A new research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities finds that a name on a sourdough starter's jar tag makes no difference to how often it is fed on the day it is due.
A 26-week trial found named jars are fed on Friday as often as unnamed ones, and the School has struck naming from its household guidance
Ninety-six households spent half a year keeping a sourdough starter on the kitchen bench, half of them with a name on the jar tag and half with the tag left blank. A new research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities reports that the two groups fed their jars on the due Friday at the same rate.
Ninety-six kitchens gave us a Friday every week for half a year, and we are grateful for each of them.
— Dr Iben Chikere, Lecturer, School of Emergent Priorities
The study was fixed in advance, with its outcome, its analysis and its stopping rule set down before the first jar was handed over. Every household was followed to the end, no group of households was singled out afterwards, and the result is reported as it stood at the close of the trial. The School has responded by removing the naming advice from its Household Practice Pack and the naming line from its starter adoption form. Each starter held by an enrolled household is now issued a serial number assigned by lot, and requests to rename a jar are not accepted.
Dr Lindiwe Achterberg, Lecturer, said the arrangement suited the School’s household agenda, “since a number is a thing every kitchen already knows how to keep.” No further trial of starter names is planned.
The full poster is available from the University’s research repository under an open licence, doi:10.5555/slop.dfhc4y.