Sourdough is a bread you will often find in bakeries, and it has such a long history that it can truly be called a legendary bread.
What Is Sourdough?
Sourdough, or "sour bread", is made by fermenting dough with natural (wild) yeast, which gives the bread a slightly sour flavour. Cut a sourdough loaf open and you will see many small air holes. These come from the natural fermentation process, in which the yeast produces carbon dioxide bubbles; when the dough is baked, the bubbles become pockets and holes inside the bread.
The History of Sourdough
Sourdough has a very long history. The first record of this bread dates back to 1,500 BC, when the Egyptians discovered that some bread dough had been left out with spores of wild yeast that are always present in the air, which had mixed into the dough. The Egyptians noticed that this bread was fluffier and lighter than ordinary flatbread.
Later, the Egyptians developed sourdough recipes using the yeast from beer making. Because breweries and bakeries were often in the same place at the time, bakers began mixing some batches of dough with beer instead of relying on wild yeast. This made the dough rise well and gave the bread a sour taste. They also kept back part of the fermented mixture as a starter, known as a sourdough starter, which saved ingredients when making bread. For ancient times, it was quite a tasty new bread discovery.
Over time, this bread-making culture spread north to ancient Greece. The Greeks developed more than 70 kinds of bread, both savoury and sweet, using many different grains. Later, the Romans learned the art of bread making from the Greeks and improved both kneading and baking.
How Sourdough Spread to Europe and America
Sourdough later became popular across Europe, and the age of global exploration carried this culture further and further. In America, it began with Christopher Columbus, who reached the Americas several hundred years ago.
During the California Gold Rush, the Boudin family, well known as master bakers from France, came to San Francisco. They found the local sourdough culture to be truly unique, and they became famous for this distinctive bread. Miners flocked to their bakery every morning to buy it.
Sourdough became so popular with the miners that it became a nickname for the fortune seekers known as the "49ers". Even the mascot of the NFL (National Football League) team the San Francisco 49ers was later nicknamed "Sourdough Sam".
