Sourdough Bread

Hard·15 hours 35 min active + 10 hours 45 min resting

Wild-yeast leavened wheat loaf — flour, water, salt, no commercial yeast. Tangy crumb, blistered crust, 18-24h fermented.

Wild-yeast leavening predates Egypt, but the American sourdough lineage is San Francisco — Boudin Bakery, founded 1849 by Isidore Boudin in the Gold Rush, still uses a mother starter from that decade. Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, isolated in 1971 at the USDA Albany lab, gives the city loaf its acetic bite.

Chad Robertson's 2010 Tartine Bread reset the American home-baker bar to 75-80% hydration. A loaf weighed 1.8% salt, hydration to 78%, bulk-fermented to 30% rise is the canonical Tartine country loaf.

Mahogany ear-blistered crust that crackles when squeezed, open irregular crumb with translucent webs, sour-tangy on the finish. Steam during the first 10 minutes is what lifts that ear. Slice thick for toast; thin slices flop.

Two ferments running together: wild yeast (Saccharomyces, Candida) makes the lift; lactobacilli make the acid. A 75-78°F bulk for 4-5h plus a 12-18h cold retard at 38°F is the modern Tartine playbook — the cold leg is where flavor depth and crumb structure both develop.

Variations

San Francisco style (sour-forward, L. sanfranciscensis dominant); Tartine country loaf (Chad Robertson, 75% hydration, 10% whole wheat); Vermont's Jeffrey Hamelman style at King Arthur (drier, 68%, more wheaty); Pain au levain (French pure-sourdough, milder).

On the Palate

Where Sourdough Bread sits in the American flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 8

450g (16 oz)Bread Flour

330ml (1 ⅓ cups)Water

room temperature

100g (3 ½ oz)Sourdough Starter

active, 100% hydration

9g (⅓ oz)Salt

How it's made

6 steps · 15 hours 35 min active + 10 hours 45 min waiting

1
300 min
Build levain: 50 g starter + 100 g flour + 100 g water; rest 4–6 hr.
Watch out
The levain is ready when it's domed, bubbly and a pinch dropped in water floats — sink means it's not ripe yet, wait it out.
2
35 min
Mix levain with 800 g bread flour, 540 ml water, 18 g salt; autolyse 30 min then add salt.
3
240 min
Bulk ferment 4 hr with stretch-and-folds every 30 min.
Watch out
By the end of bulk the dough should be puffy, jiggly and domed with a few bubbles at the edge — under-fermented dough stays dense and slack.
4
900 min
Shape into a boule; cold-proof in banneton 12–18 hr.
Watch out
Shape until the surface goes taut and holds a tight ball — if it slackens and spreads flat, do another round of folds before the fridge.
5
45 min
Bake 250 °C covered Dutch oven 20 min, then uncovered 200 °C 25 min until dark.
Watch out
Pull it when the crust is genuinely dark, almost mahogany — pale bread means underbaked; the deep color is where the flavor lives.
6
60 min
Cool 1 hr on rack before slicing.

Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed

These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.

Cast-Iron Skillet

A heavy, single-piece cast iron pan, 25-30 cm across, weighing 1.5-2.5 kg. Once preheated, the thick mass holds 230°C+ even when a cold steak hits the surface — that's the secret to a deep crust. A well-seasoned skillet (multiple thin layers of polymerized oil baked into the iron) is essentially nonstick, gets better with use, and lasts a century. Lodge skillets from Tennessee have been in continuous production since 1896.

Techniques

Fermentation