Making Natural Leavening, aka Sourdough, aka Levain, aka Starter, aka Magic

When making naturally leavened pizza, leavener can be referred to as sourdough, levain, starter, and preferment. People use the terms for different things. With levain, you probably mean sourdough starter (it’s a French baking word). Sourdough means the same thing, but some people who aren’t trying to make a sour product don’t like to use it. I refer to mine as a starter, but some people refer to bigas or poolishes as starters too. People even name their starters. At Upside in Times Square, which I consulted on, they named theirs “Tibby.” (“It just felt right,” partner Noam Grossman said.)