A Little Sourdough History
I wonder if, somewhere far back in the halls of time, there was a mother trying to do a little baking and she was called away from her task by a child that needed her. After helping the child she realized she needed to hurry up and get down to the river if she was ever going to get those clothes washed in time for them to dry on the rocks. And then she realized she probably needed to check on the garden and pull a few weeds, feed the chickens, and get the meat roasting over the fire if dinner was going to be on time. As she made her way back into the kitchen there it sat, exactly has she had left it all those hours ago at the start of her day when it seemed like a good and simple thing to maybe bake something. The water and flour were now a bubbling pasty glob and what in the world was she going to do with it now?
And that is how I envision the invention of the first sourdough starter.
Believe it or not, although no one really knows for sure, I am not to terribly far off from what history indicates may have happened around 1500 BC in ancient Egypt. The belief is more along the lines of the brewery and bakery being in the same general area and some kind of incident taking place in which beer mixed with flour or the wild yeast spores went flying and landed in a dough mixture and voila! Sourdough was born. Through lots of experiments they were able to determine which cultures worked best and gave the most flavor. Sourdough bread making then made its way to Greece where the Romans would also learn the practice and eventually it spread to France.
Probably the most famous sourdough is from when the process traveled from France to California with bakers Isidore Boudin* and his wife Louis Marie when they immigrated in 1849. They opened their bakery and each day saved a quarter cup of their sourdough for the next day’s baking. They knew the bread began to taste differently but really didn’t know why. What they did know was that the gold miners were crazy for the stuff and showed up each and every morning for their special bread. Within twenty-five years their son would become the second generation baker and they began to make house deliveries by horse drawn carriages and their customers woke up to a freshly baked loaf of sourdough bread hanging from a nail by their front door.
The great San Francisco earthquake of 1908 hit but a quick thinking member of the Boudin family rescued the starter just as the bakery caught fire.
Sadly, the wonder bread era almost bankrupted the family business until another baker stepped in and offered to buy their company, agreeing to keep using the original mother starter started all the way back in 1849. To this day the famous bread begins with the mother dough (which is kept in a huge stainless steel vault) flour, water, and salt. The flavor is so unique that in the 1970s tests were done to determine the composition of the bread and its bacteria make up and it earned its own name, Lactobacillus San Francisco.
Pretty interesting history, isn’t it? Nowadays, there are hundreds upon hundreds of sourdough starter recipes available at the click of a mouse. Websites abound with the promise of a fully functioning sourdough starter within one week of mixing a little flour and a little water together.
And while it is not as simple or quick as that, it’s not nearly as difficult or scary as one might would think.
For a couple of years I used a starter given to me that required a feeding of instant mashed potatoes. The bread I baked during that time was fine but not really a sourdough bread. Eventually, after we moved to Louisiana, I entered my sourdough era and mashed together a hodgepodge of information and recipes I found on beginning a starter and Jane Dough was born.
Nowadays I am baking and using her all throughout the week. More successes than failures but part of the fun is trying new things.
Do you sourdough? Let me know your experience either making/baking with sourdough or your favorite thing to enjoy made from sourdough.
And come on back tomorrow and I will share with some of the reasons sourdough is not just tasty but good for you.
*Their last name is Boudin? I’m not sure how you would say it as a French last name but I sure know how it is pronounced here in Cajun country!