The "Mother" Sourdough Culture

This Weeks Share
Kalamata Olive Bread
Sunflower Seed Bread
Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

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The home of the "Mother Culture"

The "Mother Culture"

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Happy mothers day to all you incredible moms!! This holiday seems like the perfect time to talk about the “Mother Culture” that lives in my house. When baking sourdough bread the “starter” is often referred to as the “Mother Culture”. She is what brings life to each loaf of bread! Without my mother culture my bread would be flavorless, flat and hard to digest and just straight up terrible. The mother culture requires a lot of nurturing to thrive, it is best to feed her at least every twelve hours unless I let her rest in a cold place, which she can hibernate in for many days without a problem. If I neglect to feed her, like I will this summer, I have to dry her up into a floury, clumpy state, instead of her sour smelling batter like structure she likes to be in, and leave her deep  inside my fridge and hope she will survive this negligence and come back to life this fall when I feed her the desired flour and water meals again. 

But where did this mother culture come from? I got mine from a friend, who got it from a friend who got it from a friend etc. You can grow your own mother culture from flour and water but she won’t be as experienced (stable) as these old strong mothers. The important thing is to always save a little bit of the mother culture for the next batch of bread, once you add salt or bake her she has exhausted all her growing powers. 

To all the mothers out there, I hope you are getting pampered this weekend and thank you for being such nurturing human beings!