My sourdough wasn’t behaving recently so I wrote for help from master baker Yohan Ferrant. This sour dough master from France offered many insights, including a whole vocabulary; hetero-fermentative, proteolyse, aceitic, and lactic. Guiding me through the process, here is his main points.

Bubbles and taste don’t always make good sourdough. You can get some really pretty crust, but then you might get a few flat, uneven crumb, not to mention dough with the consistency of clay.

There’s a zen to sourdough maintenance that starts with the feed, primarily because of bacterial dynamic. Thanks to Yohan Ferrant for explaining his own magic process and trying to explain to this “lazy baker” what you need to do to generate the healthy bacteria to result in a crusty loaf!