Sourdough

Sourdough is the oldest method of making leavened bread. Historians generally seem to agree the first leavened loaf probably came out of an oven in Egypt, sometime between 6,000 and 3,500 years ago. Genuine sourdough bread is leavened (i.e. made to rise – like lever, it comes from a Latin word meaning “to raise”) using only a culture of yeasts and (probiotic) “friendly” lactic acid bacteria, which live happy lives on the surface of cereal grains.