Mastodawn

Windy city Dec 31

Sometime around the 2020 era, we lost the right to be mediocre at things we love.

No longer can you just bake bread...you must start a sourdough side hustle lol. Wanna stay fit and go jogging or running? Nah, you gotta optimize your biometrics for a marathon. What my point is that every hobby has been enshittified and gentrified into a brand opportunity.

This strange infatuation with optimization culture is killing the human spirit.

So this new year, starting tomorrow, one of my resolutions is to do something bad but fun. Maybe I write a terrible poem. I like to draw and paint, so perhaps I will draw a horse that looks like a table or sing off-key in the showers or in front of my loved ones. The algorithm driving the mainstream social media wants me to be a polished product, but my humanity lives in these messy, unoptimized, cringe-inducing joyful failures.

I will try to reclaim the right to be an amateur. Will you join me?

#creativity #hobbies #art #depression #socialmedia #newyear #resolution #happynewyear #MentalHealth #Culture #enshittification #creative #design #writing #reading #books #drawing #music #gardening #nature #running #fitness

Roland Siegloff Dec 31

@pheonix Yes, let's bake sourdough bread only for our own consumption and occasionally for our lovely neighbours.

Berg am Laimerin (v2)Dec 31

@rolandsiegloff @pheonix
Since I don't have the time to regularly feed (or use) a sourdough, I replace it with yeast. (For partly rye bread add some vinegar).

Good enough.

Try the "scrapings" method. You don't need to feed or pamper the starter. The only downside is you need to be a bit more organised.

When you make bread leave a thin coating of starter in the jar (the scraping)

Stick in fridge. Leave for upto a month.

About 12h before you make bread add 100g flour and 100g water to jar, stir and leave out in kitchen.

Starter should bubble up and be ready to go.

Repeat.

Knud Jahnke Dec 31

Doesn't that start rotting? Or does the thin layer dry out and conserve in that way?

Scott Carlson Dec 31

@knud it just dries out. And actually dried out starter can be saved as backup

Knud Jahnke Dec 31

Ah great, I didn't know this. Will try!

Scott Carlson Dec 31

@knud here's a link to a good explanation https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2015/05/01/putting-sourdough-starter-hold

Putting your sourdough starter on hold

Sooner or later, most of us need to put our sourdough baking on hold. Maybe we're going on vacation; perhaps the schedule is just too crowded at the moment for the ritual feeding/discarding/feeding/baking process. Whatever the reason, there comes a time when we need to put our sourdough starter to bed for awhile. So what's the best way to keep your starter happy, healthy, and vibrant, when you know you won't be using it for an extended period?Refrigerate it and hope? Freeze it and forget it?

King Arthur Baking

Knud Jahnke Jan 1

Very nice, thank you!

The Great Llama

@knud @Beelbeebub
My experience has been that you almost can't kill a sourdough starter stored somewhere cold. The microorganisms just shut down and go dormant until it's time to party again. It might take a couple of generations to get everything back to normal, but that's what sourdough pancakes are for.

Knud Jahnke Dec 31

@TheGreatLlama @Beelbeebub .
I had the issue with some black-ish layer of bacteria (or yeast) growing on top, so I had to clean this and regrow for a few weeks.

Knud Jahnke Dec 31

@TheGreatLlama @Beelbeebub .
I had the issue with some black-ish layer of bacteria (or yeast) growing on top, so I had to clean this and regrow for a few weeks.

Beelbeebub Dec 31

That happened to me once when I didn't use my scrapings for about 2 months. Borrowed a spoon of starter from a friend and carried on.

If you aren't making bread daily then the scraping method is alot more convenient.

The Great Llama

@knud @Beelbeebub
I've heard of folks pouring a healthy starter on cookie sheet and drying it, then storing the dried sourdough "crackers" in the freezer.

Scott Carlson Dec 31

@Beelbeebub one note, occasionally I have to do a couple of feedings in a row to increase the strength of the starter

@Beelbeebub that's more or less what I do. Sourdough starter is so much more resilient than people think. I only keep a tiny amount in the fridge so I never need to discard any when I feed it ahead of baking day.

I hadn't used my starter in 5 weeks. It took 2 rounds of feeding 12 hours apart to build it back up again to a happy bubbly starter.

This boule was the outcome. :)