How Creatively Using Leftovers Made Me Sour

A few weeks ago, my SO slow roasted a 5 lb. Cuban pork Roast in our little clay oven, loaded with citrus, garlic, and onions. I made a giant batch of oil and vinegar slaw, because weekends are a good opportunity to make too much food and make meals during the week just a little easier. We feasted, and added corn tortillas to the shopping list, because tacos are a logical next step when you’ve got pounds of roasted pork, am I right?

The picture shows two delicious tacos on a white plate. The tacos are on yellow corn tortillas and are generously filled with a mix of ingredients. There is shredded pork, and a colorful slaw made of shredded cabbage, carrots, and onion. There are also bits of chopped green onions and rice mixed in. The colors are vibrant, with the orange of the carrots, the green of the onions contrasting nicely with the yellow tortillas and the brownish meat. It looks like a fresh and appetizing meal. described with help from Be My AI.

Then I remembered the deli ham in the freezer. We didn’t have Swiss, but we did have Pepper Jack, which I find a reasonable substitute. We didn’t have large dill pickles I could make proper sandwich planks out of, but we did have some little cornichons that could work in a pinch. I wanted Cubanos. And because Facebook is always listening, it wasn’t long before a video from Food Wishes on assembling a proper Cubano appeared in my newsfeed. I was surprised to hear that Chef Jon wasn’t very impressed with Cubanos until he had one on the proper bread, and I trust Chef Jon, and I would be wise to lean into practicing my baking skills, since I’m in another baking lab at school this semester, so I followed the link to his tutorial on baking proper Cubano bread. Which started with a starter.

The Bread baking trend that arose with the Pandemic missed me, but not my household. My SO, ever the experimenter, jumped on the bandwagon and started turning out fluffy and divine dinner rolls and crusty loaves, all while I was still trying to lean Whole30 and not eat too much grain. At some point, the whole thing became discard and fresh baked goods disappeared from our kitchen like the trend disappeared from social media. I decided last week, 3 1/2 years after the onset of the Pandemic and way behind the trend, to commit to a yeast baby. Turtles are not my personal mascot for no reason.

Meet Flora!

A hand holds up a small glass jar with a metal lid containing fluffy sourdough starter. A piece of masking tape on the outside of the jar marks the place where the starter began its rise, now doubled in size by the measure of the tape. A metal bowl, a jar of flour, and miscellaneous baking supplies are seen on the table in the background.

Carefully following Chef Jon’s instructions, I started my starter and held my breath a little, since I’ve had spotty results with yeast in the past, mostly because it was probably dead before I fed it. I was delighted to wake the nmext morning to a happy, bubbly, doubled in size, lively yeast baby. I proceeded to make proper Cubano bread, and some hearty and soul satisfying Cubanos, more than once during the week, all the while nurturing, feeding, and growing my new starter. I decided I should name it to encourage me to develop an attachment and be appropriately caring for this actually not so delicate little creature. I thought about crowd sourcing a name, though I think I like Flora. I’ll still consider your suggestions, so send me what you’ve got.

As I went down the rabbit hole of learning to properly feed and care for my new yeast baby, I’ve started gathering discard recipes, making some pretty damn delicious sourdough chocolate chip scones, a sourdough country loaf (mostly so I could make croutons for a Caesar salad I intended to sweep the fridge with), an interesting and delicious sourdough lemon cake, delightful sourdough butter crackers, and some sourdough tortillas that were, well, a learning experience.

The picture shows two freshly baked baguettes. They are placed parallel to each other on a wire cooling rack. The baguettes have a golden brown crust and appear to be soft and fluffy. The cooling rack is on a countertop with a speckled pattern. The texture of the baguettes looks slightly rustic with some flour dusted on them. described using be my AI.
Homemade Cuban sandwich bread
The picture shows a delicious meal on a table. In the foreground, there is a sandwich on a white plate. The sandwich has a golden-brown crusty bread, with some dark spots, indicating it was toasted or grilled. You can see some fillings peeking out, which looks like cheese and shredded pork. There are also some sliced ham and pickles visible. Beside the sandwich, on the same plate, there is a serving of coleslaw. It looks fresh with shredded cabbage, carrots, and onions, mixed with a dressing. In the background, there is another plate with a similar sandwich and more coleslaw. Next to it, there is a large transparent bowl with more coleslaw. The table appears to be a wooden surface, and the overall setting gives a cozy and homey feel. described with support from be my AI.
Cubanos and slaw
The picture shows a plate of delicious-looking chocolate chip scones. The scones are triangular in shape and have a golden-brown color. They are studded with chocolate chips. The plate they are on is round and has a dark brown color with a glossy finish. The scones are piled on top of each other, making it look like a very inviting and tasty treat. described by Bee my AI.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Scones
The picture shows a freshly baked round loaf of bread. It has a golden-brown crust with a dusting of flour on top. The bread has been scored on the top with a pattern that resembles a leaf or a series of slashes, which has opened up during baking. The bread is sitting on a piece of parchment paper, and it appears to be on a countertop with a speckled pattern. The parchment paper has some crumbs and flour on it. The bread looks crusty and delicious! described by Bee my AI.
Sourdough Country Loaf

The picture shows two halves of a bread boule in cross-section placed on a wooden cutting board, one half resting partially atop the other. The bread has a golden-brown crust and a soft, airy interior with small holes. The cutting board is on a kitchen countertop, and in the background, there is a glimpse of a kitchen counter with a coffee grinder. The countertop has a speckled pattern. The bread looks freshly baked and appetizing. described with support from Be My AI.

The picture shows a delicious looking loaf of cake on a wooden table. The cake is on a white plate and has a golden brown crust. It appears to be a lemon flavored cake with a drizzle of white icing on top. A slice has been cut from the loaf and is placed on a separate white plate in the foreground. The cake looks moist and has a soft, spongy texture. The background is simple, focusing on the cake, and the wooden table provides a warm, rustic feel. described with support from be my AI.
Sourdough Lemon Cake
The picture shows a teal-colored bowl filled with square-shaped crackers. The crackers are light golden brown and appear to be slightly crisp. They have tiny holes on their surface. The plate is placed on a wooden surface, which is visible around the plate. described with support from be my AI.
Sourdough Butter Crackers

It hasn’t even been two weeks and I’ve learned that the internet is a wild west of sourdough enthusiasts loaded with their own experiences and opinions, some perhaps based in science, and that growing and managing a sourdough starter is a lot like cooking rice or boiling eggs–we all have a method that we swear by as the best, and at the end of the day, we all have rice and boiled eggs that are probably pretty good, and that sourdough starters are not nearly as delicate as some make them out to be. If some guy can make bread from scrapings from a 4,500 year old Egyptian vessel, killing your starter is probably a lot harder than you think. I also realized very quickly that I came to the table with a little sourdough privilege that gave me some Imposter Syndrome and may have prevented me from possible illness. In life, I generally tend to overthink things way too much and I’ve come to recognize that this trait often inhibits me from starting or sometimes finishing things. I am now thinking of an impulsive trip to Indonesia I made in my early twenties and starting a sourdough obsession as a couple of examples where my impulse control and brain were on some kind of coffee break and I’m better for it. Being obsessed with food waste, I immediately started using my discard for extra bakes, something you can do when your starter comes with a healthy yeast population right from the beginning, as mine did. After hours of browsing the internet, I realized that I have had the luxury of skipping right over the stress and agony of the first few weeks and months of getting a colony going with nothing but flour and water, and the hazards of using any of that goo until the epic battle between yeast and bacteria ends in a victory for the yeast, a harmonious symbiosis is achieved, and your starter really begins to develop per your care, feeding, and taste preferences that drive them.

FrankenSliders on Tiny Griddle Breads

The picture shows a close-up of a sandwich on a white plate. The sandwich appears to be made with a flatbread that is slightly toasted, as there are a few brown spots on the surface. The bread is fluffy and has a light golden color. The sandwich has been bitten into, revealing the filling which looks like slices of ham. There is a sprinkle of what seems to be a seasoning or spice around the sandwich on the plate. The background is a wooden table, and there is a hint of a brown container or object at the top right corner of the picture. described with support from be my AI.

Being a little more laissez faire with my starter maintenance and not so focused on precision feeding and monitoring, since it’s a more intuitive practice to learn than just numbers and routine feedings, I inadvertently fed too large a portion of starter and wound up with way more than I really need to keep a healthy colony between bakes, so the discard recipes ramped up this week, first pulling together some tortilla dough to cold ferment, then baking off those crisp and buttery crackers. I still had too much starter, so after working through the near disaster of tortillas that were really just little griddle breads and serendipitously became a Sweep The Fridge dinner last night, I pulled together a second batch of tortilla dough with the aim of tweaking a few things that didn’t go so great the first time. The recipe calls to portion the dough before cold fermenting, which I flubbed thanks to a weighing error that resulted in improvised division of dough that left me with 18 instead of 16 portions. My street tacos got tinier. Per recipe instructions, stashed the portioned dough in the fridge to cold ferment covered with a tea towel. Found them 24 hours later beginning to develop a dry crust, and I pressed on, literally. Lacking a rolling pin I like and too stubborn to hunt around for an improvised alternative, I thought it very clever to press the balls between two plates, which worked, sort of, though really lacked the true shaping precision of the small dowel I wanted and didn’t have. I was probably a little generous with the flour to balance the still sticky undersides and keep them from sticking to the plate and failed to adequately dust them off before laying them in my hot cast iron, resulting in an accumulation of flour in my pan, not a game ender, though not great, either. When the SO popped downstairs and inquired about dinner plans, I said, “I’ve got little griddle breads…they’re not exactly tortillas at this point, though they are good fresh and hot with butter melted all over them. This might be dinner.” Not always the poster child for healthy living, either of us, really, he was agreeable. Light bulbs started pinging on and we sprang into Sweep The Fridge action, I grabbed that last little hunk of Pepper Jack Cheese, he grabbed the remains of the deli ham we’d defrosted for Cubanos. He added a savory cherry chutney he’d recently made and we demolished all the little griddle breads as ham sliders of some mutant variety. And, with breads gone and ham and cheese remaining, we made short work of that rolling cheese and pickles in ham rolls, which I thought I might do for my constrained Monday lunch needs. That’s okay, because I’ve been packing what the internet apparently now calls Girl Dinners for years, and with 6 back to back hours of classes on Mondays necessitating something that travels easily, doesn’t require refrigeration or heating, and can be grazed on near the end of my morning online class before I sprint to an adjacent building for the in-person afternoon session, I’ve been resurrecting this habit, and being one of those weirdos who likes sardines, I’m looking forward to packing my sourdough butter crackers to go with a tin on Monday.

The picture shows a table with various items on it. The main focus is on a black rectangular container. Inside the container, there are carrot sticks, celery sticks, black olives, and pickles. There is also a small round container with ranch powder next to it. In the background, there is a laptop with a black keyboard, a wireless keyboard with a takeout box full of popcorn on top of it, and a pair of white earbuds in a case connected to a battery pack, which it is plugged into and sitting on top of. There is also a a white napkin on the table. There is a cardboard box from a tin of sardines partially visible under the plastic wrap of the container. The table appears to be in a room with a light ambiance and has a wooden surface. described with support from be my AI.
Some of us Girls have been making Dinners like these for a long time.

As for Flora, I think we’ve got the starter of something beautiful and I look forward to the many lessons I’ll learn from her, and with a little more experience and courage under my belt, I’ll tackle the more fundamental skill of developing my very own yeast colony from flour and water alone. Also taking names for this yet to be science project and looking forward to seeing what bubbles up.

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