DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The second batch with the new starter came out of the oven a few hours ago. The crust was amazing, a record-setting crust, a crust about which books might be written: crisp and crackly over a chewy crumb, just like bakery bread never is. The flavor was, ahh, hell. It was bland.

Peter Reinhart writes that new starters take a few weeks to develop their “full complexity of flavor.” So I’m going to hang out and bake bland bread for a few weeks in hopes that Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brevis take residence in this frothing slop that smells, I must admit, like an unkempt locker room.