Sourdough is a journey.
A journey from a) to b).
It begins as a pot of sourdough starter (a)
It ends as a loaf of sourdough bread (b)
The journey in the depths of a Parisian bake house (France) starts with mother – the chef – that is built up into a Levain, which journeys to first the pointage (premiere fermentation), then the appret (deuxieme fermentation), before it slides into the oven to end as pain a’levain.
The journey in the far Rhineland rye bake house (Germany) starts with an anstellgut, and then takes three refreshing steps anfrishsauer (1), grundsauer (2) and vollsauer (3), before marching into the oven to end as a sauerteig.
The journey in the doughies bake house in plain old English starts with our storage starter, which is refreshed into a production starter, then into a production dough, followed by a final dough and after a spell in the oven ends as a sourdough.
Names are interchangeable. The journey of sourdough is the same the world over – refreshment and building up of a starter into a nutritious loaf.
Start at a, end at b. Repeat*
*the jouney of refreshment never truly ends, as a piece of the beginning in each jouney is withheld for repetition.
