sour dough

Fermented bread starter

Sour dough is a fermented mixture of flour and water used to leaven bread, giving it a distinctively tangy flavor.

The starter contains wild yeasts and bacteria that develop over days or weeks of feeding.

Sourdough bread has a chewy texture and complex taste that commercial yeast can't replicate: She's been maintaining her sour dough starter for years.

Usually spelled as one word: sourdough.

Related

feeding schedule · flour · lactobacillus · crust · levain · bake · dutch oven · tangy · fermentation · baking · scoring · flavor · starter culture · San Francisco · gold rush · autolyse · stretch and fold · wild

Opposites
leavening method

sour doughquick bread

Yeast-free baked good

unleavened bread · soda bread · flatbread · matzoh · tortilla

flavor profile

sour doughwhite bread

Refined flour loaf

milk bread · brioche · challah · plain bread · sweet bread

fermentation time

sour doughquick bread

Yeast-free baked good

Wonder Bread · biscuits · muffins · pancakes

Family

sour, dough, sourer, sourest, sourly, sourness, soured, souring, doughs

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G