January 2010

This week an internet friend sent me some flakes of sourdough starter, so that I could start my own from his culture.  You can of course generate your own starter just using flour, water, and patience.  But getting a bit of starter from someone else is the best way to give yourself a good head start.

There is a lot of mythology, rumor, old wive's tales, and urban (rural?) legend surrounding the sourdough starter.  The first and most important thing to remember is that people have been using sourdough starters for thousands of years.  The first sourdoughs were probably started in ancient Egypt, around 1,500 years before the birth of Christ.

Most people can explain the difference in taste between sourdough bread and "regular" bread.  And those of us who are handy around the kitchen know that sourdough bread involves a "starter."  But what is a "starter," and what does it really do?

Sourdough bread is, in a sense, fermented.  The starter takes the place of yeast in the dough, by providing CO2 bubbles to make the dough rise.  (If you make much bread, sourdough is a great way to save money, by the way.  I don't know if you've noticed, but the cost of yeast is ridiculous!)

I was a little bit miffed by a recent New York Times article on Seattle's predilection for teriyaki.  Although it tried very hard to keep a straight face, it often expressed a snooty sort of horror, because apparently Seattle likes the wrong KIND of teriyaki.  I can appreciate that the author, John T. Edge, has a very clear idea of what teriyaki ought to be.  But the overall haughty tone was just outright wrong-headed.

Seattle does indeed have a love affair with teriyaki.  When I point this out to people here, they frown in puzzlement.  Seattleites simply don't realize how few teriyaki restaurants there are, once you leave the greater Seattle area.  Edge is correct in that, in noting that teriyaki joints are so common as to have become invisible.