Souring on Sourdough

As noted elsewhere, although I refuse to believe pioneers on the frontier had graduated borosilicate cylinders, proofing boxes, climate-controlled log cabins, or digital wristwatches so they could stop milking cows and rush inside to feed their starters for perfect sourdough, it's also true that I've gone through two long spells (months each) of trial-and-error, look-and-feel, numerous approaches and recipes without once producing a loaf that really hit the spot.

Experimentation a la Sandor-Katz-Wild-Fermentation:
I successfully generated my own starter, focused first on rye, pumpernickel, and multigrain (use up your leftovers) bread. Pretty much everything I baked in this iteration was pretty tasty but very dense. My starter was healthy and smelled great, although I don't think it ever doubled as quickly as later reading told me it should do. Loaves also went brick-like very quickly. I really liked these breads but they were too dense for others in the household (who did like the taste). After putting several half-loaves in the freezer and spacing out the next loaves longer and longer, I finally let this effort die.

Experimentation a la Sourdough-Advice-Real-&-Online:
All the church ladies make incredible bread. One of my friends insisted I could do it too, giving me some of her starter, which she originally got from one of the other ladies. This time I fed it with whole wheat and bread flour instead of rye &c the 'wild' experiment. It stayed alive but not lively, so to speak. I thought our kitchen was too cold and tried different locations and sometimes a (plant) seedling warming mat to encourage it. Reading more and watching videos specifically on sourdough, I tried lifting and coiling and other techniques, tried to figure out what the dough should look like and respond at different stages, struggled with timing, tried a range of oven approaches, never got above "meh" results and was not having fun anymore.

I did at least figure out that my oven temp needs to be set higher (actual temp in the oven is not as high as the setting) and a few things about the baking itself for getting a decent crust.

I'd appreciate tips generally and especially from
  1. others who may have struggled through learning how to assess and manage their starters (especially from scratch), and
  2. others who want a LOAF not a boule.
My personal goal is tomato sandwiches, and I hate the boule with every slice a different size. Sorry, no offense; I realize I'm just weird!

Thanks for any suggestions, including "maybe sourdough is just not for you"...

I've always been mean to my sourdough, demanding it change to fit my lifestyle.  Neglect, too cold, too hot... all the things.  

If I want it to rise faster, like an hour or two, I put it somewhere warm.  If I'm going to be away for 10 hours, it can go somewhere cool to rise. The house is seldom climate uniform, so there are always cooler or warmer spots.  

That's why i go sourdough when I bake bread, it can do what I want, unlike commercial yeast that has about 4 min window when I have to do the next step.

Punch it down, shape it, I usually use a bread tin as the family likes "bread shape".  Make sure the oven is well preheated so I usually put it on when I punch the dough and as it's one of those new ovens that takes 45min to come up to temperature because it saves money or somethingsomething, I can put the bread on top of the oven to rise and they will be ready to bake at the same time.  

I also cook a lot of other things in the oven at the same time, as I'm too miserly to heat such a big space as an oven just to bake two loaves of bread.  They are usually in there before the bread, so it seems to hold the heat better when the bread goes in.


I've never noticed sourdough to care what shape it is cooked.  Although each shape has its own ideal temperature and time, and each oven has a unique personality.  You have permission to observe and experiment to see what works for you.

I don't particularly have a shape preference myself, but the loaf shape is important to my wife so we bought some cast-iron loaf pans that we can use in place of a dutch oven for any procedure that calls for that.

Hey Sea - golly I have walked much the same path.  Both water kefir and sourdough starter have been uphill roads with many detours.

I have come to the conclusion that sourdough can be something to gradually sidle up to.... just getting the starter to be consistently happy, but not so exhuberant that it overflows, has been more like managing a bipolar lab creature than working with a reliable and welcome kitchen ingredient.  When it is unhappy, I end up refreshing it more often in my bumbling attempts to improve, and then I have sourdough discard, which can go to the chickens mixed in their fermented grains, but I like to make productive use of it.

My favorite use of the discard is to make crumpets  (here is an example https://www.scotchandscones.com/sourdough-crumpets/ )  especially currently, while I am glamping with very limited baking options while tiny home is in construction. Until I get the RMH oven finished and functional, I am really appreciating the capacity to make some version of bread on a cast iron skillet.

and in all honestly, as someone who lives solo, a perfect loaf is very seldom my objective.  It takes a while for one person to get through a full loaf of bread... honestly longer than it stays wonderful, and freezing then thawing does NOT provide the same eating experience.  

So maybe I am in sourdough kindergarten.... taking little steps!

As far as I know, pioneers had a bowl and a dutch oven to make their bread.

If they wanted a loaf of bread, like modern bread then they might have had a loaf pan the fit into the dutch oven or maybe a wooden box that fit into the dutch oven.

If you do not like a boule then a form is needed to make the bread into something sandwich like.

A loaf pan or wooden box might work.

I was not a pioneer so I was not there.