what ingredient originally made sourdough sour?

What Ingredient Originally Made Sourdough Sour?
How it's made Origins of food

Fun fact, did you know that ancient leavened bread was sourdough? And for a while, brewer’s yeast gave bread its bitter flavour, but what changed? Bakers realised that adding yeast to a dough mixture gave fast and reliable results. However in 1857, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur identified yeast under the microscope and led to the creation of commercial baker’s yeast. This transformed bread production, and sourdough was no longer the only option.1

What’s In A Sourdough?

Lactobacillus (a bacteria which is found in milled flour that can digest starches and sugars in the flour), and yeast not only change the texture of bread, they also change its chemistry. If you didn’t already know, raw sourdough is a living thing, and it’s the natural balance between the yeast and bacteria in the sourdough, which makes sourdough so special.

The changing blend of microbes in the sourdough grow, live and ferment. And it’s this combination of the Lactobacillus lactic acid and the yeast producing alcohol, which gives the bread a tangy and acidic flavour. Furthermore, it’s the unique acid in the dough, which also keeps out other types of fungus and bacteria, giving the sourdough a longer shelf life. 

Another fun fact is that the microbes within the sourdough also digest gluten, which could suggest that real sourdough should either be low in gluten or gluten-free—good news for people with gluten-intolerance and celiac disease.2

But Are You Eating Real Sourdough?

Some bakers are proud of their “traditional” sourdough but there is no legal definition of sourdough. Lactobacillus is key to creating sourdough, yet there is no official legislation stating that sourdough has to contain Lactobacillus.3

Between 30–50 % of European breads are produced using sourdough, however, industrially-produced sourdough uses dried starters rather than a spoon of sticky dough. There are sourdough mimics which use yeast, and artificially soured with additives that do not have the necessary microbes needed to break down the gluten in grains, so how do you know whether your sourdough is authentic or not?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

References:

  1. Pontonio et al. (2017) “Sourdough authentication: quantitative PCR to detect the lactic acid bacterial microbiota in breads” Accessed 21 February 2022.
  2. Greco et al. (2011) “Safety for patients with celiac disease of baked goods made of wheat flour hydrolyzed during food processing” Accessed 21 February 2022.
  3. Information Paper On Sourdough In Europe. Fedima. Accessed 21 February 2022.
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