"Sourdough is teeming with bugs‹some 50 million yeasts and 5 billion
lactobacilli bacteria in every teaspoon of starter dough.

About 34 years ago, Frank Sugihara recalls, he and Leo Kline, a fellow
microbiologist, set out to "solve the mystery of San Francisco
sourdough." The two scientists were working with baker's yeast in a Bay
Area lab run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so perhaps it was
inevitable they'd wind up studying San Francisco's signature bread.
This crusty loaf, with its chewy bite and sharp acidulated tang, was a
long way from Wonder Bread, and few tourists left the airport without a
loaf. Local lore attributed the bread to Basque migrants from the
Pyrenees who arrived in San Francisco during the gold rush. Local
bakers swore that no one could reproduce it outside a 50-mile radius of
the city. When they gave dough to bakeries elsewhere, it inexplicably
lost its "sour." But was it‹is it‹truly unique?

Sugihara laughs. "It's hard to say."...

http://www.discover.com/issues/sep-0...featscienceof/

Cheers,

Darrell

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