sourdough: bread hacking and social baking

SourdoughBread Hacking and Social Baking

Guilherme Zühlke O’Connorwww.z-oc.com

twitter.com/guioconnor

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hackers like

• Learning

• Making stuff

• Reusing

• Sharing

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hackers like

• Learning

• Making stuff

• Reusing

• Sharing

Hackers need

• Regular breaks to clear the mind

• Food to fuel the coding

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The answer: Bread

Bread takes hours to leaven(But you only work it a few minutes at a time, perfect

past-time for your breaks)Code, bake, code, bake... eat + code.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bread is easy

• Flour: 1kg (£2.2)

• Fresh yeast: 20g (0.7oz); dry: 10g (0.35oz)

• Salt: 10g (0.35oz)

• Cold water: 600ml (20 floz)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The leaven

• Use 100ml of water,

• The yeast

• And 100g of flour

• Let it rest for 10~15 minutes

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The principle

• The yeast needs water and food, you feed it

• It reproduces and breathes

• The outcome is CO2

• ... and more yeast

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The bread

• Add the remaining flour

• And the remaingin water

• Knead the dough

• Leave to rest (it should double in size)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

And do it again

• Don’t be afraid of destroy the air bubbles

• There is plenty of yeast to make more

• Knead the dough well

• Leave to rest again

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hack your bread

• Use milk instead of water

• Add sunflower seeds

• Use some olive oil or melted butter

• Cover it in chopped garlic

• Put whatever you feel like...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

How many times?

• The more you knead, the more elastic it will become

• Experiment and find your way

• Learn the ways of The Force

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bake

• Time and temperature depend on the size and shape of your breads

• As a reference, use a pre-heated 180ºC (356ºF) oven for some 40 minutes for a 500g loaf

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

But, wait a second!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Where does the yeast come from?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Also called brewer’s yeastIs obtained as a byproduct of brewing beer.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Also called brewer’s yeastIs obtained as a byproduct of brewing beer.

But beer itself needs yeast...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Now really, where does yeast comes from?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Now really, where does yeast comes from?

Let’s Catch a Wild yeast!(much more fun than writing answers)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

sourdough_init()

• Mix 100g of flour and 100ml of water

• Cover it to avoid dust, but allow it to be in contact with the air

• Leave it for two or three days

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Yes, two or three days!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Yes, two or three days!What do you think it will happen?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bacteria!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Bacteria!

Yay!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hungry Bacteria!Time to feed them!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

leaven_refreshment()

• Take the 200g of leaven you have

• Add 200g of flour

• Add 200ml of water

• Repeat every two or three days

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Now you have 600g of leaven!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Now you have 600g of leaven!

How much leaven will you have at the end of 10 days?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Now you have 600g of leaven!

How much leaven will you have at the end of 10 days?

A lot!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

leaven_finalise()

• For 300g of leaven

• 300g of flour

• 150ml~200ml of water

• You’ll end up with some 800g

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Share your code leaven

• Give your leaven a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

• Give part of it to friends. Encourage them to make their own sourdough

• Just make sure you have about 300g for the last refreshment

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Making the bread

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Making the breadDidn’t we covered that already?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

bake()

• Save 300g of leaven and use 500g

• Add 500g of flour

• Add 300ml~350ml of water

• 15g of salt

• Make bread with that!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

sourdough_leaven.lib

• Refresh the 300g of leaven

• Add 300g of flour

• And 150ml~200ml of water

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

setTimeout(bake, 3)

• Every 3 days or so you must refresh your leaven and this is a good opportunity to make bread

• If that’s too often, why not alternate the task with some friends

• Don’t forget you can make _a lot_ of bread at once and share, so can your friends

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Summary

• You’ve built your own leaven library from scratch

• You’ve are distributing it with CC

• You are extending your library to all sorts of different breads

• People are modifying, customising and improving your library

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Maintenance

• Baking bread every few days seems exhaustive? Stop it!

• If you want to restart, ask a friend to give you some of the leaven they still have.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Accessibility

• Basic sourdough is not accessible to coeliacs due to the presence of gluten.

• Alternative recipes with gluten-free flours exists, but I’ve never tried them.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Gotta love Sourdough!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Gotta love Sourdough!If only we could FTP it to a web server... sigh!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

?Questions

Guilherme Zühlke O’Connorwww.z-oc.com

twitter.com/guioconnor

Wednesday, April 1, 2009