Sourdough bread is made using a starter. A sourdough starter is created through combining flour and water. It takes several days to establish, but can be used for potentially hundreds of years.

Giving up was, perhaps, too strong a term. More accurate: letting my starter languish in the back of the fridge for weeks. Reading my sourdough-baking newsletters, sighing, and hitting delete.

Baking sourdough bread has a long history in America, but during the pandemic lockdowns it saw a resurgence in popularity. Baking sourdough begins with a sourdough starter.

While bread-making usually doesn’t require technology, the Breadwinner shows that adding in some tech can make it lot easier to live your life while you tend to your starter.

Ingredients. 150 g butter; 110 g onions (peeled and chopped) 500 g duck livers (cleaned and chopped into small pieces) 110 ml port; 30 ml cream; 1 tsp fresh thyme (chopped) ...

A jar of this fresh-tasting smoked mackerel pâté is great to serve as a starter or to pack for a picnic. It's unbelievably easy to whizz up.

But as Kratochvila points out in her book “New European Baking,” which was published last fall and includes dozens of sourdough bread and pastry recipes, a wave of bakers, working in cities ...

Just you, that starter, and a recipe from your bread-obsessed neighbor. Welcome to the sourdough lifestyle. Over time, this cozy hobby can turn any budding baker into a budding chemist.