A wonderful loaf of sourdough is imbued both with its inimitable signature flavor, as well as some real existential, chicken-or-the-egg kind of questions. Even carbohydrate novices know that its rarefied dough requires a live starter to begin, and that some of the yeasty bacteria bundles still in circulation today are said to date back to centuries past. It’s all enough to make one wonder whether that day-old bread is, in a way, considerably more aged than it might first appear. And San Francisco’s Boudin Bakery claims that the sourdough you may have picked up fresh from their ovens actually dates back to the California Gold Rush.
Boudin asserts on its website that its loaves are born from “the same mother dough cultivated from a gold miner’s sourdough starter,” which would pin its provenance to the mid 1800s. Whether or not this apparently anonymous, evidently generous recipe-sharer ever struck it big, precious-metal-wise, we do not know. But their purported legacy remains via what’s now long been known as “the original San Francisco sourdough.”
Read more: 14 Common Mistakes That Are Killing Your Sourdough Starter
Getting a crusty sourdough taste of the Gold Rush today, or starting your own fermented treasure
Two lidded glass jars of sourdough starter are on a cutting board. – Erhan Inga/Shutterstock
Brick-and-mortar Boudin Bakery locations are most prevalent in the Golden State, but the brand also ships nationwide. The company describes its mail-order products as having a lighter bake than in-store goods, but it promises that a 10-minute turn in your home oven will affect “the same great flavor, incomparable aroma, and crisp golden crust” that you’d find in the City by the Bay.
Boudin doesn’t sell its sourdough starter, however, so swap your 49er fantasies for a future view. You can actually create your own sourdough starter at home. A mix of flour, water, and about a week’s time can keep your descendants knuckle deep in your household’s proprietary bread goo for generations to come. (The discard generated along the way is also great for superior pizza crust.) Provided you keep feeding the starter its same base ingredients, you can maintain it indefinitely. Just make sure you make sure your heirs know who exactly first mixed the stuff, lest you, too, are relegated to the unknowing annals of culinary history.
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Read the original article on Chowhound.