HEALTH BENEFITS OF SOURDOUGH BREAD
FROM SOURDOUGH TO BEER TO YEAST PACKETS – A HISTORY OF LEAVENING
Ancient Egypt cultivated wheat as well as other grains in the Nile River Valley. They manufactured enough bread to feed thousands daily. The ancient Greeks were introduced to leavened breads through Egypt. Wheat was imported from both Sicily and Egypt to Greece. Romans ate a lot of bread. Freed slaves would learn the trade of bread baking and , once freedmen, turned into professional bakers. Eventually, bakers were elevated to public officials. The Egyptians likely experimented early with various ways of fermenting dough, including the use of alcoholic beverages such as beer or wine. However, the tried-and-true method was sourdough: a ball of fermented dough saved from a previous batch and incorporated into fresh flour and water. This basic technique remained in use for millennia.
In medieval times, the beer industry exploded, opening the door that ancient Egyptians discovered long ago (barm – beer froth). Bread-makers and breweries worked side by side. The bread-makers began to use the froth from the top of the beer to inoculate their dough. They found an easy way to cheat the system to produce a lot more bread for people, lessening the rise times. Believe it or not Monks were tasked with the “roll” of being the local town’s brewer and baker! The French did stay true to their game and didn’t jump on the beer bandwagon like the English or the Germans did. The French kept to their sacred levain to continue to produce true sourdough. By the 1600’s some Frenchmen even tried sneaking in barm only for the government to completely ban the beer corruption (literally known as the Bread Yeast War). They were fighting for their right to fluffy white bread! No, you can’t make this stuff up!
Enter the Dutchmen in the late 1700’s. Brewers and distillers found a way to make a separate yeast product for commercial use. They began to sell “cream yeast” which was barm that was washed in order to removed the bitter flavor of beer and also to keep it from spoiling as quickly. It was also easier to transport than a bunch of foam.
By the 19th century, Mautner’s fresh yeast cakes were in wide commercial use but it still wasn’t as convenient as the demand called for. The yeast was alive, wet, and highly perishable, only lasting a few days before mold development. The U.S. Army stepped in to take care of its men on the battlefield. They would fight to the death to protect their country but they weren’t about to do it without their bread! So the military contracted the Fleischmann’s Yeast. Their scientists figured out how to gently dehydrate the live yeast cells in order to pause the cell growth while still keeping it alive, grinding the block and sticking it in individual packets . And this is where Active Dry Yeast was made. Similar to the process of Spam, a military need for grab and go convenience while in the battlefield. Post war, companies caught onto this new convenient yeast and started producing it for the public and the rest is history. What also is left in history is the nutrients they unknowingly left behind.
Beer, lager lovers, chemists, bread wars, wars with bread-baking soldiers, a high-stakes bake-contest, and a dehydrator later, we have our current state of affairs. But here’s the catch: the exact same science that gave the military the speed and convenience it demanded completely left the science of nutrient-dense loaves behind in the dust of history, only for us to realize nearly a century later that we need to go back to what those Ancient bakers instinctively knew. That old-time, tried-and-true sourdough starter.
Authentic sourdough, leavened solely by a natural starter of wild yeast and bacteria, remains a topic of ongoing study for its impressive health benefits. Did you know our guts love diversity? Our diverse gut microbiomes thrive on the wide range of bacteria found in true sourdough, which in turn influences everything from our moods and decision-making skills to our immune systems. Additionally, the microbes themselves can also produce some B vitamins, making sourdough richer in usable nutrients like iron, zinc, magnesium, and B vitamins compared to conventional bread.
Most commercial “sourdough” found on grocery shelves isn’t real sourdough; it’s regular bread with yeast, vinegar, or flavorings added to mimic the taste, missing out on the benefits of traditional slow fermentation. Your palate might be fooled by a faux-sour flavor, but true sourdough’s benefits come from a reliance solely on a natural starter containing both wild yeast and bacteria for leavening. The final flavor profile—which can be milky, tangy, or somewhere in between—is an untamable, wild beast dependent on numerous variables. These factors include the starter’s unique ecosystem, the temperature during preparation, the specific grains used, and even the baker’s unique microflora and geographic location.
True sourdough is a craft that can’t be boxed in. And here we are, full circle, realizing they seemed to have had it right the first time.
Why Choose Organic:
By choosing organic, you can minimize the exposure to harmful pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, gross sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), or ionizing radiation. We are exposed to more than enough harmful toxins in this age we live in. Why not seek to minimize that as much as we can?If you haven’t read yet about the benefits on freshly milled grains you should take the time to check out this next article.