The oldest known sourdough starter is said to have originated from clay pots unearthed in Egypt. Seamus Blackley baked a loaf of sourdough bread using yeast harvested from 4500 year old clay pots. If you want to read more about this 4500 year old sourdough starter, go here.
A mature sourdough starter can last for several weeks to months if kept in a refrigerator without being fed.
Sourdough starter can be frozen, if you would like to store it for a long period without feeding. To do this, double the amount of flour added at feeding so that it is a very thick paste, place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 year.
Sourdough is the oldest form of leavened bread and was used at least as early as ancient Egypt. It was probably discovered by accident when bread dough was left out and good microorganisms -- wild yeast -- drifted into the mix.
The origins of bread-making are so ancient that we are unable to say for certain, but the first recorded civilization we know of that made sourdough bread was the Egyptians around 1500 BC. There are many theories as to how they first discovered it, but we can assume that it was by accident.
Sourdough starters, often referred to as mother dough, have a nearly 6,000-year history that spans the globe and are responsible for feeding the planet millions of times over.
Vikings used old bread dough to make sourdough loaves, and would also use soured milk and buttermilk to enrich their breads. Vegetables and fruits were much more wild than any of our modern varieties.
A more mature starter will have a better established colony of lactobacillus (the good bacteria that give you the distinctive sourdough flavor). So as your starter matures and ages, it will develop a much stronger sourdough flavor.
Archaeologists found the scraps of what is believed to be flatbread around a fireplace at a Natufian hunter-gatherer site called Shubayqa, located in northeastern Jordan. It's believed to be around 14,400 years old.
Sour-style bread can be traced all the way to ancient Egypt, but it wasn't until tens of thousands of prospectors descended on California during the 1840s Gold Rush that sourdough started its slow rise to the style familiar today.
Myth 7: You can't overfeed sourdough starter.
While starters do need regular feeding, it is possible to overfeed one. Each time you feed a starter, you thin out the population of microorganisms by adding flour and water.
Any flour containing starch is suitable for a sourdough starter, since it is the sugar that the microbes feed on. Glutenous flours, such as spelt, einkorn, rye, and wheat, tend to work best.
Because, yes, you can overfeed your sourdough. The explanation is quite simple: if you add too much water and flour, you're basically diluting the natural population of yeast and bacteria. This means that your sourdough starter will not rise much and will not be very bubbly.
When the sourdough starter isn't fed often enough or feedings are skipped, it is common for an alcohol odor to develop. Increasing feeding frequency can help; however, if the starter has been neglected for a while, it may require more effort to revive it.
Even before the Arnhem Land discovery, said Pascoe, “The Cuddie Springs grinding stone showed that Ngemba women [the local Aboriginal clan] were making bread from seed 18,000 years before the Egyptians.”
The oldest edible food in the world is honey, found in a tomb in Ancient Egypt. It's around 3,000 years old and hasn't spoiled due to the honey's antimicrobial properties.
Early humans made bread by mixing crushed grains with water and spreading the mixture on stones to bake in the sun. Later, similar mixtures were baked in hot ashes. The ancient Egyptians are credited with making the first leavened bread.
No, it's not advisable to eat raw sourdough starter. While some people claim to have healed their gut problems by eating probiotic rich sourdough starter, it's not really advisable. What is this? Raw sourdough starter contains uncooked flour which can harbor harmful bacteria among other things.
If left unfed it can start to grow mold and bacteria. At that point, a starter should be thrown out and started over. Any pink, orange, or grey color should be discarded and a brand new starter should be made. A sourdough starter does have a tangy smell to it but it should never have a foul smell.
While we kosher folks never will experience that sybaritic pleasure, we can indulge in a fresh loaf of sourdough bread.
Sourdough bread may be easier to digest than white bread for some people. According to some studies, sourdough bread acts as a prebiotic, which means that the fiber in the bread helps feed the “good” bacteria in your intestines. These bacteria are important for maintaining a stable, healthy digestive system.
Without an opportunity to bake a traditional loaf of bread while stuck inside, people started turning to another bread option: Sourdough. Unlike other types of bread, sourdough doesn't require dry yeast. It requires “wild yeast,” which is present in all flour.