My thoughts today are about the enjoyment of having the right tools or equipment for the job.

I’ve been making sourdough bread and keeping a starter going since May. Not long but it has been a daily thing since the starter needs feeding with more water and flour every day. It took a long time before I actually made any bread because I needed to get the starter going. Then came the process of learning how to make the bread, what recipe to use and how much time would I need? Lots of learning curves and lots of trials to practice making bread.

Sourdough seems very different than yeast based breads because so many of the recipes are based on weight. Although maybe that’s true about yeast breads these days too. I learned how to bake bread in the late 70’s and early 80’s from cookbooks and all measurements were in cups. American baking is different from the rest of the world in our attachment to cups and measuring spoons. Most of the sourdough recipes called for a kitchen scale. I broke down and got one and have been inordinately pleased with it. It is so much easier to measure with.

But the thing which has me really happy is my new Dutch oven. It’s a big, heavy cast iron thing with a fitted lid that can go into the oven and be heated to a high temperature without issue. Prior to this I had been using a ceramic bowl with a cast iron skillet balanced upside down to make a lid. It was kind of a cobbled together arrangement. It worked well enough to learn from, but it was clear that it wasn’t a long term thing. My ceramic pot seemed increasingly unhappy with each time I used it and I always had the concern that the skillet would somehow fall off the pot midway.

My new Dutch oven, the piece of equipment that is always referred to with sourdough bread, arrived on Friday and I used it for the first time yesterday. Perfection! What a loaf of bread! I’ve practiced, yes, but having the right tool for the job is pretty wonderful too!

I’ve found great pleasure when I upgraded my sewing machine, using certain sketchbooks, certain pens, a good pencil sharpener, a good knife, a well weighted spoon, etc. What tools or equipment do you find great satisfaction in using?