All articles
On sourdough, bread baking, and the gear that earns its space.
Sourdough · Ingredients
Sourdough · Ingredients
Whole-grain rye outperforms white flour for starting a new culture. Once the starter is mature, what you feed it is a different question. Specific brands, switching protocols, and troubleshooting.
11 min read · June 2026
Sourdough · Troubleshooting
Sourdough · Troubleshooting
Six common causes, ranked by how often they're actually the problem. Each one has a specific fix that takes minutes, not days. Temperature is usually the answer.
9 min read · June 2026
Sourdough · Troubleshooting
The smell is a hunger signal, not spoilage, and the compound is probably not acetone. What it actually is, why warm kitchens produce it faster, and the feeding ratio that clears it.
9 min read · August 2026
Sourdough · Troubleshooting
Four different problems produce the same puddle and most guides treat them as one. Each leaves its own signature, and three of the four are invisible to the poke test.
12 min read · August 2026
Sourdough · Troubleshooting
Dense crumb almost always means the dough did not ferment enough. Here are the five reasons that's true, ranked by how often they're actually the cause.
8 min read · June 2026
Sourdough · Science
Sourdough · Science
The yeast in your starter peaks at 27°C and the bacteria peak at 32 to 33°C. That single gap explains sour-but-flat starters, and it contradicts several rules bakers repeat as fact.
11 min read · August 2026
Sourdough · Science
Fermentation measurably lowers fructans. The one trial that fed sourdough and yeasted wheat bread to the same people found no symptom difference. Both are true, and most coverage reports only the first.
13 min read · August 2026
Sourdough · Starter care
Sourdough · Starter care
Neglect de-tunes a starter rather than killing it, and it takes the yeast out before the bacteria. A revival protocol by neglect duration, with a go or no-go decision at each stage.
12 min read · August 2026
Sourdough · Method & Equipment
Sourdough · Method
You do not need a Dutch oven to bake sourdough with a proper crust. Three methods that produce bakery-quality results without one, ranked by how close they get.
8 min read · June 2026
Sourdough · Equipment
A starter kit you assemble yourself outperforms every pre-built kit on Amazon. Six pieces of gear actually worth owning, ranked by how much they matter.
11 min read · June 2026