for most people. The worst bread to eat is basic white – which includes sourdough, baguettes, etc. The best is German-style rye breads, with pittas and Indian breads which are surprisingly good for you, ciabatta and so on somewhere between.

While wholemeal flours have more roughage, they are still not the best thing since sliced bread for your health. Which is annoying as I've just made a Worthing 'rustique' with rye, wholemeal, white, leftover sourdough mix and 100gms seeds

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