There's Brian, who is a director of photography and video engineer. Erin, a producer of corporate meetings and videos. Elliot, a lawyer and tennis player, Sharon, a retired IBM'er and board chair, and Smita, a behavioral psychologist and cooking influencer. While there are various links and threads that connect each of these individuals to some but not to others, that six degrees of separation shrinks to just one over the mutual attraction of all to the dough. And in this case the meaning is literal: not cash, but the sticky, yeasty stuff that turns into bread.
You can attribute that attraction as one more unexpected outcome resulting from the influence of COVID. The list of wholesale changes as to how we live, interact and go about our daily lives as a result of the pandemic is long and varied. While our memories of that frightening and unsettling time are fading, the adaptations, changes in routine, and shifts in direction and attitudes that were forged under pressure in the deepest part of that 18-month period will endure for years. There's the growth of remote everything, the hyper explosion of e-commerce, the sensitivity to any sniffle or cough as the leading edge of something much worse, and yes, the increased interest in bread making.
While Google searches for the term and its analogs quadrupled in a flash during the initial sting of the crisis, they quickly plummeted back to historically average ranges once people realized that you could get Target or Amazon to deliver a loaf of sliced multigrain or hearty white. But there was a determined subset who took the impetus to try their hand at making their own, less as a matter of survival and more as a chance to finally try something that took time and finesse that they didn't usually have. What started as a curiosity turned into a hobby turned into a skill that, even when the initial perceived need evaporated, became less a novelty and more of a routine.
Now the aforementioned individuals (and add me to that pot) pride themselves on an ability that to non-fellow followers can seem somewhere between art and magic. Even though the ingredients and methods are basically the same and have been since the first loaf was made some 12,000 years ago by hunter-gathers in a desert in Jordan, search for instructions and you will get north of 1.4 billion hits. That means there is a fair amount of variability to discuss, share, argue and advise from one aficionado to another.
Make no mistake: for all the press on how DIY sourdough is the next basic black, these home bakers offer no challenge to the commercial behemoths or even the artisan niche providers, nor are they leading edge of a scalable revolution in consumption. The commercial bread market in the US is a nearly $26 billion business, which when one researcher broke it down 3 years ago, consisted of 10 billion bagels, 52 billion slices of bread and 205 billion tortillas. So even though the average American consumes 53 pounds of the stuff each year, the odds are that the person you are standing next to is more likely to have eaten a slice of Dave's Killer Organic than their own loaf.
No matter: those of us in the fraternity are smitten. Once we have identified one another, the tools, tips and tricks provide an endless source of engagement and exchange. We debate methods and troubleshoot problems, share pictures of triumphs and failures, listen to workarounds and enhancements. More than once a fellow traveler has come up to me in a work or social setting, and apropos of nothing, asked about my proofing method for sourdough or technique for turning leftover starter into grilled pizza dough. Were there a DEA agent eavesdropping nearby, I'm sure he or she would think we were exchanging home brew meth recipes: "Ya gotta be careful not to disturb it while the gas is building up, otherwise it'll go flat. Not too warm. Low and slow, that's how you get the best high."
Some people play golf, others crochet. There are books clubs and drum circles, poker nights and tennis round robins. Each is a way to reach out and bond with like-minded individuals, to cross over social, ethnic, racial and gender boundaries and celebrate shared interests. This is but one more of that ilk, with the added benefit of being able to eat your triumphs. Nothing wrong with a photography club, but while a picture of a whole wheat sourdough boule might look good, it actually tastes better.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford makes a loaf every week or so. His column appears weekly via email and online http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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