I recently inherited a new "mother": a jar of activated sourdough starter. It's a mix of yeast, liquid, sugar, and flour. After it's been sitting for a while, the fluidic yeast will bubble up and the carbon dioxide gas it emits sours the mix. You use this starter as the foundation for very tasty sourdough bread!
Once started, the mother can be kept alive indefinitely. There are some mothers that have been passed from generation to generation. If you are a master baker, you will understand the relationship bacteria have with the yeast in the mother, and you will be able to tweak the growth of the mixture to reach optimum flavour. Possibly the best of all sourdough comes from the world-famous Boudin Bakery in San Francisco. Their mother has been in use since 1849!
The mother I've obtained has been alive for fifteen years, so it's relatively young. In the picture above, you can see liquid pooled on top: this is an indicator that the starter is ready to go into dough. So, I made my first sourdough bread:
It's not pretty, but the shell is crunchy and crusty and the inside has that wonderfully tuggy texture and addictive hint of sweet-sour flavour. This loaf didn't last long in our house!
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