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What Is Sourdough? This Is Worth Knowing About The Starter Culture

Sourdough – we explain what it is

For most people, using dry or fresh yeast is an automatic part of baking bread. There is another raising agent that has been used for thousands of years: sourdough.

  • Various yeasts and bacteria occur naturally on cereal grains and in flour. When they come into contact with water, lactic acid fermentation begins. This fermentation produces carbon dioxide.
  • The carbon dioxide ensures that the mass rises. In order to make bread or other baked goods from sourdough, you first need a so-called starter culture. It is also called Anstellgut.
  • Such a starter can be made from different types of grain. In most cases, however, rye sour or wheat sour is used. The starter is particularly important when baking with rye flour, as it is what makes the rye flour suitable for baking in the first place.
  • Baked goods made from sourdough are considered to be particularly wholesome and easy to digest. In addition, the use of sourdough gives the bread an unmistakable taste. As a rule, sourdough bread does not go moldy but simply becomes dry over time.
  • Baking with sourdough requires some patience and time. But it is precisely this long dough process that makes the bread so easy to digest. The bacteria contained in the sourdough pre-digest the dough, so to speak. People with a sensitive gastrointestinal tract, in particular, generally tolerate these bread better.

Baking with sourdough

Sourdough can be made at home with two simple ingredients. All you need is water and flour. And some patience.

  • If you want to create your own starter culture, it is best to use wholemeal flour. It contains a particularly large number of valuable bacteria and natural yeasts that give the sourdough a boost.
  • For the sourdough, you only have to mix 100 g of flour with 100 ml of water. Leave this mixture in a warm place at around 25 to 30 degrees. For the next three to four days you have to “feed” your sourdough with another 100 grams of flour and 100 ml of water every day.
  • The finished sourdough should smell slightly sour and form bubbles. The volume should also have increased significantly. This starter is the basis for your bread. If you refeed about 50 to 100 grams of this and keep it in the fridge, you won’t need to start making starters again for future loaves.
  • If you save a small amount of sourdough each time you bake, your sourdough can last for many years. Make sure, however, that you only salt and season your bread dough once you have removed the starter. Otherwise, your sourdough could die off.
  • There are almost countless recipes and baking ideas with sourdough. However, they have one thing in common: the starter culture inoculates the dough with valuable yeasts and bacteria, which then act as raising agents to ensure that your baked goods are wonderfully fluffy and easily digestible.
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Written by John Myers

Professional Chef with 25 years of industry experience at the highest levels. Restaurant owner. Beverage Director with experience creating world-class nationally recognized cocktail programs. Food writer with a distinctive Chef-driven voice and point of view.

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