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I'm still amazed how relatively easy it is to bake your own sourdough bread, and encourage everyone to at least give it a try. After a few practice rounds, the

• namdnay 7y ago
  By "throw a cup of water into the bottom of the oven", is he being literal? as in literally pour the water onto the oven floor? Is that safe? Or is it "throw in" in the colloquial sense of "put it in"
  • alex_duf 7y ago
    You can poor the water into a baking tray. Regarding safety, just be careful not to burn yourself
    • prpl 7y ago
      It’s best to buy a cheap cast pan, fill it with chain or bolts, and through it on that. If you want to get fancy you can get a metal colander and fill it with ice and put it above that.
      • eps 7y ago
        Baking tray with lava rocks is a better option, but the simplest option is just to bake in a dutch oven with a lid on. There's enough moisture in the dough to create required amount of steam. 20 min with lid, 20 min without gets the job done very nicely.
        • prpl 7y ago
          yes but that doesn't work if it's not a boule
    • namdnay 7y ago
      ok that makes more sense to me
  • marcosdumay 7y ago
    Depending on the oven, the literal interpretation will reduce its lifetime, or may cause immediate failure. Some failure modes of some ovens are quite dangerous. So, yes, it depends. Most modern gas ovens are safe, most electrical ovens are safe. Old gas ovens are usually dangerous in more ways than this. When in doubt, you can always put a container with water there.
  • MegaDeKay 7y ago
    It is far from safe. People have accidentally gotten water on the glass window of the oven door and had it shatter on them. Many people, myself included, use a Dutch oven like the Lodge combo cooker. The bread bakes in a small enclosed space and the water given off during the bake is sufficient to steam the space within. That and you get a very even heat from all directions.
  • DayDollar 7y ago
    If your bread has side cracks, it didnt have enough steam.
• chopin 7y ago
  Do you also account for cleaning? I bake two loafs of bread once a week since 3 years and I can't relate for the work. Most goes into cleaning up (much of the machinery can't get into a dishwasher).
  • mirsadm 7y ago
    What machinery do you use? I find I need to clean very little when I bake bread. Usually most of the work gets done in a single tub.
  • jhrmnn 7y ago
    I don't think I use any machinery. All the equipment that needs any cleaning that I use is a bowl, spoon, silicon spatula, dough cutter, and a silicon baking pad.
    • nwienert 7y ago
      My roommate bakes bread and it’s messy. Flour everywhere, steam pan, the bread spatula tray, multiple utensils for various steps, all the paper and plastic wraps. I mean the bread is nice, but if you’re not very careful and cleaning as you go it’s a lot. Definitely not 30 minutes of work, more like 1.5 hours with all the cleaning.
• crispyambulance 7y ago
  I also bake sourdough. In my case, I took a class for it a few years ago which helped me a lot to nail down the basics. I wouldn't say it's easy to get right. It requires a fair amount of trial and error to get your equipment, setup and recipes dialed in. One factor that confounds me a lot is the temperature during bulk ferment and proofing. It's like temperature is an ingredient. My house as a lot of variation in temperature... I think I need to get a proofing chamber. My favorite resource is https://www.theperfectloaf.com/ https://www.theperfectloaf.com/. He's a software engineer in his day job, but he has a beautiful blog where he gives somewhat obsessively detailed recipes for sourdough. The recipes are practical and achievable by a home baker.
  • alex_duf 7y ago
    One beautiful thing with baking sourdough is that even if you don't get it right, it will still be very good bread. I think people tend to be discouraged by how difficult it might be but fail to realise even "failing" is still producing something edible and tasteful.
    • Doxin 7y ago
      The one thing -- in my experience -- that you absolutely should not forget to add is salt. Bread with no salt just tastes off. The good news is that the amount of salt isn't all that critical, anywhere from a pinch to a spoonful will result in something at least vaguely edible.
  • jhrmnn 7y ago
    Sure, not as easy as making an omelette, but considering there is a whole traditional profession devoted to making bread, which can feel intimidating, I would still consider it relatively easy.
    • crispyambulance 7y ago
      OK, "relatively" easy compared to other hobbies, I agree. The challenge comes when you see what artisan bakers can achieve. It's one of those things where your taste can utterly outgrow your skills. This is definitely a "forever" hobby where one can always find ways to improve and find new dimensions to explore.
• christophilus 7y ago
  Agreed. The book Flour Water Salt Yeast is also excellent. It's the best sourdough I've ever had, and it's coming out of my oven. [1] https://kensartisan.com/flour-water-salt-yeast/ https://kensartisan.com/flour-water-salt-yeast/
  • moultano 7y ago
    I recommend "Tartine Bread" as a supplement to that, specifically for making breads with wild yeast. The method in Flour Water Salt Yeast for starting and maintaining the culture seemed really finicky and intimidating when I first skimmed it. Reading the Tartine Bread book both gave me a better understanding of how it works, and is also a lot more relaxed about the process. Flour Water Salt Yeast is better for general breadmaking technique though.