Sourdough bread
Grain
Top 10 pairings
Sourdough is naturally leavened bread, raised not by packaged baker's yeast but by a living starter — a fermented paste of flour and water teeming with wild yeasts and lactic-acid bacteria. That slow, sour fermentation is what sets it apart: it gives the bread its signature tang, its chewy, open crumb and its blistered, deeply browned crust. Beyond flavour, the long ferment changes the loaf nutritionally — the acids and microbial enzymes pre-digest some of the starch and break down phytic acid, so a typical sourdough sits lower on the glycaemic index than ordinary white bread and gives up its minerals more readily.
Picking a good onedrag
Crust crackling, crumb springing backDry through, or spotted with mould
Day-oldEveryday bestThe all-rounder. It slices cleanly now for sandwiches, toast, bruschetta or dipping.
The crustFirm and dry, crackle gone quiet
The squeezeSprings back slowly, still soft
Smell at the crustFaintly yeasty; sourdough tangy
These cues are Bread's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.