Sam Whitaker 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
Sam Whitaker · June 15, 2026
No recipe card on the planet warns you that a starter can go from sluggish to volcanic in the space of an evening, or that “double in size” doesn’t come with a manual for what to do when it actually happens at 11 PM on a Tuesday. That’s roughly the scene I found myself in … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 14, 2026
The lid barely cracked open before the smell hit me — something sharp, almost like vinegar folded into ripe yogurt — and my first thought was, that’s stronger than usual. That was the same starter I’d fed the night before, the one that went into the loaf I served my mother-in-law at dinner a few … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 13, 2026
Almost every home baker assumes the same thing about a starter that’s been forgotten: once it’s sat neglected for weeks, it must be dead, and the only real option is to toss it and build a fresh culture. That assumption is wrong more often than it’s right — and I learned this the hard way, … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 11, 2026
That back corner of my counter, right next to the old proofing box I built during my microbakery years, is where Harold’s jar has lived for as long as I can remember. My husband wandered past one morning, leaned down out of habit for a whiff, and snapped his head back like he’d just inhaled … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 10, 2026
Don’t trust your kitchen’s ambient temperature to babysit a sourdough proof — it will wreck a loaf right when you can least afford it. I learned that the hard way one March Tuesday, staring down at what should’ve been a tall, puffy round and instead getting a squat, barely-risen brick. Third failed bake in two … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 9, 2026
Picture the photo I could pull up on my phone right now: a marble slab smeared with pale streaks of dough, flour dust hanging in the air like it had just snowed indoors, and a look on my face somewhere between panic and defeat. That image is proof of exactly one thing—my three-day sourdough project … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 7, 2026
“Why does your bread look like it exploded instead of split open?” My husband asked, nodding at the loaf I’d just pulled from the oven—one I’d babied through a two-day cold proof, then ruined in the space of a single dull swipe with a paring knife that dragged and caught instead of gliding through the … Read more
Sam Whitaker · June 6, 2026
My hands are dusted with flour and flecks of rosemary as I slide this latest sheet of crackers out of the oven, the edges just turning that deep gold at 350°F. Rosemary and sea salt is the flavor I always reach for first — it’s the recipe I hand guests before anything else, because it … Read more
