Sourdough bread day 2021

National Sourdough Bread Day 2021: If there's one thing any sandwich connoisseur knows, it's that most sandwiches are made better by the addition of sourdough bread.

Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwiches? They're always better with the bite and tang of sourdough. Burgers? Oh, yes, replacing a humdrum old hamburger bun with a butter-grilled sourdough bread pushes them to the next level. Tuna salad sandwiches? If there is anything that can make this already delicious sandwich better, it's putting it on a couple of slices of toasted sourdough bread.

So is it any wonder that Sourdough Bread has its own day of celebration dedicated to it? It shouldn't be a surprise.

Sourdough bread is made from dough that has a mixture of the normal yeasts in symbiosis with a Lactobacillus culture. This is a really big word for the culture that gives the bread a slightly sour tang. And that is what makes it far superior to all other breads. Plus, this culture also provides the bread with a longer shelf-life.

What is surprising isn't that sourdough bread isn't a standard in everyone's pantry, but that it was actually one of (if not the first) forms for leavening bread in human history!

In fact, in some forms of bread, it is necessary to use sourdough cultures for the bread to even work at all. Rye bread has a remarkably low gluten count, making the typical baker's yeast simply impractical for helping it to rise. Sourdough, on the other hand, happens to work perfectly in this type of bread.

In America, one of the most famous places where Sourdough is made is San Francisco, California. This is because French bakers brought the leavening to northern California to feed those hunting down that precious gold during the Gold Rush of the 1850's.

So how did Sourdough go from being the favorite leavening agent for bread in so many places? Well, wheat-based breads don't need the special properties of sourdough leavening, and it was gradually replaced by barm, a result of beer making. Eventually, when purpose grown yeasts came into play, they were easier to use and they began to take over the industry. Sourdough Bread Day reminds us of the origins of one of the most important staples of our diet, and to remember that it still makes one of the most delicious breads available out there!