It is so refreshing to see that the art of sour-dough bread has an afficionado outside Germany (the home to hundred's of different breads).

May I add my advice on how to succeed with sour-dough bread-making, every time and without fail?

My wife and I are doing it regularly, and the recipe has been developed and tested together with scientists of a local agricultural university.

Here it goes:

Day 1: in a plastic bowl, mix 100g (whole grain) rye flour with 100ml water at 40 degrees celsius (be relatively precise with the temperature). Cover loosely. Let it rest at room temperature until day 3.

Day 3: repeat of day 1: add 100g rye flour and 100ml water, again at 40 degrees. Cover and let rest.

day 4: add 200g rye flour and 200ml water at 40 degrees.

day 5: remove 100g (to be prepared and used as starter for your next bread, I'll explain at the end)

after having removed the 100g for the starter, add 350g rye flour (always whole grain), 300g all-purpose wheat flour, 300 ml water (40 degrees) 20g salt, 20-25 g yeast.

knead the dough until elastic (3-5 minutes).

set aside, cover, and let rise for 30 minutes.

knead again slightly and place in a greased loaf pan. Let rest for another hour before baking.

best results if you seal the entire loafpan and bread in a baking foil (it makes the crust really nice crispy).

Then bake in a preheated oven at 225 degrees Celsius for 70 minutes.

You'll never go wrong.

Now to the starter: You took 100 grams at day 5. Knead in enough rye flour to make the whole mixture very dry and crumbly. You can keep it in a plastic box or ziplock bag in the fridge for up to 4-6 weeks.

When you want to use the starter, you take 75 grams of it and mix it with 350 grams of rye flour and 375 ml water (40 degrees) and let it rest for 24 hours. Then you do the same as on day 5.

Works all the time.