Sam Whitaker · June 28, 2026
Warning: a beautiful crust tells you nothing about what’s happening inside your loaf. I learned that the hard way on a Tuesday morning, slicing into a loaf I was sure was my best yet, and watching the knife drag through a dense, gummy crumb instead of clean, open slices. Eleven years into this hobby—including a … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 27, 2026
Pull up a photo I could show you this second: a torn-open sourdough boule with a wildly irregular, glassy crumb, sitting right beside an older shot of a flat, deflated slab spreading across the edges of my proofing bowl at five in the morning. That second photo is proof of exactly how badly things can … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 26, 2026
“Why do you have six different jars for the same starter?” My sister asked me that over Thanksgiving a couple years back, watching me dig through my cabinet like I was searching for a specific wrench in a toolbox. The honest answer traces back to a Tuesday morning when my sourdough starter container ended up … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 24, 2026
Lower hydration doesn’t mean lower quality — it means a dough that actually behaves the way a beginner needs it to while you’re still learning to read fermentation by feel. Why Start With Lower Hydration? High-hydration dough is sticky, hard to shape, and unforgiving of small mistakes. A 65% hydration dough, by contrast, holds its … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 23, 2026
Sourdough bread does not hand your gut a dose of living probiotics — the oven wipes out nearly all of that bacterial activity before the crust even cools. I know that runs against everything the wellness corners of the internet love to repeat, and I believed it too, right up until my sister-in-law casually mentioned … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 22, 2026
Your starter is bubbly. Your kitchen smells incredible. You’ve shaped your first boule at 2 a.m. and you’re genuinely convinced you’ve nailed it. Then you open your Dutch oven at 450°F and find… a pancake. Eleven years later, I’ve learned that flat loaves aren’t a failure—they’re feedback. Over three years running my home microbakery, I … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 20, 2026
Ever pulled a gorgeous, fully-risen sourdough round out of bulk fermentation only to find it flat-out refuses to fit inside your banneton? That exact nightmare hit me at 11 PM on a Friday night, standing in my kitchen wondering how I’d let this happen. What I bake with: Two baskets so you’re never waiting between … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 19, 2026
Nine years back, on a flat gray Tuesday morning, I hauled a sourdough boule out of the oven and watched it sink into something closer to a hockey puck than a proper loaf. What I bake with: The Dutch oven that bakes consistent crusts without scorching or guessing — AIVIKI 5QT Enameled Dutch Oven on … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 18, 2026
Half the sourdough advice floating around online will tell you a French culture and a San Francisco culture are basically interchangeable — feed either one, bake, done. The other half insists you need a completely separate schedule for each or the loaf just won’t work. The first claim is the one that’s dead wrong, and … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 16, 2026
A cold snap rolled through my kitchen one February, dropping the room to something like 60 degrees for the better part of a week, and that’s the exact stretch of time I let slip by without checking on Harold, my starter. Three weeks passed before I finally lifted the lid, and what greeted me looked … Read more
