Sorry for the terrible pun, but l’m legit curious.
A friend and I were talking about how some sourdough mothers, pho broths, etc can literally be human generations old. Is it a “Ship of Theseus” kind of thing? Does the process of maintaining the mother prevent this by adding in new yeast? Do the many generations of yeast make different strains of yeast? Is there a concern that the many yeast generations could create undesirable modifications?
In: Biology
With pho, yeast isn’t really an issue since it’s a broth that is boiled regularly, which will kill the yeast.
In sourdough starters, it’s not genetically pure because there is yeast in the air. So if some yeast becomes disadvantaged compared to the yeast floating around, the yeast that’s floating around will land in the starter and out-compete it.
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