It may be the bread that everyone is making at the moment but sourdough is one of the oldest known methods of bread leavening.
The first dough ever made would have been a simple mixture of flour and water, baked until crisp like a flatbread. At some point people discovered that, when left untouched, uncooked dough would naturally rise and form bubbles. Once baked, the resulting bread rose and had a much lighter crumb than flatbread.
It also had a more sour flavour than other breads, caused by naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria, called lactobacilli, feeding on the carbohydrates in the flour, and creating lactic acid. This process also created a bread that kept for longer and travelled further, while remaining a tradeable commodity. And so sourdough became the original…
