Random musings: #SourdoughSeptember

Since we're getting close to the end of the month, I figured I'd better get this blog post out now, before it's too late.

So, what is sourdough?

According to Wikipedia:

Sourdough bread is made by the fermentation of dough using naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. It uses biological leavening rather than using cultivated baker's yeast. The lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli gives it a more sour taste and improved keeping qualities.

That doesn't sound very appetizing, but it's actually quite delicious. It's very popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

But why is it so popular in this area? We'll let Wikipedia tell us about it:

French bakers brought sourdough techniques to Northern California during the California Gold Rush, and it remains a part of the culture of San Francisco today. (The nickname remains in "Sourdough Sam", the mascot of the San Francisco 49ers.) Sourdough has long been associated with the 1849 gold prospectors, though they were more likely to make bread with commercial yeast or baking soda. The "celebrated" San Francisco sourdough is a white bread characterized by a pronounced sourness, and indeed the strain of Lactobacillus in sourdough starters is named Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, alongside the sourdough yeast Candida milleri found in the same cultures.

The sourdough tradition was carried into Alaska and the western Canadian territories during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. Conventional leavenings such as yeast and baking soda were much less reliable in the conditions faced by the prospectors. Experienced miners and other settlers frequently carried a pouch of starter either around their neck or on a belt; these were fiercely guarded to keep from freezing. However, freezing does not kill a sourdough starter; excessive heat does. Old hands came to be called "sourdoughs", a term that is still applied to any Alaskan or Klondike old-timer. The significance of the nickname's association with Yukon culture was immortalized in the writings of Robert Service, particularly his collection of "Songs of a Sourdough".

The article contains instructions on how to create sourdough bread, it doesn't really give a recipe, but you can get a detailed recipe here.

I should've written this sooner, it takes five days just to make the starter and then another day or two to create the dough but only about 45 minutes or so to bake the bread. I guess I'll have to buy some pre-made bread this year because even if I had all of the ingredients I might not have enough time to bake the bread before the end of the month!