The History of Sourdough

How did it start?

Sourdough actually originated approximately 3000BC. What started in Egypt quickly spread through Europe, South America, and all over the world. Artisanal bread has a crunchy crust and soft springy center. “It’s thought that a batch of flour may have been mixed with beer and produced a light loaf of bread, or the wild yeast spores were thick from the brewing and were mixed into the bread doughs, which caused them to rise considerably more than the usual wild sourdoughs.” When the bread started to spread, France was one of the first contesters. French recipes from the 17th century that describe feeding the sourdough and letting it rise 3x before baking.

Sourdough became popular in America during the gold rush in the mid-1800’s. San Francisco started to grow rapidly and Europeans were attracted to the area. They didn’t want to go without their sourdough starters. Before long, the famous San Fran Mother Dough was born. The sourdough mother was so important that it was heroically saved during the San Fransisco earthquake in 1906. People risked their life for their starters….

I wanted to share the history with you to say three things-

• Sourdough has been a part of every day life for 1,000’s of years

• It is valuable- worth saving during a fire or earthquake LOL

• Its the best and most traditional way of baking and eating bread

ENJOY!