Cheap packaged bread simply doesn’t cut it
sir – I sympathise with Michael Stanford (Letters, March 9), who dislikes sourdough and simply wants decent bread.
Today’s bread is nasty – just read the list of ingredients to see how many additives go in. I can’t say I enjoy sourdough, but at least it has fewer additives, particularly soya.
How I wish we were able to buy the daily bread of my childhood: additive-free and fresh from a local bakery. Cheap packaged bread has come at a huge cost to quality.
Alex Turner
Basingstoke, Hampshire
sir – I, too, do not understand the present fashion for sourdough as it does taste of vinegar. However, as an irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferer whose health has greatly improved by changing to it, I am quite happy for the fad to continue.
The process of making sourdough gets rid of short-chain carbohydrates called fructans, now known to be one trigger for IBS. I found that wheat sourdough still left me with painful symptoms but tried a spelt version from a local farm shop. Spelt has a nice nutty flavour that partially disguises the vinegar.
My symptoms have disappeared. I now have the spelt loaf on order and intend to learn how to make it. Rosemary Wells
Weymouth, Dorset
sir – It sounds like Mr Stanford should try a new bakery, or, better still, make his own sourdough.
A good sourdough doesn’t taste like vinegar. The live starter culture that acts as a rising agent does have a pleasant sour smell in isolation, hence the name, but only a small amount is used in the bake, so the flavour is barely detectable in the finished product.
Just three ingredients – flour, water and salt – work together in a wondrous kind of alchemy with natural yeasts to create something approaching culinary perfection. Jeremy Calvert
Crumb Sourdough Ltd Mortlake, Surrey