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Sourdough

··620 words·3 mins
Thoughts Writing
Author
Moulting Penguin

Sourdough – So Much Sourdough
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Have you been the grocery store recently? Of course you have. And have you bought any bread? Of course you have. And did you buy sourdough? Of course you did. Someone has to be buying all that goddamn sourdough bread. There’s so much of it. How could you not?

So you know people1 who are on a diet? Of course you do. And those people say things like “It’s not worth the calories,” right? Sometimes we get in a place where we have to start deciding what things we should eat, and what things. . . aren’t worth being et. And bread, well, bread’s become that for me. So, if I’m going to eat bread, it’s going to be something I really, really like.

And that’s not sourdough2.

I was listening to a 2021 episode of Science Friday when Ira Flatow was talking about sourdough, and, what with the pandemic and all, people were taking the time to give it a spin. But as part of that episode, they talked about the commercialization of sourdough, and how labor and time intensive (mostly time) it is to make it, which is why it’s a niche product. Except not 3 years later, and I can’t escape the damn things. It used to be 18 types of white bread, and maybe one or two “specialty” breads. This was when I was a kid, which is so long ago it’s not worth mentioning. Sometime post college (perhaps because of moving a to coast3), I started to avoid white bread4, but the primary alternative was the multi-grain, many-nuts variety5. Eventually I moved to the land of fruits, nuts, and granola, and damned if it wasn’t more of the same.

But in the last couple of years, it’s all about the sourdough. There is still the staple of white bread (though I admit I haven’t see a loaf of Wonder in a while6). There’s the FNG7 breads. And other than the Orowheat Rye Syndicate8, the rest is sourdough. For every non-sourdough loaf, there is a sourdough loaf. That includes the pumpernickel. 50% sourdough, 50% everything else including the gluten free bread.

While I don’t dislike the Orowheat Quadrilogy of Breads, I’ve had some marvelous other Ryes. And since I can’t seem to buy them (easily), I guess I’ll just keep trying to bake them myself. So far, I’ve been a dismal failure9. But I guess I’ll keep trying.

  1. Maybe you are one? ↩︎

  2. It’s rye. Particularly a light and fluffy marble rye, though I also really like Russian rye, as well as dark rye. Something about the molassas, I think. I’ve taken to substituting molasses in place of sugar in recipes lately. But that’s a topic for another post. ↩︎

  3. The left one. It wasn’t as much of a change from the Land ‘o Hogs I was used to. ↩︎

  4. Speaking of things I was used to, that would include German “whole wheat” bread from a certain area of the Land o’ Hogs. I am pretty sure this was the start of my love of the the darker breads. ↩︎

  5. Seriously, up in the PNW they’ll put damn near any form of grain in a bread. Oats? Sure. Bran? You bet! Walnuts? Why not? Quinoa? How could you not! In fact, if it’s a grain you haven’t heard of before, Dave’s Killer Bread has one a loaf for you! Pumpkin seeds? There must be 12 different ones. ↩︎

  6. But I have been introduced to Bimbo. ↩︎

  7. Really, I have to explain it? Fruits, Nuts, and Granola. ↩︎

  8. Jewish, Russian, Dark, Dill. Yeah, I know them by heart. ↩︎

  9. I’ve made two bricks and one dense sponge. We’ll see if we can get to something I actually enjoy eating. ↩︎