Sourdough Starter, Day 6

"Walk this way, talk this way! Walk this way... just give me some head!"

Really Run DMC? Really? I had no idea these lyrics were so dirty... actually, I guess I did and I should have expected this line, but I was listening to "Walk This Way" this morning and this line just caught me totally off guard. I always find it funny when songs have blatant sexual references... especially where I don't expect them.

Okay... on to day six of my sourdough starter shenanigans...

Yesterday was almost catastrophic for my yeasty friends. Since I'm keeping the starter in the oven, I've placed a large sticky note on it reminding my roommates to be aware and take proper precautions so as to not bake up my starter as they are warming the oven. The sticky note was on the handle of the oven (I have since moved it to cover the actual oven controls)... clearly that was the wrong place for said reminder. I was sitting innocently at my computer when I began to hear the beeping of the oven heating up. It didn't register in my mind what the noise was immediately so I let it go for a bit... then sprang to my feet to rescue my poor starter. Luckily, it wasn't in there for very long, and the next feeding was only hours away so I could scoop out the hardened clumps that had formed in the heat. Today the starter looks unharmed... and has still been bubbling away, so I'm remaining optimistic that all is still well. The new placement of the sticky note is sure to catch everyone's attention, there's no way this mishap can possibly happen again. Phew!

So here it is. It's kind of evident by the larger size of the bubbles that the mixture has definitely thickened a lot. It's very gloopy (<-- that's a technical term, people). The smell is slightly sour and the flavor is actually beginning to resemble that of sourdough.

Tomorrow is day seven, and is supposed to be the final day of the starter process... but I don't think my yeasty mates will be ready for the bread making process. That, and since I am approaching the end, nearing the actual making of the bread, I am beginning to worry about how to carry out the baking. Sir Arthur, King of Flour tells me that I need such supplies as a pizza stone. The stone, being super hot from warming in the oven, immediately allows heat to flow from it to the loaf which apparently sends the yeast into a "feeding frenzy"... causing the bread to "rise dramatically". The good news, my brother and his girlfriend gave me a b-e-a-u-tiful pizza stone for Christmas... the bad news, having to Greyhound back to Montreal, there simply was no room for said pizza stone... thus it remains in Ohio... yearning for my crappy apartment oven and the chance to aid in the process of sourdough bread making.

So... somehow I have to figure out how to tackle this problem. Either way, I will probably be feeding my starter for at least another two or three days... ergo I can prolong the solving of this dilemma for now.