Supermarket Perimeter - February 2020 - 24

Bakery

Sourdough
THERE ARE MILLIONS OF KINDS OF BACTERIA AND FUNGI ON
EARTH. Yet if you mix ﬂour and water, the community of organisms
that colonize the resulting concoction is almost always composed of
a small handful of organisms that are able to leaven bread, yielding a
sourdough starter. How this happens is one of civilizations great mysteries, a mystery at the heart of bread making.
Some bakers suggest that the biggest factor inﬂuencing which
species of microbes are found in a starter are the microbes that are on
the bodies of the people who started it. Some say it is the grain that is
used. Others, the climate. Others still, the water. Everyone may be right,
according to biologist Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University.

"Sourdough is deeply embedded in human history. For tens of
thousands of years, we have been basing our culture on microbial
ecology," says Erin McKenney, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at North
Carolina State University. "Inside, you are teaming with superhero
sidekicks your entire life. We have the opportunity to empower anyone
in the world and push the boundaries of science. We want to take a roll
call of all these bacteria."
For tens of thousands of years, humans have made bread. For nearly
200 years, Americans have made sourdough bread. Boudin French
Bakery, original maker of San Francisco sourdough bread, formed in
1849, and all of Boudin's sourdough bakery products are made from
the same mother dough. Back then, people who became known as
49ers rushed to northern California to mine for gold. It's believed that
Isidore Boudin received the mother dough from one of these 49ers. The
starters were so important that they would cuddle them on cold nights,
so the yeasts and bacteria that made them viable didn't die, according
to San Francisco Travel writer Avital Ungar. These intelligent miners
became known as "sourdoughs."
Initially it was thought that San Francisco was the only place where
San Francisco sourdough bread could be made because the foggy
climate cultivated this speciﬁc type of yeast. Local bakers, including
Boudin, swore that no one could reproduce it outside a 50-mile radius
of the city. Eventually named L. sanfranciscensis, the bacteria are not
unique to the San Francisco region; it has since been found France and
Germany, among other places. Some bakers still insist that true San
Francisco sourdough has to be made there, where the climate and the
wild yeasts in the air are speciﬁc to the
region. Others claim the exact ratios of
different kinds of yeasts and lactobacilli
don't matter as much because it's more
about technique.
"Sourdough has so much ﬂexibility,
depending on time, temperature, ﬂour
and shaping," says Sarah Owens of Ritual
Fine Foods, New York City, and author
of "Sourdough: Rustic Fermented Breads,
Sweets, Savories, and More."
At the 2019 International Symposium
on Bread, McKenney presented the
latest results from the Citizen Science

Differences in time,
temperature, ﬂour and
shaping all contribute
to sourdough's
amazing ﬂexibility.
24 - FEBRUARY 2020

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JOHN UNREIN/SOSLAND PUBLISHING

BY JOHN UNREIN

http://www.supermarketperimeter.com

Supermarket Perimeter - February 2020

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