Lockdown Sourdough

2020

Date: April 2020 · Place: Home kitchens, Instagram grid · Figures: Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery · home bakers feeding starters named after pets · Tags: Instagram, Lockdown, Wild Yeast 01. The Yeast Shortage By the first week of April 2020, commercial yeast disappears from US and UK supermarkets. King Arthur Flour reports a 600 percent increase in flour sales versus the prior year. The pivot is to wild-yeast sourdough, which requires only flour, water, time, and the bacteria already living on the cook's hands. Starters acquire names. Bread is photographed against linen on north-facing windowsills. The boule's open crumb becomes a class signifier of pandemic-era domestic competence. 02. The Loaf as Status The meme is not the recipe but the documentation. Instagram fills with proofing baskets, scored ear, and the obligatory crumb shot. The format is a lineage that runs from food blogger plating in the 2010s to the lockdown-specific subgenre of I-baked-this-while-the-world-burned. By July 2020 the joke is the inverse: posting another loaf becomes faintly embarrassing. Sources • Bon Appetit, 'Everyone's a Baker Now' (14 April 2020) • King Arthur Baking Company, sales disclosures (April-May 2020) • The Washington Post, 'The pandemic sourdough craze' (3 April 2020)