Citizen Science Salon is a partnership between Discover and SciStarter.org.
By now, you’ve almost certainly heard the news: Homemade sourdough is the greatest thing since, well, sliced bread. Being stuck in quarantine gives many of us more time to do things around the house, like baking. And stores are short on household staples, including bread, so, sure, might as well give breadmaking a try. But why sourdough and not brioche, or a French baguette?
In terms of ingredients, it rarely gets any simpler than bread. Flour, water, salt and, unless you’re making flatbread, yeast. For many of us, yeast is just something that comes from the grocery store in a little packet or squat brown jar, and looks unsettlingly like fish food when you open it. Along with self-rising flour, prepackaged baker’s yeast disappeared from most grocery store shelves long ago.
