Mother Sponge

October 25th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

I recently wrote a story (and sold it to Hub \A/) called Mother Sponge. I was messing around with food science fiction, as food science and chemistry are hard sciences, after all. In my research I was delighted to learn that a sourdough starter is called a mother sponge (which, shockingly enough, I used as my title). It’s something that you use time and time again to bake bread with, feeding the starter to keep it going. This apparently allows different sourdoughs to develop distinct flavors, as the mother sponge can be kept around for years.

Baking bread is not something I have messed with much (beyond the bread machine, which I’m fully aware doesn’t count) but I’ve always been curious about it. And after writing about the mother sponge, I wanted to try to make one myself. One thing that is scary is there are many, many different recipes for a mother sponge, with different expectations. It’s hard for a beginner to figure out where to start.

Mother Sponge BettyI started, of course, with the easiest recipe. I’m lazy. Sue me. So now I have a living, somewhat smelly mass of flour and water and, I hope, wild yeast sitting on my counter. At the end of some days, it has a layer of smelly water on top of it, other days it’s all puffy and menacing. I keep feeding it, though, and it remains docile at best, threatening at worst. I understand that the mere fact the starter is moving between these states is a good sign. I do keep my tai chi sword close by, though.

One of my favorite blogging accounts of sourdough is from writer John Schoffstall, one of my old Online Writer’s Workshop buddies, and his daily updates of growing his shoggoth in ‘05. Start here and just hit the rightmost button on LJ to advance along the story. After re-reading this, I fully identify with his experience (although I am not using grapes) and I while don’t want to copy John’s wonderful telling of his adventure, I do want to say that I’ve named my mother sponge ‘Betty” and sometimes feed it before I remember to feed my dog.

Will report more when I try to actually bake. Fear me.

There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Tim Tylor on 25 October 2008:

    Fraid the “Start Here” link’s not working.

  2. Comment by Dani in NC on 25 October 2008:

    I’ve had bad luck with sourdough starters in the past. They just sit there and do nothing. At least yours is alive :-).

  3. Comment by Mur Lafferty on 25 October 2008:

    Sorry Tim, it’s fixed now. Thanks for letting me know!

  4. Comment by Alphanitrate on 25 October 2008:

    AB would be so proud - watch for the burping sock puppets.

  5. Comment by christian on 26 October 2008:

    Good luck with your monster. Mine has reached across 3 continents so far (Europa, America, GB) and is striving for world domination (when it’s not made into cake or other fine stuff).

  6. Comment by Jim Nutt on 26 October 2008:

    Wait until it’s been going for a couple of weeks before trying to bake with it, the bread will taste better. Pretty much the easiest possible recipe is one cup of starter (your sponge), one cup of lukewarm water and roughly 3.5 cups of bread flour. Mix it together until it starts to hold a bit of shape, then walk away for 15 minutes. Come back and start mixing with your hands, adding a couple of teaspoons of kosher salt and a tablespoon of oil (olive oil will make a softer loaf, I use canola). Keep mixing and kneading until all the flour has been incorporated, then turn it out on a floured countertop and knead and fold until the surface is fairly smooth and it doesn’t tear too badly. Put it away for a few hours until it doubles in size, then split into two loafs. Work out the air bubbles from each loaf and stick in a pan. Let rise again for at least two or more hours (depends on the temp of your kitchen). Bake at 450 deg F for 25 minutes (or until the bread hits 200 deg inside). A nice stand mixer with a bread hook makes this really easy….

  7. Comment by Mur Lafferty on 26 October 2008:

    Alphanitrate - hah! My new viral goal is to get a copy of my short story into AB’s inbox when it comes out. You up to it? ;)

    Christian - WOW, I’m amazed. And of course, challenged. My Betty will devour your mother sponge!

    Jim- Thanks for the advice!

  8. Comment by Alphanitrate on 26 October 2008:

    I would be glad to help you with AB. Work commencing..

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