When you bring a new pet into your home, what's the first thing you do? Name it!
Given that sourdough starters are kind of like pets (they do require attention and regular feedings, after all), it not too surprising that while covering Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice in our Baking Club this month, we learned that members have a lot of clever names for their starters, like Emilio Yeastevez, Carrie Breadshaw, and more. Here are the stories behind some of our favorites:
Kirsten Collins: I’m honestly not sure how I thought of Rye Breadbury, I’m not normally that punny. But he started off with pumpernickel flour so I wanted something to commemorate that.
AnnaMarie MacLean: Clint Yeastwood because I either heard it somewhere or stumbled upon it myself and it cracked me up.
Taylor Ashlock: Mine is Levi because we have two seminary graduates in this house so Biblical names are everywhere. Also because I thought it was a funny play on words like leavening and levitate, levity, etc.
Cathy Guinan: Love of My Life is decades old sourdough
Ashley Ferrer: Brady, because I started it after the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl. (Heidi Walth Furth's quip in response: And your dough never deflates?)
Nicole Kriedeman: Mine is named Audrey. She is 16 months old and I named her after Audrey in the Little Shop of Horrors since I have to feed her every day.
Stephanie B: Mine is Berry because I used the yeast on wild black raspberries to get it going. Is most of the microbial community now maintained by whatever is in the flour I feed it with? Sure, but at one point there was some wild berry yeast in there.
Corey Cramer: Augustus Gloop. Always been a huge fan of Willy Wonka and it's both very sticky and amorphous.
If you don't have a sourdough starter of your own yet, read up on how to take care of it—you'll just need 5 minutes a day, or less. (And don't forget to give it a good name!)
Does your sourdough starter have a name? Tell all in the comments!
Written by: Lindsay-Jean Hard
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Jane Dough- 10 grain flour
John Dough- whole wheat
Cinderella- (she came from mostly discards & turned out to be the “princess”)
The Bitch- because she was always overflowing the jar! AP & Emmer wheat flour
As a fan of “Criminal Minds”, I named it after Garcia’s computer, “Persephanie“.
My wife does not understand but loves the sourdough treats made from her discards.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.