Beer, Bread, and Yeast

Brewing beer, 16th century (source)

As I’ve mentioned many times, Len makes absolutely wonderful bread, mainly from sourdough starters (one wheat, one rye) that he has kept going for several years. Recently, he became curious about the history of bread baking, particularly the history of using starters and of obtaining yeast from breweries, such as the one depicted. 

Len’s Bread

Len’s discussion about where bakers got their leavening

I've done a lot of reading to answer the question about how traditional bakers got their yeasts, i.e. beer, old dough, or liquid levain (our method). For 19th century America I came to a very unexpected result: it depended on where in the country you were. In the East people exclusively used brewer's yeast. I got this from a Dover reprint of a cookbook from 1841 by Sarah Josepha Hale, and from a discussion in a book by Linda Civitello called Baking Powder Wars. Hale says that you should use what's left in the bottom of the cask when you make your household beer, or, if you don't brew beer, get it from the local brewery. She lived in Boston and Philadelphia.

However, In California, they used sourdough of the type we use from early times. For example, Boudin bakery (which still exists) started making sourdough loaves in 1849. They claim that they are still using the starter that their founder, Isidore Boudin, had in the original shop. In the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, the wife of the then owner heroically saved the levain in a bucket and ran out of the shop with it. 

Boudin Sourdough: available at Costco!
It’s quite good (but Len’s is better).

Mae found accounts of people on the Oregon trail who had levain in the wagons and baked on the trail. Of course, you know the stories of the miners who slept with their levain to keep it from freezing.

My guess is that this split reflects European practice. In England all bread was made with brewer's yeast before commercial yeast became available (1860's more or less). The Brits had a horror of sour bread, and prefered it bitter, like beer. (Hale's recipe for bread using brewer's yeast added hops). On the other hand, on  the European continent, our kind of levain was the standard. Isidore Boudin was from a family of bakers in Burgundy, and came to California around the Horn. Many of the people on the Oregon trail came directly from Europe (e.g. Sweden) and carried their starters with them.

So it all comes down to custom, and snobbery.

Beer and Bread Were Invented Together

Ancient Egypt: Kneading a starter for beer.
(Israel Museum)

Ancient Egypt: Kneading bread. (Toronto Museum)

… and Humans Have Never Been the Same.

Source: “How Bread, Beer, and Soy Sauce Changed the Human Biome”

Blog post © 2023 mae and len sander