Sourdough

Definition: Sourdough

Sourdough

Adjective

1. Leavened with a small amount of fermented dough; "sourdough bread".

Noun

1. A leaven of dough in which fermentation is active; used by pioneers for making bread.

2. A settler or prospector (especially in western United States or northwest Canada and Alaska).

Date "sourdough" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1916. (references)

Specialty Definition: Sourdough

Domain	Definition
Mining	A. Old-fashioned and seasoned prospector b. A miner who has lived in Alaska more than one seaso. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Sourdough

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Sourdough is a symbiotic culture of lactobacilli and yeasts used to leaven bread. Sourdough bread has a very distinctive taste, due mainly to the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.

Biology and chemistry of sourdough

A sourdough starter is a stable symbiotic culture of yeast and lactobacteria, typically Candida milleri for the yeast and Lactobacillus sanfrancisco for the lactobacteria, growing in a paste of flour and water.

A flour water mixture will tend to develop this symbiotic culture after repeated feedings. Fresh, organic, and wholemeal flour raises the probability of initiating this symbiosis. The flour water mixture also can be inoculated from a previously kept culture. The culture is stable due to its ability to prevent colonization by other yeasts and bacteria as a result of its acidity and other anti-bacterial agents.

The yeast and bacteria in the culture will cause a wheat based dough, whose gluten has been developed sufficiently to retain gas, to leaven or rise. In a typical wheat flour dough the rise is approximately 50% due to the yeast and 50% due to the lactobacteria. A yeast cell produces far more of the carbon dioxide leavening gas than a lactobacteria, but there are many more lactobacteria, a ratio of 100 to 1 being typical.

History of sourdough

Sourdough has been used since ancient times with a variety of grains.

Bread made from 100% rye flour, which is virtually unknown in the United States but very popular in the northern half of Europe, is always leavened with sourdough. Baker's yeast is not useful as a leavening agent for rye bread, as rye does not contain gluten - sourdough however, in lowering the pH level of the dough, causes the starch to partially gelatinize, enabling it to retain gas bubbles.

External links

Sourdough FAQs
Sourdough Success! by Rusty Foster, Kuro5hin, April 17, 2003. Article and discussion about making sourdough only from water and flour.
Carl's Friends Sourdough Starter free sourdough starter
Modeling of Growth of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Candida milleri... from Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 1998, by Gänzle et. al., Universität Hohenheim
Sourdoughs International commerical vendor of sourdough starters

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sourdough."

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Synonym: Sourdough

Synonym: sourdough(a) (adj). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Sourdough

English words defined with "sourdough": French bread. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Sourdough

Domain	Title
Books	A.50 BAKING WITH SOURDOUGH (reference) Alaska Sourdough (reference) Bread: From Sourdough to Rye (reference) Men's Guide to Bread Machine Baking: Making Pizza, Bagels, Beer Bread, Pretzels, Sourdough, and over 100 Other Great Breads With Your Bread Machine (reference) The Complete Sourdough Cookbook (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Sourdough (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Sourdough

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Now San Francisco-style sourdough bread can be baked anywhere in the world. Which turned out not to be bad news for the City by the Bay. Pure cultures of L. sanfranciscoare now grown commercially and are commonly used by San Francisco bakers to control the quality of their product. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer..
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Expression: Sourdough

Expression using "sourdough": sourdough bread. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Sourdough

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
sourdough bread	79	snacks sourdough	3
sourdough starter	77	sourdough lodge	3
sourdough	70	san francisco sourdough starter	3
sourdough bread recipe	41	sourdough sweet	3
sourdough recipe	34	bread machine sourdough	2
sourdough starter recipe	20	history sourdough	2
sourdough pancake	17	alaska sourdough	2
sourdough bread starter	14	herman sourdough starter	2
san francisco sourdough bread	10	recipe roll sourdough	2
buns sourdough	9	crust pizza sourdough	2
denali sourdough cabin	8	san luis sourdough	2
francisco san sourdough	8	bakery sourdough	2
cabin sourdough	6	boudin sourdough bakery cafe	2
boudin sourdough	6	cookie sourdough	2
bread recipe sourdough starter	6	biscuit recipe sourdough	2
pancake recipe sourdough	5	bread machine recipe sourdough	2
company mining sourdough	5	sourdough slim	2
biscuit sourdough	4	bread german recipe rye sourdough	2
boudin bread sourdough	3	bread make sourdough	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Sourdough

Language		Translations for "sourdough"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		brumë i ardhur, arkërkues (gold digger). (various references)

Arabic		‏خميرة متخمرة. (various references)

Bulgarian		квас (ferment, kvass, leaven, yeast). (various references)

Chinese		发酵母. (various references)

French		levain. (various references)

German		Sauerteig (leaven, sour dough). (various references)

Greek		μεταλευτήσ. (various references)

Hebrew		שאור (leaven, leavening, yeast). (various references)

Hungarian		kovász (ferment, leaven, yeast), aranykeresõ. (various references)

Italian		lievito (ferment, leavening, yeast). (various references)

Korean		효모. (various references)

Pig Latin		ourdoughsay

Portuguese		garimpeiro (gold miner, prospector). (various references)

Russian		закваска (emptyings, ferment, leaven, yeast). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		kiselo testo (leaven). (various references)

Spanish		de masa fermentada. (various references)

Swedish		surdeg (leaven, leavening), gammal guldgrävare. (various references)

Turkish		maya (barm, ferment, leaven, maya, yeast, yeast powder), maden arayıcısı, hamur mayası. (various references)

Ukrainian		закваска (barm, ferment, leaven, yeast). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Sourdough

Derivations
	Words beginning with "sourdough": sourdoughs. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Sourdough" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Coubrough. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Sourdough

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "d-g-h-o-o-r-s-u-u"
	-3 letters: doughs, gourds, odours, roughs, rugous, shroud, sorgho.
	-4 letters: doors, dough, drugs, duros, goods, gourd, gursh, gurus, hoods, hours, hurds, odors, odour, ordos, roods, rough, shrug, sorgo, sough, sudor.
	-5 letters: dogs, door, dors, dour, drug, dugs, duos, duro, gods, good, goos, gosh, guru, gush, hods, hogs, hood, hour, hugs, odor, oohs, ordo, ouds, ours.
	Words containing the letters "d-g-h-o-o-r-s-u-u"
	+1 letter: sourdoughs.
	+2 letters: roughhoused.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.