Once upon a time I’d never even heard of sourdough. In fact, I was middle-aged by the time I did, and I only heard of it because I started making my own bread. Funny thing is, that for most of man’s civilised existence on the planet, that’s what bread generally was. Or if it was bread and wasn’t sourdough, it was by definition a flatbread!

Explained at its simplest level, sourdough is bread that is naturally leavened. No baker’s yeast, just a form of wild yeast. If you’re a bread baker, you start off with either an original culture of your own, or you are given some by a friend and you then nurture it. Basically, it’s a pet, but one of the few you can eat without people getting upset.