*The name “sour dough” refers to its leavening properties not taste. It’s only sour if you want it to be baked that way.
*Sourdough can be used for a lot more than bread like bagels, pancakes, rolls, cookies, muffins, cakes, cobblers, and fritters.
*The Israelites used sourdough to make leavened bread.
*Sourdough “mother” or starter can be dehydrated – it becomes a powder that lasts indefinitely.
*Sourdough isn’t gluten free but is lower than regular gluten bread.
*Carl T. Griffith’s family sourdough culture was originally created by his great-grandmother who traveled west on the Oregon Trail in 1847.
*Gluten free sourdough bread can be made with non-wheat ingredients.
*Louise Boudin, who saved the Mother from the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, retired in 1910. Her sons Charles and Jules took over the baking company.
*Sourdough is a result of the spontaneous growth of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria.
*Sourdough has a longer shelf life than commercial yeast bread.
*The earliest sourdough bread was discovered by accident in ancient Egypt.
*Louis Pasteur, in the mid-1800s, discovered commercial or bakers’ yeast – thus the need for sourdough decreased.
*There are many varieties of sourdough, such as rye, whole wheat, spelt, and gluten-free.
*Sourdough was used by miners in the California Gold Rush (1849) and the Klondike Gold Rush (Yukon, Canada and Alaska, 1896).
*The Klondike Gold prospectors were nicknamed “Sourdoughs.”
*Seamus Blackley harvested yeast from ancient Egyptian pots. He activated the 4,500-5,000 year old yeast to make sourdough bread.
*Boudin Bakery is the oldest continually operating business in San Francisco.
*Prospectors in the Klondike Gold Rush (1896) kept their Mother from freezing by keeping it close to their bodies, even sleeping with them.
*The family sourdough starter is often considered an heirloom, passed down through generations.
