Roy wrote:

>>because the myth that sourdough is "the" ancient method of
>>leavening seems to be widespread.
>
> I think that is self explanatory as pointed out in the link .you
> posted...Sourdough should be ahead of beer as early people were
> concerned about what to eat for their daily survival than what to drink
> for their entertainment and socials<grin>.

Sourdough may be ahead of beer, but I don't regard 2000 BC (footnote 3
of the h2g2 article, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2791820) as modern!
Yet a third option, Joe Ortiz implies in his book The Village Baker that
porridge-based methods are the oldest. These are direct rather than
cyclic; no doubt the organisms involved will probably be similar to
sourdough, but so is brewer's yeast.

By the way, weren't alcoholic beverages drunk for health reasons? Even
today, drinking water is dangerous in much of the world.

Greg

--
To get my e-mail address, remove a dot and replace a dot with a dash.