Sourdough bread
Many bread lovers consider sourdough, with its characteristic acidic taste, to be the ultimate in bread. In fact sourdough, also known as wild yeast bread, is not just one style of bread, but a whole family of styles that can vary as widely as conventionally yeasted breads.
Get some culture
Instead of bakers yeast, sourdough is risen using wild yeasts that grow naturally on the grain before it is milled into flour. In order to get enough of this yeast, we must make a starter culture. This is a subject with a certain mystique - some bakers will tell you that to get really good sourdough bread you must use an authentic starter that has been passed down through generations, others will tell you to add honey, or raisins, or yoghurt, or leave your culture outside in the fresh air.
However, there is no need to be so complicated - an effective starter culture can be produced in your kitchen in a matter of days using nothing except flour and water. Detailed instructions for making a starter are given with the sourdough recipe in the recipes section of this site.
As well as the wild yeasts that make sourdough bread rise, starter cultures also contain lactic acid bacteria which produce the characteristic sour flavour of sourdough bread, and contribute to its keeping qualities. These bacteria vary from one place to another - indeed, one strain that is responsible for the famous San Francisco sourdough has been recognised as a unique species, Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.