Blub, Benny, and the German Sourdough Trick My sourdough starter was called Blub. Blub. I didn't name him — my neighbor and best friend Benny did. Benny lives in Thailand. He's a chef. The kind of chef who doesn't just cook food, he understands it. The kind of guy who makes his own bread because supermarket bread is, in his words, "an insult to flour." Benny gave me Blub. Not just any starter — Blub came from a 15-year-old mother starter that Benny had been feeding since before I even knew what sourdough was. Fifteen years. That starter had survived moves, power cuts, tropical heat, and probably a breakup or two. Respect. Then Benny taught me something I'd never seen before. A German technique. He took his mature starter, scooped half of it out, and spread it thin across a silicone mat. Popped it into an oven that had cooled to about 50 degrees after baking. Left it there for half a day. The thin layer dried completely. He broke it into pieces, stuffed them into a sealed plastic bag, and threw it in the freezer. "That's it," he said. "Sourdough for life." No more daily feedings. No more guilt when you forget. No more funerals in the walk-in freezer. Just a bag of dried starter fragments, ready to wake up whenever you need them. I stood there, holding this bag of what looked like sourdough cornflakes, and felt like someone had just handed me the secret to immortality. Blub is still alive, by the way. Parts of him are in my freezer. Parts of him are in loaves across the city. Benny, if you're reading this — you're a genius and I owe you a beer.