All About Sourdough

So, what is sourdough?

Sourdough is cultured, or fermented flour product that and can be made in a number of ways and used for a variety of purposes. Most people are aware of sourdough bread and have tasted different versions ranging from chewy and astringent San Fransisco Sourdough, to the tamer commercial varieties that can be purchased at most grocery stores. What many people may not realize is that before Louis Pasteur's germ theory and the discovery of cultured yeasts, sourdough was bread. Almost all bread was made through a process of lacto-fermentation where the local yeasts and local lactobacillus act upon the starches in the flour, ferment, create CO2, and rise the bread.

Real Sourdough takes on the essence of the place it is in. A Sourdough starter attracts the local yeasts and bacteria and all of these have their own distinct tastes. Like beer, different yeasts produce different flavors and you get different yeasts from different places. You can order sourdough starters from San Fransisco, or Alaska, to start with those particular flavors. But as your starter ages(they can be kept going for hundreds of years), it will collect the local yeasts and bacteria as well, and its flavor profile will change. Breads in many places are still made mainly from natural cultures, they do not all have that flavor those of the San Fransisco school would consider 'sourdough', however, they are quite distinct from modern cultured yeast breads.

So why is there sourdough still in San Fransisco? The root can be traced to the California Gold Rush of 1848, Pasteur's work on fermentation was not completed until the 1860's and these miners in their mountain miners camps used a starter the collected the wild California yeasts and bacilli and created San Fransisco Sourdough.

The next generation of these miners in turn carried the sourdough tradition to Alaska where the word 'Sourdough' still can either mean a miner or a starter. In Alaska people will still talk of 'the old Sourdoughs' and they are not speaking of flour products. Today, you can purchase sourdough starters from either San Fransisco or Alaska which date back to the Goldrush days. That's the thing about sourdough, you don't throw it away when your done. You take a bit out from your starter pot, 'feed' your pot, and then save it. I know a lady in Alaska who claims the origin of her sourdough starter from one carried over the Klondike pass (think White Fang) in 1898. The stories goes that the miners carried them in their vests next to their bodies to keep the yeasts warm and happy so the Sourdoughs could have sourdough (bread, pancakes, doughnuts, etc.) when they made camp. My current starter is a starter I made in Indiana that received an addition from a starter a friend made in Minnesota. I've had it going for about 2 years now.

Now, as mentioned a couple of times, sourdough is not just for bread. One of my favorite, and most common uses for my sourdough starter is pancakes. Alaskans have all sorts of crazy sourdough concoctions from doughnuts to chocolate cakes. If your interested in exploring the great variety of uses for sourdough I'd recommend Alaskan Sourdough by Ruth Allman. I've tried the sourdough chocolate cakes and some other oddities but generally I stick to the sourdough classics, bread products, pancakes, and waffles.

Now, making sourdough products is time intensive. Well, the time you invest is not that substantial, you have to wait to let the yeast do its work. The longer you keep your sourdough starter going the better it tastes, the longer you let your sourdough sponge work on your bread the yummier it gets. So why bother? For me there are several reasons: its a family tradition (my Grandpa Russ was quite the sourdough baker--more about this in some other post), I was born in Alaska so its a local cultural tradition, and, most importantly, sourdough is delicious.

If the delicious is not enough to persuade you than you might be interested in some of the health benefits. I've been told about the health benefits my whole life so I was a bit surprised I they were not mythical when I started to look them up. When you consume sourdough you are consuming a product that has already been broken down through lactofermentation. Lactofermentation makes vitamins more digestible (just type 'benefits of lactofermentation' into Google). Additional claims I have heard and found at least somewhat substantiated are that sourdough is higher in protein, has a lower glycemic index and causes less of a blood sugar spike, and like a bottle conditioned beer is very high in B vitamins--speifically B6. What I know is that when I have a Sunday morning breakfast of sourdough pancakes it holds me through much better-- and I feel better-- than if I ate a breakfast of traditional pancakes. And, if your starter is ready, it's easier than Bisquick!

Next, starters.