7 Reals of Sourdough Bread Making

Martha Levie who had been offering free bread classes at Abigail’s Oven always organizes each session around what she calls the “7 Reals of Bread Making.” These include real yeast, real wheat, real nutrition, real water, real salt, real flavor, and real world tradition.

Each of these is more fully covered by topic as listed above at Abigail’s Oven Sourdough Blog. This post, however, will give you the essence of each in a summary format.

1-Real Yeast

Of the Real 7 natural leavening that is made with just flour and water is most important. Mix these ingredients together, feed them more of the same every day for a week and the mixture will become a living mass of microorganisms known as a sourdough starter. This is a preferment in bread making and may also be called a biga, chef, levain, mother sponge or culture, poolish, starter, and wild yeast, but they are all the same thing.

To build a starter, mix equal parts of flour and water adding a bit more every day for a week. The natural bacteria and wild yeast with begin to move into and live in this mixture. Eventually they will created a living mass of symbotic organisms they can leaven bread dough.

Once a sourdough starter starts to bubble and it is doubling in size every day, it is considered active and ready to use. When you mix into a lot more flour, water, and salt, the action of the wild yeast and bacteria produced gases that make the dough rise. And additionally, the start begins to break down irritants in the wheat.

This action predigests gluten making sourdough bread easy to digest. But, she said, “As people switched from sourdough starter to commercial baker’s yeast, they started making bread that does not have the irritants broken down and ready for digestion.” This has lead to many problems for people who have a wheat intolerance.

When you eat real sourdough bread, your body digests the starches in bread more steadily. And eating it actually slows down your whole digestive tract so that the sugars of all food eaten are released more slowly.¹ In fact, Martha reports, “Some say that if you eat a slice of sourdough bread with every meal, it will lower the glycemic index of everything you eat within four hours of eating that slice of bread.”

“We’ve even had people that have celiac disease that have been able to eat true sourdough bread,” she explained without ill effects. This is most likely because of the acids the good bacteria in sourdough produce which consume phytic acid and other wheat irrtants..

In his book, The Blue Zones, Dan Buettner wrote that bread that is “made from a variety of whole grains such as wheat, rye, or barley, each of which offers a wide spectrum of nutrients, such as tryptophan, an amino acid, and the minerals selenium and magnesium,” surely improve nutrition.²

Further, these sourdough “breads are made with naturally occurring bacteria called lactobacilli, which ‘digest’ the starches and glutens while making the bread rise. …The result is bread with less gluten even than breads labeled ‘gluten-free,’ with a longer shelf life and a pleasantly sour taste that most people like. Traditional sourdough breads actually lower the glycemic load of meals, making your entire meal healthier, slower burning, easier on your pancreas, and more likely to make calories available as energy than stored as fat.³ “So,” says Martha,” you go ten years eating a slice of sourdough bread with every meal, and you may be less likely to have heart disease or diabetes.”

2- Real Wheat

Number two of the Real 7 is wheat, but not just any wheat. Martha suggests that you look for, “non-GMO, non-dwarf, pesticide-free, deep biologically farmed, heirloom varieties of wheat.  It should be cold-processed, unbromated, unbleached, and unenriched flour when you are shopping.” Like the varieties our partner, Mountain West Grains, carry.

“Sure all flour is made from real wheat initially,” she explained, but not all wheat has the same nutrition value. Ancient grains like einkorn, emmer, Khorasan, and spelt have not undergone the extensive hybridization like our modern dwarf wheat varieties which have a different gluten make-up⁴ “S, which constitute 95% of the world’s wheat supply.

These ancient strains were not like our modern wheat. Ancient grains had, “a different shape, and only had 14 chromosomes compared to the 42 modern wheat has. It had different gluten content, a different flavor, and a different look.”

With more than 20,000 hybridizations crossing one strain or wheat and combining it with another strain to produce our modern wheat variety, this grain is just not the same food as it once was. “Modernization in farming and hybridization, with all the other ills that follow with pesticides, starving soils, and so on, have made our current standard wheat kernel an indomitable chemically engineered super-grain that unfortunately is hard to digest. Thus, enter wheat allergies, gluten intolerance, Krohn’s disease, behavioral disorders, etc.”⁵

Yet we know that people thrived on wheat for thousands of years. Surely something has changed over time making today’s wheat less tolerable. The gluten from modern wheat, she explained, “degrades into several morphine-like substances, named gluten exorphins. These were not found in the older strains. 

“These exorphins cross the blood-brain barrier and give you a little addictive buzz. They are also not digestible, so you get a feeling of bloating in your gut and a fuzzy ‘grain brain’ feeling in your head. This gluten, of course, is not as strong as morphine or cocaine, but it’s similar in how it affects our minds. And that is why wheat is in almost all packaged foods. It’s cheap, and it’s addictive. “

In fact, she said, “Researchers find we’re eating 440 more calories a day with this modern wheat than we did in the past. You have probably felt its power when you are grocery shopping and are drawn to the pastry section.”

Along with this addiction there “is a big problem because many more people are having digestive issues from refined, white flour than in the past. But,” she clarified, any wheat no matter which variety, “You can ferment your grain to take care of some of the side effects of dwarf wheat.”

3- Real Nutrition

“Bleached flour is made using potassium bromate, which conditions the flour so that your dough is softer, but it’s also a cancer-causing chemical. Fortification is done to flour because the government noticed millers were taking wheat and sifting out the bran and the germ, which is where all the nutrients are,” Martha made clear.

Further, she explained, to fortify bread millers add “zinc, copper, and the iron, but they use metal instead of plant-based minerals, which means these fortified minerals aren’t really digestible for humans.” One miller even used a magnet to show the iron shavings he added to fortify his flour.

“The natural way to get iron, copper, and zinc,” she explained, “is through plants that put their roots in the ground and soak up minerals, which we then eat and digest.” Then she reminded, “You want to have real wheat that has not been hybridized or genetically modified, made into flour that hasn’t been bleached, bromated, or fortified.”

But even with that, she said, “you have to dissolve the phytic acid in wheat if you want to access the vitamins and minerals, which you can do with a long ferment and an autolyse before you add the sourdough.”⁶ The long ferment which fills the dough with prebiotics is baked out but becomes a probiotic. This acts like fiber, which is an indigestible substance to humans but is important for healthy digestion.

4- Real is Water

Martha recommends just using filtered or purified water for your bread. “We have to recognize that the water that comes out of your tap has lots of issues. One of the biggest problems in tap water for sourdough is chlorine.

“A few years ago, you could usually just let your water sit out overnight and the chlorine would evaporate. These days, treatment plants are adding a different chemical, called chloramine, that does not evaporate.”⁷

Soft water can cause problems with the bacteria in sourdough development, extra hard water may give you a heavy, dense loaf of bread, and distilled water is a problem too since there are no minerals left for the bacteria to use. “Because of these issues,” advises Martha, “the best thing to do when you make sourdough is to use spring water or filtered purified water. “

5- Real is Salt

Salt like wheat gets a bad rap these days. But salt plays important roles in sourdough bread making and in our bodies in general.

“When doctors talk about the dangers of sodium, they’re talking about the kind of salt we all have on the table. White table salt has had all other minerals stripped out, been bleached, and had iodine added to it. These are major problems—don’t eat that kind of salt. It wreaks all sorts of havoc in your body,” Martha explained. But you need salt for its taste when making bread.

First, salt is an important flavor enhancer and since “sourdough doesn’t require oil, sugar, extra gluten, or any of the things that we used to add to bread to make it rise and taste good, it relies heavily on salt for amazing flavor,” she continued.

Second, Martha explained that salt helps to control the fermentation in sourdough, slowing down the process means that less natural sugars in the flour are broken down into acids, which leaves those sugars available to carmelize and improve the crust color so that it will be darker.

“Although the main role of salt in sourdough is to enhance flavor, salt also affects dough in other ways. Adding salt affects the texture of the dough, making it stronger and less sticky whilst reducing the oxidation of the dough during mixing.  To some degree adding salt also regulates yeast activity, which means that the fermentation progresses at a more consistent rate. Adding salt to your sourdough has the added benefit of acting as a preservative to your bread.  It enhances shelf life because it attracts water, which can help keep the bread from staling too quickly in a dry environment.”⁸

Salt influences the enzymatic activity in bread and the rate that it ferments. It strengthens the gluten and “has a conditioning effect on the dough. Weaker flours could actually be strengthened by adding salt. It can be used to improve the handling properties of the dough by reducing the stickiness.”⁹ Even though salt strengthens the gluten, it delays gluten formation during mixing so it is usually added after the autolyse period.

“But not all salt is created equal. Redmond REAL Salt is fabulous. It’s actually harvested in Redmond, Utah (in northern Sevier County, north of Richfield),” she explained. This salt is a pink variety with 81 natural minerals in it that are good for you. “If you feel like you have a cough coming on, you can gargle with Redmond salt to kill all of the germs in your throat.” Concluding, Martha stated, “This is the kind of salt you want for your bread.”

The Sixth Real is Flavor

Things that are truly nutritious are usually delicious,” Martha declared. “We don’t always realize that in America, because we have this packaged world of convenience. If you go to most grocery stores and buy fresh produce, it’s just not going to taste that great.” And it is the same with bread.

Then she asked, “How many of you have ever gone to the store to get some tomatoes for sandwiches only to buy something that looks really nice and red, but tastes like cardboard?

“But when you get hold of an heirloom tomato that someone has grown locally you find that it has bumps and cracks, but the taste is amazing.”

“In other countries, where food has more real flavor instead of manufactured bursts, people don’t have to eat a lot to feel full. Our food in America is so nutrient-lacking that we’re eating ourselves to death, yet we never feel satisfied because we’re lacking nutrition.”

“If you eat foods that are truly nutritious, they’re going to be bursting with real flavor, ” Martha promised. “In our bread, we want real flavor from things that are truly nutritious. Once you know the secrets of real sourdough, you’ll be able to transform the flavor and nutrition of your diet and improve your family’s lifestyle.”

Real World Tradition is the Final Real of Sourdough

Martha pointed out that making sourdough bread as a family “helps us to slow down and do things together to build lasting traditions.” She explained how growing up her family only had homemade bread and how she longed to be like the other kids at school eating soft, white bread from the store for lunch, until of course, she ate some.

She lamented, “We have created a ‘white bread’ culture of wanting things fast and easy. Don’t get me wrong; fast and easy can be great for some things. We technically have all kinds of extra time to do what we want because we don’t need to do everything ourselves. Everything we do is outsourced—homes, clothes, even walking our dogs—we outsource all of it. But there are some things that we’ve lost in our traditions and culture. Baking sourdough bread helps us gets rid of that white bread syndrome and create real-world tradition.”

She said that will this sourdough training from Abigail’s Oven, “we really want to bring back that real-world tradition of doing things together that nourish and build, and are sustainable, like preparing and enjoying real food.”

“What we need,” she concluded, ” is a bread revolution, where bakers and consumers come together to create foods that are delicious and nourishing using Real Yeast, Real Wheat, Real Nutrition, Real Water, Real Salt, Real Flavor, and finally a real-world tradition¹⁰ of quality and connection to real food. Let’s take back what used to be woven into everyday life, what we took for granted but will never take for granted again because of what we have been through together these past few months.”

References

¹ Najjar AM, et al. “The Acute Impact of Ingestion of Breads of Varying Composition on Blood Glucose, Insulin and Incretins Following First and Second Meals.” British Journal of Nutrition. 2008;101(3): 391-398.
² Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest, National Geographic Society, 2008
³ ibid.
⁴ Spisni, Imbesi, Giovanardi, Petrocelli, Alvis, and Valerii, “Differential Physiological Responses Elicited by Ancient and Heritage Wheat Cultivars Compared to Modern Ones,” in Grains and Human Health, Nutrients, November 2019
⁵ “Ancient Grains“, Abigail’s Oven.
⁶ Poutanen, Flander and Katina, “Sourdough and cereal fermentation in a nutritional perspective,” University of Kuopio, Food and Health Research Centre, Department of Clinical Nutrition, Kuopio, Finland
⁷ Pearson J. Lau, “A Metagenomics Analysis of the Effects of Chlorine Upon the Microbial Communities Found in Sourdough Starters,” Senior Projects Spring 2017. 93.
⁸ “The Role of Salt in Sourdough,” The Sourdough School
⁹“Salt and salt reduction in bakery products,” Bread and the technology of bread production, classofoods.com
¹⁰ Barbara Griggs, “The rise and rise of sourdough bread,” The Guardian, Aug 2014