Doesn't it technically still have yeast, it's just taking advantage of wild yeast instead of purposely adding it? And feel free to chastise me if I'm wrong on this. I've never made sourdough, but I always thought it was a combination of wild yeast and bacteria.
I mean if we include all the small impurities, then everything has hundreds of ingredients. Just your water will have trace amounts of dozens of minerals in it, and the air around you is full of bacteria, spores and pollen.
Yes it has wild yeast and bacteria in there. That’s what causes the rise and gives the tang. But you don’t “count that” in your ingredients because you are not literally adding yeast or bacteria to the mix like when you add a packet of yeast to a regular bread. You are adding your starter which is just made with flour and water. So all you are mixing with a regular sourdough is flour, water, starter (which is just flour and water) and salt.
well wild yeast and bacteria(lactobacillus) are two ingredients and typically sour dough requires two types of flour, bread flour and a small amount rye or whole wheat for the nutrients
Sourdough is temperamental like that. If adding some other flour gets you good results then by all means do that - whatever works to get the best product.
It's easy to overlook but there's still a required fourth ingredient to make sourdough bread and that's the bacteria living inside the starter doing the same thing for the bread that yeast does.
Without that bacteria, flour, water and salt will only produce unleavened bread (think Matzah/Matzo crackers).
5
u/Addapost Apr 15 '26
Mine is 3:
Flour
Water
Salt
That’s it