Simple Sourdough

Welcome! You've just found a BullSh#t-free guide to making sourdough.

Let me start by making something clear: this site details merely what I've learned, and how I do things. Your results may vary.

I am not a chef, or a professional culinary anything - I'm just a guy who wanted to make some pizza, but after stumbling through the (strange and confusing) online realm of sourdough baking, I decided the world needed a no-bullsh#t site.

Perhaps your journey was similar to mine. Maybe you watched or read countless monologues from hipster bakers and overly chatty homemakers, being bamboozled by the secret language of levain and the bread lame. (Pronounced 'larm', not 'laym', if you were wondering).

You might've persevered through all of that only to be frustrated by ads, mailing list signups, discount code popups, and videos you didn't ask for, which scroll with you and cover the bit of the screen you actually wanted to see, making sites unreadable, forcing you to scroll and scroll (and scroll) past virus-laden adverts for wart medication, celebrity clickbait, and Get-Rich-Quick schemes - just to find the damned ingredients.

...which were in the wrong units anyway. I mean, what the hell is a cup?
How big is this cup? I have cups. Which one should I use, exactly?

Well, weary traveller; you'll find none of that utter BullSh#t here.

The summary you've been looking for:

• Sourdough is made of flour, water, and sourdough starter. (Also, in the case of bread: some salt, sugar, and fat).
• 'Sourdough starter' is nothing more than flour and water, which has been allowed to ferment a bit - it's your yeast.
• Yes, you can make sourdough easily. No, you don't have to mess around with dutch ovens if you don't want to.

The steps you've been looking for:

1. Starter - Start here! The clue's in the name - and with the BS removed, it's easy.

2. Bread - Made your starter? Or maybe a friend gave you some? Well go forth and bake!

3. Behold what you've made and eaten, and you know what? Stop right there if you've acheived your goal.
   Or... if, like me, you're a pizza fiend and you want to try a sourdough base, I gotchu, fam. Click on the imaginatively titled:

4. Pizza - A page for all your pizzaiolo needs. It's bellissimo - without the BullSh#t.

Everything else you might want to know can also be found via the navigation links at the top of each page:

5. Discard is discussed here. (Spoiler: Just throw it away).
6. Equipment shows you the stuff I use and can recommend.
7. Gallery contains my amatuer efforts in all of their glory gory reality.
8. BS - Everything else. The BS, if you will. Things like:

• A glossary to help you confidently navigate the more artisinal sites, when you want to try more recipes.

• Answers to questions such as:

  • What IS sourdough?

  • Why do I want sourdough?

  • What stuff do I actually need to make sourdough?

And why the f- ... flour does my starter smell like that?!

Happy baking!