What You Need to Have to Start Starting the desem is so simple that providing for it would have been second nature before the Industrial Revolution: pure water, organic stone-ground wheat, and some time in a cool cellar to bring it to vigorous life. Today, to find unchlorinated pure water is not so easy, and most wheat is treated with chemicals. Not every house has a cellar, and even in the winter it isn't easy to find a place that you can keep at 50 to 65F. Finally, many of us lead lives sufficiently hectic that making a commitment to the regular care of a starter dough seems like a luxury. But even considering all this, there is no reason to be intimidated; it can be done, it is not all that difficult, and once you get set up, making the bread is simplicity itself.

WATER.

Pure spring water is best (not distilled: bread dough does better when its water contains minerals). If your tap water is otherwise good, you can dechlorinate it by boiling and leaving it uncovered overnight. Use this water at room temperature or cooler, to feed your desem and make up your dough. If you will be using a dough hook, the water should be cold.

FLOUR.

Coa.r.s.ely ground and fresh, preferably not more than five days from the milling-that's the ideal. The flour you choose should be milled from hard red winter or hard red spring wheat. (see this page this page for details on selecting flours.) It must not have been treated with pesticides, and it must have been milled cool in a clean mill. Because of these requirements, making a desem can tell you a lot about your flour. for details on selecting flours.) It must not have been treated with pesticides, and it must have been milled cool in a clean mill. Because of these requirements, making a desem can tell you a lot about your flour.

You'll need at least 10 pounds of flour for the desem's incubator, to surround it while it is developing. The desem itself requires about 7 cups of flour in the first five days. Because its freshness is so important, it is well worth the trouble to grind this amount yourself. You can buy wheat berries in your natural food store.

If you find it impossible to find good flour or wheat in your locale, write to one of the suppliers listed.

If you use a mill, be sure that it is absolutely clean, or you may share the experience of one friend who had been a.s.sured that cleaning a mill wasn't necessary. His fledgling desem grew a "cover crop" of green mold. Another attempt from a dirty mill smelled like rotten meat. (Incidentally, you'll be glad to know that as long as your starter dough maintains its bright, fresh smell, you can be confident that it isn't growing anything harmful.) If you do grind your own flour, when you measure it, tap the sides of the measuring cup to compact the flour because it will be lighter and fluffier than bagged flour.

TEMPERATURE.

Find a place that is between 50 and 65F to keep the desem. This has been the hardest requirement for many people to meet, but temperature really is critical to growing the right organisms in the starter. Above 70F souring organisms are favored; below 50F the leavening organisms hibernate. The first time we started a desem it was August, hot inside the house and out. We took the thermometer from our refrigerator and walked all around the house and yard, finally settling on a spot under the house; it was too cold at night so for the first week, we took the desem in at night and out again every morning. It worked.

In the winter a garage or porch that is unheated during the day may be ideal, or sometimes the back corner of a low cupboard has a cool, steady temperature. Spring and autumn may be better for making a desem if the weather is extreme in your area. If you aren't sure, a thermometer is worth getting.

TIME.

It takes two weeks to develop a desem. During this period, to help the new starter get going, you need to feed it every day with a small portion of fresh flour and water. You can use your desem to bake with after the first week. Even when the desem is very young, the bread is delicious; in fact, in some ways the flavor is most interesting at this stage.

Making the Desem Starter Dough - 10 pounds or more of organic whole wheat flour (to surround the desem) - 2 cups (300 g) coa.r.s.e stone-ground flour to go into the desem (can be part of the 10 pounds) - to cup unchlorinated water (120 to 175 ml) at room temperature, about 65 to 70F FIRST DAY: SAt.u.r.dAY, FOR EXAMPLE.

Put your ten pounds of flour in a container that is more or less as deep as it is wide. A very strong brown paper bag of the proper dimensions, an 8 quart bowl, or a bucket all work well.

Take about 2 cups of flour and mix it with cup of water. Add more water (or flour) if necessary to make a dough ball that is stiff but not an absolute brick. Knead it for a few minutes, make it smoothly round, and bury it bury it in the flour. It should be completely surrounded by flour at least three or four inches in every direction. Smooth the top of the flour, and cover the container to keep out insects and other intruders. Store at between 50 to 65F, in the flour. It should be completely surrounded by flour at least three or four inches in every direction. Smooth the top of the flour, and cover the container to keep out insects and other intruders. Store at between 50 to 65F, not over 70F at any time not over 70F at any time, for about 48 hours.

SECOND DAY: SUNDAY.

Maintain the temperature-no need to disturb it today.

THIRD DAY: MONDAY.

The top surface of the flour may show a split or crack. Things are happening! Dig out the dough ball and, if there is a dry crust, cut it away with a sharp knife. Then cut away enough more so you're left with half the amount you started with. If no skin has formed, just cut the ball in half-keep one half and throw the other away.

You now have half a ball of the dough. With clean hands slowly work cup of pure water into the dough to soften it. Knead in one cup of flour and add more water or flour as necessary to restore the ball to its original size and stiffness. Knead it smooth, round it, and bury it again in the container of flour. Smooth and cover the flour, this time for 24 hours at the same cool temperature.

FOURTH DAY: TUESDAY.

Repeat what you did yesterday. By now the desem should have a slight fragrance of fermentation to it-fresh-a little like sprouting wheat. If yours doesn't have this aroma, make it somewhat softer this time by adding a little more water.

FIFTH DAY: WEDNESDAY.

Repeat what you did yesterday.

SIXTH DAY: THURSDAY.

Today, instead of discarding half the desem, soften the whole thing with cup of water. Add 1 cup of flour. Add more water or flour as necessary to get the usual consistency. This time do not bury the ball but store it in a closed, nonmetal container. A glazed crock is perfect, but a gla.s.s or plastic container will work also. Just make sure there's room for the desem to expand a little. If the container is gla.s.s, the lid should not fit airtight.

SEVENTH DAY: FRIDAY.

Soften the entire desem with cup water and add 1 cup flour to it. Adjust the consistency so that you have a medium stiff dough-slightly softer than on the previous days. Knead about 10 minutes or 300 strokes. Cut the dough into 4 equal parts, rounding one part and returning it to the container in its cool storage place. Combine the other three parts and cover. This combined three-quarters will be the starter for the bread you prepare tomorrow. Leave it to ripen overnight at room temperature, preferably 65F but not over 70F. The smaller dough ball is your desem, which will provide the starters for future bakings.

Baking Bread with a New Desem - 2 cups desem (has 3 cups flour) - 1 to 1 cups cool unchlorinated water (315 to 355 ml) - 3 cups flour (450 g) - 2 teaspoons salt (14 g) The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of the desem is, too. You will want to bake bread after the first week to get an idea how your desem is faring. Even though the bread will not be light yet, its flavor should be wonderful.

When the desem is very young it doesn't have nearly the power that it will later on, and so at first you will need to plan for a longer fermentation time and a larger proportion of desem than you will need later on.

MIXING THE DOUGH.

Soften the desem in the 1 cups of water. Stir the salt into the flour. Mix with the water and desem, adding additional water or flour as necessary to make a slightly stiff dough. Allow a few minutes before you make the final adjustment of consistency. The dough should be softer than the desem itself but slightly stiffer than ordinary pan dough, so that when you squeeze it you don't have to strain, but you do feel the muscles in your fingers working.

KNEADING.

Knead the dough well, about 20 minutes or 600 strokes by hand, about 10 minutes with a dough hook on slow speed. Continue until the dough becomes stretchy and strong. In our experience it is easy to underknead desem dough by hand, and easy to overknead it with a machine. Notice that desem dough made with coa.r.s.e flour feels dry to the touch when you first mix it up, but as kneading progresses, it begins to feel sticky: this is somewhat the opposite of what happens with ordinary doughs. After you finish kneading, the surface should be smooth and shiny, slightly sticky to the touch.

Set the dough in a bowl large enough to allow it to expand slightly-about a four-quart capacity would do. Cover the top of the bowl with a platter or plastic, and set it in a draft-free place at cool room temperature, about 65 to 70F, for eight to ten hours.

FERMENTATION OR RISING PERIOD.

During the eight to ten hours, the desem dough may scarcely rise up-this is quite normal. If convenient, deflate or punch the dough some time around the last hour or so; this invigorates the leavening organisms.

The dough has now finished its cool fermentation and is ready for its warm final rise. During this next stage, the surface will lose its shine and stickiness and become dry to the touch. This is ripe dough ripe dough.

As time pa.s.ses and your desem grows stronger, you will shorten the rising time until finally it takes just 4 hours for this first, cool part of its rise. You can gauge how much time you need by evaluating the dough for ripeness as described above.

When the rising period is finished, follow the instructions for shaping, proofing, and baking given in the full Desem Bread Recipe.

TASTE THE BREAD.

If the bread you make is as good as it really ought to be, you can be sure it will get more delicious and lighter and lighter with every baking from now on. But what if it isn't? Maybe your flour is the culprit: a desem can only be as good as the wheat from which it was made. A couple of our testers made desems that were acrid and sour, with no leavening power; we finally traced the problem to their wheat. If the wheat is damaged or has been treated with chemicals, the kind and number of organisms it harbors will be adversely affected. So far as we know, there is no way to find out before you try making the desem. If it tastes really terrible to you and you didn't let the starter get too warm at any stage, the flour was bad, and at this point there's no rescuing the desem because it isn't there. Please do try again with better wheat or flour. Write to one of the sources listed if there's no place nearer to home. with every baking from now on. But what if it isn't? Maybe your flour is the culprit: a desem can only be as good as the wheat from which it was made. A couple of our testers made desems that were acrid and sour, with no leavening power; we finally traced the problem to their wheat. If the wheat is damaged or has been treated with chemicals, the kind and number of organisms it harbors will be adversely affected. So far as we know, there is no way to find out before you try making the desem. If it tastes really terrible to you and you didn't let the starter get too warm at any stage, the flour was bad, and at this point there's no rescuing the desem because it isn't there. Please do try again with better wheat or flour. Write to one of the sources listed if there's no place nearer to home.

The Second Week At this stage, your desem is a teenager, so to say. It is developing rapidly-young and strong, but not quite what it will become. You can help it to its full potential by giving it new food every day and keeping it at a steady cool temperature: the leavening organisms will multiply and predominate more and more. Daily feeding and kneading also prevent the maturing starter dough from becoming alcoholic, which would reduce its leavening power.

a.s.suming that you will want to use your desem to make bread again at the end of the week, how much flour and water should you add each day? The desem you're starting out with contains one cup of flour, and you'll always want to keep that much desem in the storage place. You need a desem containing 3 cups of flour for one (two-loaf) baking, so measure 3 cups of flour and put it near your desem. Use cup of that flour for each day's feeding until the last day, when you can use the remaining cup or so.

Each time you feed it, soften the desem in water measuring somewhat less than half the amount of flour you'll add, then adjust the dough's consistency by adding a little more flour or water. Knead the whole newly fed desem about 10 minutes, until it begins to be sticky. Set it in its storage container and keep it in its cool place. On the last day, the day before you will bake again, divide the desem. Three-fourths will be the starter for the next day's bread (it will have 3 cups of flour in it); one-fourth of it (with 1 cup of flour), set aside as your "mother starter" for future bakings. Store both of them at about 65F overnight.

It is really interesting to bake with your desem every day this week so that you can watch how its leavening power develops, and taste the subtle changes in the flavor of the bread it produces. For instructions, see bottom of next page.

To make the bread, follow the recipe.

Now, about the desem itself: if your starter is making bread that is as light and fresh-tasting as you want, start storing it according to the instructions given in Care of the Mature Desem. If you want it to develop more leavening power than it has right now, give it another week on the same schedule as the one you have just completed. If you aren't sure whether your two-week-old desem is what it should be, here are a few things to look for.

MARKS OF A MATURE DESEM.

If your desem has been nurtured under the best conditions, it will probably be able to ripen its dough in 4 hours the first time you change to the regular desem bread recipe.

Watch the condition of the desem itself. When you open its container on baking day, the first whiff may be alcoholic but that evaporates quickly. The fragrance is not sour but wonderful-pleasantly cidery. Ripe desem looks a little like beige cottage cheese inside. Just as dough ripens, desem too ripens, in its own way. In a ripe desem the gluten is completely digested by microorganisms, so when you soften it in water, it disintegrates completely. You can see this when you mix up the bread dough. If you try the same thing with an ordinary dough, or with unripe desem, white starch will wash into the water, leaving a rubbery, insoluble gluten in your hand.

As the desem gains in power, it will ripen more quickly, gradually coming to the stage where it is at its best about 12 to 14 hours after it has been fed; this seems to be the tempo that gives it its greatest leavening power as well as its best flavor. It may take a few bakings, though, before its forces come into balance.

IF YOU WANT TO BAKE EVERY DAY DURING THE SECOND WEEK.

If you would like to watch your desem grow by baking a loaf every day while it comes to its own, simply double your starter with half a cup of flour each evening. (When the desem is so young, you don't want to increase it by more than double at one time.) Knead well, divide in two; use one of the pieces as your starter the next day. Mix with half a cup of water, one cup of flour, and a scant teaspoon of salt. Proceed as in the newly fed desem recipe, making one small loaf at a time.

Please refer to the feeding schedules on the next pages.

STORING THE DESEM.

If you have a dependably cool place, and will be very regular in your care, the desem will thrive kept unrefrigerated. The temperature should be steady at between 50 and 55F. If you are going to be baking every day, this would be the ideal arrangement. There is something wonderfully romantic, not to mention delicious, about keeping your starter dough in a crock in the cellar and bringing it out to bake fresh bread daily. That is essentially the tradition the village baker followed-his desem was never idle. Maybe some small community bakeries will be able to revive this tradition. What a great thing that would be!

But for most people it is a lot more convenient to store the desem in the refrigerator. In its first few days in the cold the desem does lose some of its strength and the dough for the next baking may require a little extra rising time to ripen. But the desem adapts quickly to refrigerated storage and needs only the usual 4-hour fermentation from then on.

NURSING A NEGLECTED DESEM.

Ordinarily there is a bit of alcohol on the surface when you unwrap a desem that has been stored, but it quickly evaporates, and the inside is fresh and sweet. If you let a desem get too warm, though, or don't feed it on schedule, it can get so alcoholic that it loses its leavening strength and smells unpleasantly sour. Bread baked with it is heavy and sour, and most often the crust rips open during the final rise.

Never fear, all is not lost. There is an old saying, "If you give it a chance, the desem always wins out in the end." Help the desem recover by feeding it daily and giving it at least an 8-hour stretch at its favorite temperature each time you feed it. Make the desem fairly stiff and knead it well before you put it away. Keep it tightly wrapped in the cloth. Sour desem, if it is not too awful, can work well in the recipes.

Two Suggested Schedules IF YOU BAKE TWICE A WEEK OR OFTENER.

START with your mature desem: with your mature desem: It measures about cup, contains 1 cup flour, and weighs pound.

FEEDING About 12 hours before you mix the dough feed your desem: About 12 hours before you mix the dough feed your desem: to 1 cup water 2 cups flour THE DESEM Set aside one-third (about cup) for future bakings. Set aside one-third (about cup) for future bakings.

THE BREAD STARTER Round the remaining two-thirds to ripen Round the remaining two-thirds to ripen as starter for your bread dough.

It contains 2 cups flour.

IF YOU BAKE ONCE A WEEK.

START with cup of your mature desem: with cup of your mature desem: It contains cup flour, and weighs pound.

FIRST FEEDING Midweek feed your desem: Midweek feed your desem: 3 to 4 tablespoons water cup flour SECOND FEEDING About 12 hours before you mix the dough feed your desem: About 12 hours before you mix the dough feed your desem: to cup water 1 cups flour THE DESEM Set aside one-fifth (about cup) for future bakings. Set aside one-fifth (about cup) for future bakings.

THE BREAD STARTER Round the rest to ripen as starter for your bread dough. Round the rest to ripen as starter for your bread dough.

It contains about 2 cups flour.

Feeding Your Mature Desem From now on, feed the desem about 12 hours before you plan to mix up the dough for baking. The desem does have to be fed twice a week, minimum, to keep its leavening power, whether or not you bake bread with it. We give two plans for feeding, one if you will be baking once a week, and the other if you will bake twice a week or oftener.

Whether you bake once a week or twice, the feeding method is the same-except that you will not take out a part if you are not going to bake.

Dissolve the desem in the water. Add the flour and more water or flour as necessary to make a fairly stiff dough. Knead 10 minutes. Knead 10 minutes. If you will be baking next day, divide the lump. Round the part you will use to make bread the next day, and keep it in a covered container with a little room to expand; the smaller part is your desem. Round the desem and tie it up snugly in a clean (not bleachy) cloth, and again in a second cloth. Keep it in a tightly closed nonmetal container. Keep both of them at 60 to 70F for 12 to 14 hours; after that, put the desem in its closed container in the refrigerator, and make bread with the other, larger lump. If you will be baking next day, divide the lump. Round the part you will use to make bread the next day, and keep it in a covered container with a little room to expand; the smaller part is your desem. Round the desem and tie it up snugly in a clean (not bleachy) cloth, and again in a second cloth. Keep it in a tightly closed nonmetal container. Keep both of them at 60 to 70F for 12 to 14 hours; after that, put the desem in its closed container in the refrigerator, and make bread with the other, larger lump.

If you will not be baking the next day, feed the desem, then wrap and ripen it as described above.

Wherever we call for flour, of course, we mean whole wheat bread flour, preferably coa.r.s.ely ground and fresh.

Water means unchlorinated or dechlorinated pure water, not too hard or soft.

Keep the desem very pure; avoid contaminating it with any extraneous stuff, particularly salt, that would damage its leavening power.

If you have to miss a baking, go ahead and feed the desem as if you were going to bake; either discard the portion of desem you would otherwise use for baking, or use it in one of the recipes at the end of this section.

CALCULATIONS & MEASUREMENTS.

If you want control of the quality of your bread, we really do encourage you to keep track of the amount of flour that is in the desem. If you know that, you can calculate the total quant.i.ty of flour in the bread you make, which means you can keep the salt and the starter in proportion. Here is a rough estimate of weights and measures: DESEM MEASURING EQUIVALENTS (APPROXIMATE).

Amount of flour Measure Weight cup cup cup lb lb 1 cup cup cup lb lb 2 cups 1 cups 1 cups 1 lb 1 lb 3 cups 2 cups 2 cups 1 lb 1 lb 4 cups 3 cups 3 cups 2 lb 2 lb

Desem Bread Recipe - 4 cups flour (600 g) - 2 teaspoons salt (14 g) - 1 cups desem - 1 to 2 cups cool water (315 to 475 ml) With a vigorous desem, ripened for 12 to 14 hours after feeding, this recipe takes about seven hours from beginning to end. It differs from the recipe for making bread with a week-old desem in the timing and also in the proportion of desem used in the dough: once the starter attains its full vigor, the desem makes up only one-third of the dough.

MIXING THE DOUGH.

Mix the flour and the salt. Soften the desem in the smaller amount of water, then mix in the flour, adding additional water or flour as necessary to make dough. Wait a few minutes before you adjust the consistency. The dough should be softer than the desem itself but slightly stiffer than ordinary pan dough, so that when you squeeze it you don't have to strain but you do feel the muscles in your fingers working.

Knead the dough well, about 20 minutes or 600 strokes by hand, about 12 minutes with a dough hook on slow speed, until the dough becomes stretchy and strong. We find that desem dough is easy to underknead by hand, easy to overknead with the dough hook; overkneaded loaves tend to rip toward the end of their final rise.

As we have mentioned before, you will notice that desem dough made with coa.r.s.e flour feels dry to the touch when you first mix it up, but as kneading progresses, it begins to feel sticky-somewhat the opposite of what happens with ordinary doughs. When you finish kneading the dough, the surface should be smooth, shiny, and sticky under your palm.

Set the dough in a bowl large enough to allow it to grow, about a four-quart capacity for this amount of dough. Cover the top of the bowl with a damp cloth or plate and set aside in a draft-free place to rise at room temperature, about 65 to 70F.

The dough usually takes about four hours to ripen. Deflate it at about the three-hour mark. It will not rise up high like ordinary dough during this time, but if its surface loses its shine and feels unsticky to the touch, then the dough is ripe and ready to shape.

SHAPING.

Turn the dough out onto the kneading surface top down, and gently press it to deflate it. The dough is usually not sticky, so additional flour is not needed, but if your dough seems too soft, flour the board lightly before turning the dough onto it. Throughout this part of the process, try to preserve intact the smooth surface that developed on top of the rising dough. This gluten film will make the best top crust for your hearth loaves.

Flatten the dough and divide it in half. With the gluten film downwards, press the dough into flat circles about an inch thick. Fold the edges as shown, pressing with the heel of your hand to seal the "petals" of the flower down, four or more times until a springy ball is formed.

Turn the dough ball over on its side, and rotate it while pressing on the bottom half to make a teardrop shape.

Then, turning the loaf right side up, with a repeated rhythmic motion that is at once downward, inward and rotating, smooth it into a perfect sphere with a little foot on the bottom.

As you turn and round the loaf, the foot should not become a cavern. Turn the loaf over to check the foot until you are sure of it. When done just right, the foot is made of a small amount of dough drawn down from the sides of the ball of dough and pressed together underneath by the edges of the palm and little fingers. Turn the loaf over to check the foot until you are sure of it. When done just right, the foot is made of a small amount of dough drawn down from the sides of the ball of dough and pressed together underneath by the edges of the palm and little fingers.