Meet Cuthbert

Cuthbert as you can plainly see is a batch of leaven. He lives in a kilner jar.

I first made the leaven using D Lepard's recommended recipe: flour, water, live yogurt and a few raisins. After a couple of days the lively looking concoction was sieved leaving a thin white soup, the basis for my leaven.

From then on, its a case of regularly refreshing the leaven with flour and water. If used daily, you just add the same amount of flour and water that you remove in leaven for you loaf, storing the jar in a warmish place. If you're not using it for a few days, just stash it in the fridge; you get it active again a few days before use by adding some fresh water and flour.

I like the fact that a good leaven can be kept going for years. In his book Dan Lepard waves around a batch of leaven that is reckoned to be about a hundred years old. Cuthbert's only six weeks old! He's just a baby.