Secret Club: Sourdough

I’ve written before about what I call Secret Clubs, including stovetop coffee roasting, PDX Carpet, and Luv Ya Bye.  As we become interested in a particular topic or skill, we naturally learn more about it and/or get better at it through practice and experimentation.  We get excited about the interest, and share it with others.  Often we discover new friends and contacts through our new hobby or interest.  I call these ‘Secret Clubs’, not in an exclusionary sense, but in an inclusionary way.

Admittedly, the sourdough Secret Club is a LOT bigger than it was before Covid. In fact maybe it should just be a Club, without the ‘Secret’ part.  But like gym membership, I know lots of people who started with baking sourdough who no longer bake.

I bake all our bread for home, and have for years.  I’m currently on loaf #539, which I know because I have notebooks with notes on every batch I make (hard to avoid being an engineer).  It’s gotten to where I can usually turn out a pretty decent bâtard.  And I’ve branched out to other bread-adjacent projects, like sourdough discard scones, sourdough discard crackers, and croutons.  I also make a mean sourdough focaccia, and have dabbled with sourdough pizza in our pizza oven.

Even with the bread, while I have a basic recipe (based on My Best Sourdough Recipe, The Perfect Loaf), I’ve modified that to incorporate more locally-milled, high-extraction flour, as well as other variations adding olives and toasted walnuts, or nuts and seeds, or some whole grain flour, or even some fresh home-milled flour.

Secret Clubs are like pools.  You can play around in the shallow end, and still have fun with the other people in the pool.  But if you want to, you can get into some very deep water indeed, depending on your time, interest and resources.

We actually have three generations of Van Peski men currently baking.  My starter is named for my late grandfather, Cornelis Johannes van Peski, a European-trained chef and master baker.  We call him (the starter) C.J. for short.  I have received feedback from multiple people who had previous starters that C.J. is a VERY robust starter.

So why do I like to bake?  It’s certainly not as efficient as buying good quality bread at a bakery.  Here’s the thing: many of us spend a lot of time in a largely ‘digital’ world… emails, web research, even writing… all moving electrons around.  It’s a joy to return to something as primitive as sourdough baking, which has been going on literally since the dawn of history (archaeological finds in Bern, Switzerland suggesting fermented bread date back to 3600 BC).  So while most of daily life looks nothing like it did even 500 years ago, when I bake bread, I’m using basic techniques of my ancient ancestors from 5000 years ago.  

There’s joy in creating something with my hands, using only flour, water, salt and starter.  There’s also challenge.  Like life, there’s lots of ‘right’ ways to bake a good sourdough loaf, but I can tell you from personal experience, there’s also lots of ways to end up with substandard loaves.  There are a lot of variables, and I have a feeling I’m not even aware of all of them.  There are endless opportunities for experimentation (hence the notebooks filled with notes).

And it (usually) tastes really good!  I make two loaves at a time, which is more than just Francie and I can eat.  So I give some away to neighbors here on the alley, and after a couple of days, cut up any remaining bread to freeze as slices, or make croutons out of it.  One of my first questions to new neighbors is if they’re gluten-intolerant or watching their carbs.  Even with some neighbors in those categories, I can always get rid of fresh baked goods.

Is there a Secret Club that you’re in that involves working with your hands to create something?  If you think you want to take up sourdough, I’m happy to mail some C.J. to you!