Chemistry 101 (a/k/a "Sourdough Bread?")

I love sourdough bread.  I love San Francisco.  Ergo, I love San Francisco sourdough bread.  But I've always been somewhat intimidated by the concept of keeping a foaming, frothy jar of living organisms in my kitchen.  In fact, I spend a considerable amount of my day making sure all foaming, frothy living organisms are banished from my kitchen.  So should I attempt sourdough?  Oh sure...why the hell not?  If it fails, I've lost maybe $1 worth of ingredients.

So first I took a half cup of very warm water (about 115 degrees according to my trusty thermometer) and added to it 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.  Stir until the sugar disolves, and then add a packet of dry yeast.  Here is what it looked like at first...

And here is what it looked like 15 minutes later.  It's al-iiiiiive.  (That was a pretty sad Igor impersonation, but you get the idea.)

In a bowl, toss 1 cup of regular flour and 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.  Stir in your scary-looking frothy yeast mixture and 3/4 cup of water. 

Then cover it loosely (otherwise, you'll have an explosion of gases when this stuff starts fermenting) and let it sit for 3 days.  I put mine among my odd collection of butternut and delicata squash that I still haven't figured out what to do with.

So stay tuned.  In about 3 days, I plan to try my hand at making crusty homemade San Francisco sourdough bread. 

(And keep your fingers crossed that whatever grows in this bowl doesn't creep over the side and start eating squash.)