My Sourdough Isn't Sour....
We are too far along to stop calling it "sourdough", but in reality it should not be puckering to eat naturally leavened bread.
A Short History
and San Fransisco's heavy influence
As a society we have been using wild yeast to leaven breads for longer then we have been using the commercially available yeast. The yeast that we all know in the grocery store aisle these days.
Yeast is everywhere...that white bloom on your grapes, apples, and oranges before you wash them, yeast. It is also all over the flour we use, especially freshly milled whole grain varieties. Cultivating it for use at home only takes flour, water, and time. Sourdough is in a revolution now. Its everywhere. There is even ready available sliced bread at the grocery store that is called sourdough... but again, wheres that pucker? Where is that 1990's quality we all associate with the sourdough revival? Instead of "wheres the beef?" are we asking "wheres the sour?"
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It all lies in the recently found bacteria that seems more acidic to our tastes, and an old name from way before that bacteria founding.
Back in 1849 when pioneers where rushing out to California to stake their claim in the Gold Rush, they brought with them their starters. It was a longer journey than most anticipated, so by the time they arrived their 'lively' cultures were bacteria heavy, overly fermented and sour smelling flour pastes they were using to make bread. The term "Sour Dough" was coined during that time. and today we still use that term to refer to any bread that uses wild and natural yeast to ferment and leaven bread.
Little did we know until recent studies into sourdough ferments that there is a bacterium known as lactobaccilus Sanfranciscensis that thrives in cold, highly acidic environments that creates the well known San Fransisco sour tastes we know associate with sourdough bread.
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My Mother Starters have been to 3 states now, and picked up a lot of flavor along the way, but not that traditional sour we associate with The San Francisco sourdough movement from the 1990s. There is a noticeable sour flavor to it, but not the pucker.
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Lucky and Ryan will be glad to know you asked about them
I have two very much alive and active sourdough starters, or are they mothers.....levain, barm?....
I guess we should start at the beginning. Lucky was my first starter, whole grain rye, water and time and a cold winter day back in 2016. She has been fed wheat or whole wheat since she awakening, but she started on rye. She came to life about 2 weeks after her start, coming to life on St. Patrick's Day...thus her name.
Ryan, her offspring, was an off shoot of her, but being fed only rye flour until that's all he was. He is not as old, coming into his own on all rye in October of 2023, but gets more use than Lucky these days. Ryan gets a lot of heavy use on all of my rye bread, creating a distinctive and now notable difference in the bread
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Mothers, Levain and Barm are all really different names for the same thing....depending on your life cycle. Mother, well that's just whats lying around, fed, unfed, back of the fridge, doesn't matter, its literally the mother, she can create all. Some of my recipes create a starter, or some just call for the mother to be ready. Its in these cases we use the word levain. Barm is an even older term, less used know, but essentially its a levain, in older times, it would be aided by using brewers or beer yeast.
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Sourdough FAQs
Where should I keep my bread, and how long will it last?
This is probably the most asked and most important question. The fridge is actually your worst enemy, its chilling, but not freezing temperatures accelerates its dryness, and changes the starches to accelerate staling.
The best place for your loaf is on the counter, and although shelf life will vary, its still the best place. The second best place is the freezer.
​Bread on the counter will last 3-4 days in its original packaging. It will last in the freezer tightly wrapped, or in a zip top freezer bag for 3-4 months .
My bread is stale, what now?
Sourdough has a longer lifespan that other artisanal loaves of bread. However like everything, it will decay. The secret to reviving sourdough lies in water. Simply re-steaming the bread will bring it back to its former life. Run the loaf under water until very lightly damp. Wrap in foil, and bake at 425F for 10, unwrap the loaf and toast for an additional 3-5 min, and your bread should be soft, revived and re toasted.
Is sourdough healthier?
Let me start by saying at first, I am not a nutritionist, but I have read enough of my craft as a baker to know a few things. The wild yeast, bacteria and long fermantaion that sourdough requires make the wheat or grain more palatable to your stomach and gut. The sourdough has done the job of starting the breakdown of the goods in the grain for you. You will absorb more of the nutrients in the bread than you would from another loaf of bread.