Sam Whitaker · April 13, 2026
For the first two years I baked sourdough, I only baked on weekends. That was the conventional wisdom — start your levain Friday night, mix Saturday morning, bake Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Clean, contained, no pressure. And honestly, it works…
Sam Whitaker · April 12, 2026
For the first two years I baked sourdough seriously, every loaf I cut open looked the same: a tight, uniform crumb that tasted fine but told me nothing had really worked. I was following the right hydration numbers, using the…
Sam Whitaker · April 10, 2026
People ask me all the time whether my starter is “better” because it’s old. My honest answer is: it’s complicated. I started this starter in 2014 from nothing but flour, water, and time. I nursed it through a move, a…
Sam Whitaker · April 9, 2026
I remember the exact moment I realized I had been sabotaging almost every loaf I baked for the better part of a year. I was standing in my kitchen at 11pm, cutting into what was supposed to be a beautifully…
Sam Whitaker · April 8, 2026
My first sourdough loaf came out of the oven looking like a deflated frisbee. It was dense, gummy in the middle, and had a crust so pale it looked like it had never seen heat. I had followed a recipe….
Sam Whitaker · December 22, 2025
Here’s a claim that trips up most people new to sourdough: refrigeration doesn’t pause fermentation, it just changes what kind of fermentation you’re getting. I used to believe the fridge was basically a “hold” button — a place to park dough when life got in the way of baking on schedule. Then one Tuesday night, … Read more
Sam Whitaker · December 19, 2025
Does a sunk spoonful of starter mean your fermentation is broken? Nine times out of ten, no — and that’s worth saying plainly before we dive into the weeds. Years back I hovered over my kitchen sink with a small dollop of starter suspended in a glass of water, treating the outcome like it would … Read more
Sam Whitaker · December 18, 2025
Three winters back, on a Tuesday evening after weeks of half-attention, I popped the lid off my starter jar expecting the usual bubbly greeting. Instead — nothing. No dome, no rise, not a single bubble breaking the surface. Just a slack, disappointing slurry of flour and water giving off a sharp whiff of nail polish … Read more
Sam Whitaker · December 17, 2025
Scroll through enough recipe blogs and you’ll run into two completely contradictory pieces of advice on the same topic: one camp swears you need a splash of pineapple juice or a few crushed grapes to “jumpstart” a starter, while another insists plain flour and water is all you’ll ever need. The pineapple-juice crowd is wrong … Read more
Sam Whitaker · December 4, 2025
Picture the cross-section of a loaf split open on my cutting board — that lace-like pattern of irregular holes, the slightly glossy sheen along the crumb walls, the way the top crust caramelized into deep amber rather than pale beige. That single photo is proof of an entire invisible workforce. A sourdough starter looks like … Read more
