On a sidenote I’d never even heard of San Francisco sourdough bread until now – but I don’t live in the USA.

I live in an isolated, largely forgotten and therefore necessarily very provincial, corner of the Central American tropics.

We do not have what Americans might call “ethnic” food or “health food” stores here. We only rarely get a generic brand of tofu in one or two of our “upscale” supermarkets.

And so I was recently trying my hand at making seitan, or wheat gluten, the plausible meat-substitute used in many Asian vegetarian cuisines. I used a national brand of all-purpose flour (the only kind available) and kneaded it with commercial potable water (one doesn’t cook with or drink the local tap water, or even use it for brushing one’s teeth).

But I quickly tired of the kneading, and of the various changes of (expensive commercial potable) water. I had a squishy mass of what appeared to be gluten. I didn’t want to fuss with it anymore. I covered it with potable water and left it in its clear plastic bucket atop the refrigerator. I figured I might be able to figure out something to do with it later.

The next morning I thought, “Hey, maybe this can turn into bread dough.” So, I poured off the murky water, added some commercial yeast mixed with warm water and a little raw cane-sugar to the mess, along with another cup of all-purpose flour. I put it atop the fridge again and waited to see what would happen.

Today I took a peek and the mess was all bubbly. I tasted it…and it tasted *exactly* like sourdough starter.

I mixed some more all-purpose flour into it and kneaded until it was rather firm enough to hold some shape, and baked it in a cast-iron dutch oven in an oven set at the highest heat.

Lo and behold, I turned out to have baked a loaf of amazingly tasty artisanal sourdough bread with a pleasantly sour bite and nice “real bread” bubbly web.

How on earth did this happen?

I don’t know that I might replicate the recipe again.

Did the seitan-making process — the separating starch from protein — do some chemical magic? What role might it have played?

Mysteries abound.

More myths await being busted!

I grew up with what you called an heirloom starter. It was literally over 100 years old and had a great family story to go with it. Now that I’m 35, many of the people who had it are either gone or let their starter die. I was forced to make my own using a little pineapple juice and bread flour.

It took a while, but almost 2 weeks into it, my starter smells very sour and beer like and is about doubling in a few hours after feeding. I’m going to give it a whirl this week, and I’m very excited.

Thanks again for this great information.