What is the science behind sourdough? How are ‘starters’ usually so many years old?
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yeast is in the air all around you. When you make a new sourdough starter, the ambient yeast gets into the dough. You keep feeding that yeast and it grows making more yeast. As long as you keep feeding it, it keeps growing.
Then you can share the starter just by ripping off a bit of dough with the yeast cultures in it.
What the other comments haven’t mentioned is that sourdough culture contains yeast *and* bacteria. They are both important as they each help maintain an environment where they can thrive and outcompete other microbes. The bacteria are mainly lactic acid bacteria and they are the source of the sour flavor.
Sourdough is produced from yeast, a specialized member of the fungus family. Yeast is a living thing, and you can feed it to make it multiply. Over the years, if you like the bread it makes, you carefully nurture the “pet” yeast you have so that you can pinch of a chunk and make yummy bread whenever you want.
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