Sourdough shortage?

July 3, 2013 10:36 AM

I've been living on the road for the past seven months hitting just about everywhere in the South East US and wherever I go I try to find sourdough bread. In years past sourdough bread was easy to come by. This past year or so it's become nearly impossible and when I do find it it lacks any of the sour flavor I'm craving. Is this bread available in other parts of the country? Do people not like the sour flavor? Is there some kind of weird global warming yeast die-off going on that nobody told me about?
posted by bfootdav to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

It's still very easy to come by here, but only in bakeries who do hearth baking. When you say you are specifically seeking out that 'sour flavor', are you perhaps associating sourdough only with the San Francisco variety? Because sourdough is a very broad category and any number of boule and baguette varieties are technically sourdough but may not taste as sour as the San Fran stuff.
posted by Think_Long at 10:39 AM on July 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

You can order online at Boudin. I satisfy the cravings of (and provide bribes/incentives for) certain folks I work with on the east coast through this service.
posted by janey47 at 10:42 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

First off, the thing you buy in a regional chain grocery store is probably not real sourdough in the sense that it was grown from a wild yeast starter. It may have a certain strain of sourdough yeast in it, but that will be enhanced through all kinds of 'flavor improvers'.

Secondly, if you are going to local bakeries and still not getting what you think is that 'real' sourdough taste, it's probably because strains of wild yeast in the air (the stuff that's used to make sourdough starter) vary widely from place to place. So the sourdough I make here, in middle Tennessee, will not taste exactly the same as the sourdough in San Francisco, or in Wyoming, or in England. Regional sourdoughs are a delight, though, so pay attention to nuances of flavor in the same way you might a beer and keep on munching!

And if you're for any reason in Ava, Missouri, the local health food store sells big bags of San Fransisco sourdough yeast starter for all your bakin' needs.
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:49 AM on July 3, 2013

In the Southeastern US you will find a VERY good Sourdough Baugette at Publix, in their bakery. I'm from San Francisco and I find this to be about the best you can get in these parts.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:50 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I bought two breads in the last four months that claimed to be "San Francisco sourdough bread" and neither had even a hint of sour in them. Basically just white bread. But I felt lucky to even find anything labelled "sourdough" in the first place!

I was assuming that it's still readily available in the SF area but it's "sudden" disappearance elsewhere has me stumped.

The stuff at Boudin looks great, I mean really great, but I do not currently have the kind of lifestyle that allows me to purchase, store, and carry so much bread at one time. Besides, since I am travelling so much I'd like to patronize local options.

I'm aware of regional differences but my experience lately has been that stores aren't even trying to make it. That's part of the mystery.

And yes, Publix in Atlanta was the last place I found decent sourdough bread. Unfortunately I'm in Texas now and there aren't any Publixes around.
posted by bfootdav at 10:52 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sourdough is not as popular in the deep south as it is in other parts of the country, or not in my experience. I think I was an adult before I'd ever had any. It was trendy for a while, and you could find it in lots of places, but I haven't seen it around as much lately. I'm from Texas, and I mostly saw it in private bakeries.
posted by backwards compatible at 10:53 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ah, backwards compatible, so maybe it is an issue with the South and perhaps all those years I was finding it with ease was just the luck of my neighborhood and timing.
posted by bfootdav at 10:56 AM on July 3, 2013

It's frankly heretical, but are there any Panera cafes near you? They might have some version of sourdough that would be better than nothing. http://www.panerabread.com/find.php
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:56 AM on July 3, 2013

Try the sourdough at Panera. It's been consistent in taste in the various places I've had it around the country, and since I first had it in the late 80s when it was only in St. Louis and only went by the name Saint Louis Bread Company.
posted by zsazsa at 11:01 AM on July 3, 2013

Whole Foods was the only place I could find truly sour sourdough when I lived back East — the boules you get unsliced. (The best part of returning to California was escaping the lie sourdough that was just white bread.)
posted by dame at 11:02 AM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm currently in a small town in East Texas and there is no Panera around. There's also no Indian. No Thai. Certainly no Ethiopian. There are two Starbucks. But there is one really cool coffee house with a geodesic dome for a roof.

Anyway, I do know that Panera is around other cities down here so that will be a good place to look.

Strangely I haven't been near enough to any Whole Foods in quite a while so I haven't been able to check them, but they should have some.
posted by bfootdav at 11:04 AM on July 3, 2013

Just to confirm - yes, we still have sourdough coming out of our ears in the Bay Area. It is not a nationwide shortage or going out of fashion or anything.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 11:48 AM on July 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm an LA native who stocks up on Trader Joe's, Sara Lee's Santa Maria and now Sprouts cracked wheat when I'm on the west coast ( which can NOT be found anywhere else).

I have seen La Brea bakery sourdough sold at the various Kroger affiliates ( don't remember what they're named in the south).
posted by brujita at 11:54 AM on July 3, 2013

FWIW (and this might not work too well for you while you're traveling--but then again, maybe it could) it is very, very easy to make your own sourdough start and then use that to make your own sourdough bread, rolls, pancakes, or whatever. Way better tasting than anything I've ever bought commercially. Instructions here.
posted by flug at 12:37 PM on July 3, 2013

Best answer: My sense of the story is like this:

First (and by first I mean 'when I was considerably younger'), all you could buy was crappy bread, regardless of what you were willing to pay.

Then you could buy really good bread at a much higher price.

And now some stores have figured out that they can charge really high prices for crappy bread, so long as it more-or-less looks like good bread. Sorta like tomatoes.

In Pittsburgh I can buy excellent bread, including real sourdough. I can also buy crap bread that looks very similar to the good stuff, so it's important to keep track of which stores sell which.
posted by jon1270 at 12:49 PM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

I see you're in East Texas, so this doesn't help you much, but I will say at two bakeries I've worked at (Sweetish Hill and Central Market in Austin) we had true starters. The Sweetish Hill one was 30+ years old and the Central Market one was 15+ years old. It was important for the bread bakers to remember to feed the beast!

Neither produced a particularly sour sourdough, though. I think the climate has a ton to do with being able to get the strains that make a good sour sourdough. I tried on my own to capture some wild yeasts and never got anything particularly worth baking with.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:24 PM on July 3, 2013

Response by poster: OK, so it looks like I'm just unlucky in where I'm travelling these days and that good sourdough can be had.

Hopefully I will be going to Austin for a few days in the next month or so, so I'll definitely look out for Sweetish Hill and Central Market.

And if all goes well then I should be headed to the Pacific Northwest sometime after that where it looks like good sourdough might be plentiful again.

Finally, years'n'years ago I used to make my own sourdough bread using wild yeast. It was a pain and largely unsuccessful. But just about the time the starter got really good I had to move several times in a brief span and lost that starter. Maybe again, someday ...

Anyhoo, thanks all, I am relieved that my favorite bread is still available out there.
posted by bfootdav at 1:49 PM on July 3, 2013

The super Targets here in Houston (the ones that sell groceries) make a pretty good sourdough loaf, though I don't know if its the "real thing". It's chewy and has that pungent sourdough flavor/smell. It's better than the so-called sourdough I've tried from other grocery stores...
posted by kira at 2:09 PM on July 3, 2013

It is so hard to find sourdough in the South! I found pretty decent sourdough at Whole Foods in New Orleans (and I'm from San Francisco). It was, I believe, made by their house bakery. I recall eating like 4 slices on the ride home from the store!
posted by radioamy at 3:37 PM on July 3, 2013