If one thing became synonymous with the pandemic lockdowns over the last year, it was baking bread at home. As many countries went into lockdown and flour flew off supermarket shelves along with toilet paper, many found themselves iso-baking bread for the first time. Sourdough bread became the third most searched recipe on Google in 2020. But this sudden global collective interest in baking bread, and in particular sourdough, is no new trend: the art and science of it has been around for thousands of years.
Bread-making has survived through ancient civilisations and it’s achieved global domination. Without it, we wouldn’t have crisp wood-fired pizzas, crusty French baguettes, fluffy “steamed bun” baos at yum cha, or even the iconic Australian culinary gift to the world, the democracy sausage (in bread). At the centre of it all is a bubbling fermentation process, unchanged over time.
Sourdough is a living thing. The simple combination of flour and water is more or less starting life from thin air. The basis of all sourdough bread is the starter, or mother, which couldn’t be more apt. It incorporates yeast and bacteria from the surrounding environment to create that characteristic artisanal tang.
But although the ingredients are simple, the biology and chemistry behind sourdough bread
