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Amalgamated Sourdough, Inc.September 02, 2009 What was I doing with two sourdough starters? Through spring and summer I've been alternating, using the starter in the cylindrical glass pitcher for one batch of bread and the starter in the quart Mason jar for the next. Being determined to give each enough exercise so that neither would die on me, I've baked no regular yeast breads since whenever it was -- end of March? beginning of April? -- that the new starters were ready for a test rise. One of the starters is somewhat more pungent than the other, but neither is as sour as the old one. Sourness develops with time, and exposure to the wild bacteria wafting through the kitchen. So yesterday morning I poured both starters into my big beige bread bowl, whisked them together, added about 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of very warm water, and whisked well again. By early afternoon they were happily fermenting together. Before bedtime I poured a little less than half the amalgamated starter into the cylindrical glass pitcher, the one that had been home to my old starter for at least 20 years. To the rest I added the ingredients for a "sponge" -- that's what it's called when the first rising is unkneaded batter, rather than kneaded dough: orange juice, molasses, vegetable oil, a little baking cocoa, two cups of rye flour and almost two cups of whole wheat. (This was the bread I was trying to make for the fair, when the heat made the loafed dough hyperactive and my attempts to use cold water baths and refrigeration to slow it down made for a heavy, less than pleasing texture.) In the morning, thanks to the cool overnight temps (it was 48 outside when Travvy and I headed out for our a.m. walk), the sponge had risen light and not too high. I added caraway, dried cranberries, salt, baking soda, and flour, whole wheat and unbleached white. I kneaded and loafed and by not long after noon the bread was in the oven and the apartment smelled wonderful. The bread, I'm pleased to report, lived up to the smell, both in taste and in texture. My two sourdough starters are now one. So closes a chapter of the saga that began in March with the sourdough starter that died of neglect.
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