For thousands of years, sourdough was the only method for making bread rise, until the development of baker’s yeast less than 200 years ago.
Real Ancient Egyptian Bread Recipe from 1950 BC!
But what are the origins of sourdough? Where does it come from? Let's discover the history of sourdough starter and how this ancient tradition has endured through the ages.
The Accidental Discovery of Sourdough
The origins of sourdough are so ancient that no written record exists. Like all fermentation, sourdough is not a deliberate human invention; it is an accidental discovery that has been refined over time. What follows is only a guess, based on the natural biological properties of sourdough and its ingredients.
The Theory of Fermented Porridge
Probably more than 10,000 years ago, someone left a mixture of flour, water, and fruit to ferment. This mixture of natural ingredients produced bubbles and became slightly alcoholic, resembling a primitive form of beer. While this porridge could be eaten as is, one day someone decided to bake it, thus creating leavened bread.
The Theory of Bread Dough
Another theory is that of the baker who each day reused some of the flatbread dough left over from the previous day. By regularly feeding this dough with rye or wheat flour and water, and given the right conditions, the dough would have naturally begun to rise, thus becoming a ferment and marking the advent of sourdough.
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These discoveries were likely made many times throughout history, opening the way to countless culinary possibilities. Sourdough transformed the texture and taste of bread while improving the preservation and transportation of food.
Ancient Egypt: The Cradle of Leavened Bread
Although the first signs of sourdough bread date back 15,000 years in Jordan, everything suggests that these were flat, unfermented loaves. Ancient Egypt, often considered the cradle of leavened bread, played a central role in the development of breadmaking. The first evidence of sourdough dates back to the Ancient Egyptian Empire. By 6,000 BC, Egyptian civilizations had already mastered the craft of baking and were producing bread in large quantities. We can therefore assume that the advent of sourdough dates back to the beginnings of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, several thousand years ago.
Archaeological evidence, including frescoes found in the tombs of the pharaohs, depicts bakery scenes, underlining the crucial importance of bread in Egyptian society, both economically and spiritually. However, there is no evidence that the Egyptians intentionally used leaven to make their bread rise.
They may well have discovered the benefits of fermentation by accident, without fully understanding the microbiological process involved.
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting depicting baking
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Archaeological Evidence and Written Records
More concretely, in 1976, archaeological evidence of sourdough bread dating back to 3,700 BC was discovered in the village of Twann in Switzerland, confirming the origin of sourdough bread. This discovery marked the official beginning of the history of sourdough starter, bringing its known origins back more than 5,000 years, and providing a unique glimpse into the culinary practices of our ancestors.
The earliest written evidence of the use of traditional sourdough comes from Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian and naturalist of the 1st century AD. In his writings, he describes how Roman bakers leavened their bread by reusing a portion of fermented dough from the previous day. This rudimentary sourdough method documented around 77 AD, is one of the earliest written records of the bread fermentation process, illustrating the evolution of bread-making techniques through the ages.
Microcosms in Constant Evolution
Many bakers, both amateur and professional, have been preserving their traditional sourdough for generations, some dating back over a hundred years. However, sourdough is not a stable material, frozen in time. On the contrary, it is a living colony of microorganisms whose ecosystem is constantly evolving, rather like a forest in perpetual transformation. Except that what would take centuries to transform in a forest happens in just a few weeks in a jar of sourdough!
Every time the sourdough is fed, whether the baker mixes it with his spatula, or it’s simply exposed to air, new microorganisms are introduced. Every day, depending on variations in the environment (temperature, humidity, light, nutrients, etc.), some microorganisms thrive while others decline.
It is therefore impossible to determine the age of sourdough because of the short lifespan of the microbes that compose it. However, this does not mean that every sourdough is identical - quite the contrary! In Belgium, there is even a library dedicated to analyzing and listing sourdoughs. The Puratos Sourdough Library has contributed to the identification of over 700 types of yeast and more than 1,500 varieties of lactic bacteria.
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Ancient Egyptian Bread: More Than Just Food
Bread was the foundation of civilization in ancient Egypt and was made in many different shapes and types, but they left us no recipes for it. The process of making it was depicted on the walls of tombs, like that of Ramses III, which is the source for this recipe. Ancient Egyptian bread was made from emmer seed, a difficult seed to work with for various reasons.
The scenes depicted on the walls of various Ancient Egyptian tombs show how the baking of bread was related to the production of beer. The dough, that mixture of water and flour put outside for the fermentation process, was perfect for the maceration of beer. They mixed the flour with beer to give it a better flavor and to make a more edible dough. The Ancient Egyptians had a clear weakness for sweets - and still do today. They took every opportunity to integrate it into their meals. Honey and dried fruits such as dates and figs were used to sweeten their bread.
Production and Experimental Archaeology
In 1991, two bakeries were discovered in Giza near the pyramids by AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates in Giza dated to the Old Kingdom and the time of Khufu and Khafre. They were connected by galleries with other bakeries and spaces dedicated to food production, probably dedicated to the feed the pyramids’ workers. The production of bread in Ancient Egypt has raised the interest of many researchers in the field. So much so that many have tried to recreate this process step by step.
This team reproduced the Giza bakeries nearby at the site of Saqqara using the same grain (emmer) and technologies (bedja vessels) as the ancient Egyptians. They discovered that the emmer seed contained hardly any gluten which, although nowadays is appreciated by many, explains why Ancient Egyptian bread was so flat and heavy. Bread making is an art, even in Ancient Egypt.
Evolution of Bread Making
Even in antiquity, there was a wide variety of breads. In medieval Europe, bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. It was not until the 15th century that trenchers made of wood started to replace the bread variety. From the late 18th century to the end of the 19th century, bread sold in England and the United States was often adulterated with hazardous materials.
Bread-baking was industrialized at the start of the 20th century. The US government has mandated since 1941 fortification of white flour-based foods with some of the nutrients lost in milling, like thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron.
Here's a table summarizing key milestones in the history of bread:
| Era | Key Developments |
|---|---|
| 15,000 years ago | Early signs of flat, unfermented loaves in Jordan. |
| 6,000 BC | Egyptians master baking, producing bread in large quantities. |
| 3,700 BC | Archaeological evidence of sourdough bread in Switzerland. |
| 1st Century AD | Pliny the Elder documents sourdough use in Rome. |
| Middle Ages | Bread used as both food and part of table service in Europe. |
| 18th-19th Centuries | Adulteration of bread with hazardous materials. |
| 20th Century | Industrialization of bread-baking; fortification of white flour in the US. |
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