Sourdough Culture
I just finished reading an advance copy of Eric Pallant's Sourdough Culture, which is coming out in a couple of weeks.
There are a few different threads to the book. One thread is an attempt to trace the lineage of the Cripple Creek starter he was gifted and which sparked his emthusiasm for sourdough. The other works forward in time from the earliest known evidence of breadmaking in Egypt, through the Roman Empire into Europe, and eventually from Europe to North America. It includes quite a bit of recent research including information on the industrialization of breadmaking and the move from sourdough to commercial yeast, something Professor Pallant won a Fulbright scholarship to study.
The last history of bread I recall reading was 6000 Years of Bread, which was originally published during World War II. A lot of research has been done since then. Professor Pallant's book brings that history up-to-date with recent scholarship and science to provide a much more complete picture of the evolution of bread. If that sounds like your kind of thing, check it out!
Comments
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vYqjBxQhe8o
Ok, just watched this video from 6 years ago and hope he has updated his belief that yeast and bacteria fall from the sky into wet flour to make sourdough. What does he write in the book?
I knew someone would want to get into the nitty gritty.
I don't recall him suggesting that yeast and bacteria fall out of the sky but it is possible he does early in the book (there is no index on the proof I got and I can't find anything about it right now). There are discussions of experiments that involve sterilizing grain and prove where the yeast and bacteria come from.
His perspective definitely shifts through the book as he reads more scholarship and talks to other investigators. He also runs a bunch of experiments of his own, largely centered on trying to figure out whether an heirloom culture maintains anything that connects it to its origin. That's the storyline of the book, basically. I believe one of his final hypotheses was that starters eventually reach a microbiological balance that makes them difficult systems to disrupt. That format of hypothesis followed by experiment or research then tentative theory sticks with me more reading this than the final conclusions he draws.
but listening to his six year old speech did make me reflect upon more advanced discoveries and research done in the last ten years and wondering if his journey was upgraded. A speech is more limited in detail than a book would be.
Sure have learned a lot here at TFL.
Thanks to you, Floyd, and the way you've set up TFL. I don't think I can overstate the amount of sharing and learning that goes on here. All of it. So thankful to all the contributors and comments. Always something to learn.