In a lot of places it wasn't a starter at all. People bought barm, the foam skimmed off brewing beer, from the brewery nearby.
Before packet yeast, who in a household kept the sourdough starter alive?
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In a lot of places it wasn't a starter at all. People bought barm, the foam skimmed off brewing beer, from the brewery nearby.
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I got into sourdough by asking one question too many, and now I have a new one.
Before you could buy yeast in a packet, someone had to feed a starter every day, through cold winters, house moves, even wars. Was that one person's job? Did families hand a starter down like a recipe, or borrow from the baker down the road when theirs died?
Would love to hear about any time or place you know something about.
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Borrowing from the baker down the road when your own starter died sounds like the most realistic answer to me, a starter is easy to share and hard to keep alive alone. I bet the feeding fell to whoever baked most days, and it never got written down because it was just part of the morning. Curious what turns up here.
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In a lot of places it wasn't a starter at all. People bought barm, the foam skimmed off brewing beer, from the brewery nearby.
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Sourdough is older than most countries. So who kept the starter alive through winters, moves and wars, and did people pass it on like an heirloom?