My coworker's sourdough rant made me ditch my yeast packets

Honestly, I've been using instant yeast for years because it's easy and I'm impatient. Last Tuesday, my coworker Lisa saw me dumping a packet into my dough and went on a five minute rant about how sourdough is real bread and yeast packets are for quitters. She said her starter has a name, Gertrude, and she feeds it like a pet. I laughed it off at first, but then I tried her loaf at the office potluck and it was insane, tangy and chewy in a way my bread never is. So I asked for some of Gertrude's discard and started my own jar, named it Bartholomew. Now I'm three weeks in and my first two loaves were hockey pucks, but the third one actually had oven spring and I felt like a wizard. Has anyone else converted from packet yeast to a starter, and how long did it take before your bread stopped tasting like a sour brick?

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sanchez.mary28d ago

It’s funny how once you put in the work for something, you never wanna go back to the easy way. Same thing happened to me with grinding my own coffee beans, took a week of awful cups before it clicked. Bartholomew will get there, just give him time and a little more patience than you gave those packets.