tuesday, april 28th — kitchen, 10:22 p.m.

a recipe notebook for bread.

Hydration ratios. Starter genealogies. Flour protein percentages and the way the kitchen smells at 4 a.m. when something is finally rising. Bakers have always kept notebooks. This one's just a little easier to share.

started for
my mom!

mom's country loaf

Small Med Lrg
bread flour350g425g500g
spelt100g125g150g
whole wheat50g60g75g
mix all
+ DMP
autolyse
1hr+
water360g440g525g
starter100g125g150g
add last
rest 1hr
S+F 4-5×
salt10-15g15-20g20-25g
DMP1t+1.5t+2t+
↑ Diastatic Malt Powder · mix w/ flours
hydration74.6%74.7%75%
— call me when you bake it. xo
Why this exists
a note from kyle

Some families pass down jewelry. Mine passes down recipes — and memories. For as long as I can remember, cooking has been the thread running through all of it. My grandfather's pierogi, made every year like clockwork, so good it felt almost rude to talk about anything else at the table. My mother trying out a new recipe and quietly blowing the minds of everyone in the room. The endless restaurants, the wild world of food. This is what I live for — not just because I need it, but because nothing, not once, has ever failed to bring people together the way a good meal does.

"Every loaf is a reminder."

When I got into sourdough, my mother was the first person I called. Of course she was. She's the one who got me into it in the first place.

Cooking is the language we kept speaking when life got busy. I'd send her a voice note about a gummy crumb at 11 p.m.; she'd send back a photo of her starter at 7 a.m. We have made each other better bakers. More to the point, we have made each other.

This site is what those phone calls would look like if we wrote them down. Yes, it's a database — pH and hydration and protein percentages and all the obsessive bits we love. But it's also a place to keep track of who taught us what. A place where every recipe has a person attached to it.

I built it with her in mind. And for everyone who has ever shared a recipe with someone they love.

Kyle — loving son, kitchen apprentice
tab 01 — the culture index

The Culture Index

Documented sourdough cultures — their origins, characters, and the people who kept them alive. Not recipes. Something better.

these are field reports,
not formulas ✎
№ 0508 / WHEAT

Poilâne Levain

Paris, 1932
age94 yrs
hydration60% (stiff)
peak time4h 50m
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
a real darling
№ 0142 / WHEAT

Carl's 1847

Oregon Trail, est. 1847
age~179 yrs
hydration100%
flavormild & lactic
availablefree via mail
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
free to anyone ✎
№ 0001 / ANCIENT WHEAT

Blackley Egyptian

Egypt, ~2500 BCE · revived 2019
yeast age~4,500 yrs
sourceHarvard Peabody
flourEmmer wheat
flavorsweeter, richer
bakerXbox guy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
wildest story here
№ —— / ????

More to come

new cultures, still being hunted
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
got one worth keeping? send it ✎
tab 02 — the math

hydration & time

Drawn from community bake logs, temperature research, and sourdough science. See sources below.

these are guidelines —
your kitchen knows best ✎

where the loaves live

hydration % across all logged bakes
2400 1800 1200 600 the sweet spot ★ 60 62 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108 hydration % →

bulk ferment cheat sheet

ambient temp vs. how long it'll take
temp duration notes
18°C / 64°F 8h 30m slow & complex
20°C / 68°F 6h 15m balanced
22°C / 72°F 5h 00m balanced
26°C / 79°F 3h 30m watch closely
28°C / 82°F 2h 50m fast / risky
30°C / 86°F 2h 15m too hot — slow it down
↑ I keep mine on top of the fridge
— the perfect 24°C corner!
sources ✎ The bulk fermentation time ranges are drawn from community temperature research by The Sourdough Journey, food science on Lactobacillus fermentation kinetics, and The Fresh Loaf community documentation. Hydration distribution reflects patterns widely observed across sourdough baking communities. All ranges are guidelines — your kitchen, starter, and flour will vary.
tab 03 — the flour shelf

flour compendium

Everything I've baked with, plus everything you've sent me. 312 mills. 87 grain varieties.

favorites starred ★
new arrivals this week
variety mill / region protein ash best for my notes
Type 65 (T65) Moulin Bourgeois
Verdelot, FR
11.8% 0.65% country loaves ★★★★★ favorite
Tipo 00 Manitoba Mulino Marino
Cossano, IT
14.5% 0.55% high-hydration ★★★★☆ in stock
Bread Flour, Sifted Cairnspring Mills
Burlington, WA
13.0% 0.58% open crumb ★★★★★ mom approved
Whole Spelt Roggenkampe
Detmold, DE
12.5% 1.85% blends, levain ★★★★☆ in stock
Dark Rye, Stoneground Hayden Mills
Queen Creek, AZ
10.5% 1.95% pumpernickel ★★★★★ in stock
Einkorn, Whole Janie's Mill
Ashkum, IL
14.0% 1.70% heritage loaves ★★★★★ limited
High-Extraction Yecora Central Milling
Logan, UT
13.5% 0.95% country, baguette ★★★★★ in stock
Khorasan (Kamut®) Big Sky Organic
Bozeman, MT
14.2% 1.65% golden crumb ★★★★☆ in stock
tab 04 — kitchen tools

helpful things

Calculators, planners, and little fixes — built because we needed them ourselves.

free for everyone ✎
no account required
01
calculator

Hydration Solver

Type in your flour weight, get a full breakdown — water, salt, levain, multi-flour blends. The math your grandma did in her head.

open it →
02
planner

Bake Schedule Builder

Tell us when you want bread out of the oven. We'll work backwards through retard, shape, bulk, and feed times based on your kitchen temp.

plan a bake →
03
reference

Trouble Atlas

312 documented loaf failures with cause and cure. Search by symptom — dense crumb, no spring, sour smell, blistered crust, gummy interior.

browse atlas →
04
diagnostics

Crumb Analyzer

Match your crumb to an illustrated reference. Find out what went wrong, why it happened, and how to fix it on the next bake.

analyze your crumb →
05
journal

Personal Bake Log

Photos, weights, temps, notes. Watch your starter's behavior change with the seasons. Export to CSV. Compare against the community.

coming soon
06
conversion

Recipe Translator

Convert between baker's percentages and absolute weights. Scale up to commercial. Swap flours and recompute hydration automatically.

coming soon
tab 05 — the journal

field notes

Essays, methods, profiles. Things bakers wanted to write down.

fresh this week ✎
personal essay3 min

The Culture She Kept

She mailed me her starter before I even asked. Tucked in a small bag of flour and a text that said feed it the second you open it. This is the story of my grandfather's unwritten recipes, my mother's kitchen, and the best grilled cheese I've ever eaten.

flour profile6 min

Why Yecora Rojo behaves like nothing else

A heritage hard red wheat from California's Central Valley — protein high, gluten quirky, oven spring stunning.

add your name to the notebook

one letter a week. unsubscribe at any oven temp.