Ok, deep breath. I have something to get off my chest.

Sour Dough is not a great bread for most purposes.

And you should stop baking it during quarantine.

It's overly chewy and the tanginess and crumb texture make it a bad sandwich bread most of the time. It's ok as toast, especially with some good butter. But most of the time there are much better alternatives.

I have some theories why it's so popular, especially in the US.

First off - US bread is terrible. And I say this as a Brit who thinks that, with a few notable exceptions, we don't really rank on the global bread charts.

US bread is sweet and it's weirdly cakey. It is so chock full of preservatives that I once was away for three months and when I came back a half eaten loaf I had forgotten to throw out still look as fresh as when I'd left it.

That weirded me out.

I think there's also a nerdy science fair vibe to it. You make a starter and it's alive and starts bubbling because of airborne yeast.

The feeding of the starter also fulfils a weird quasi-spiritual need for rituals that I've noticed among millenials, especially in the Bay Area

(see also: house plants)

Thirdly, there's a masochism involved with making a sour bread that come from that bit of US culture that says "if something is good then more is BETTER. Moderation is for WIMPS and COMMIES". You see this in a lot of US foods.

For example: the humble IPA. A delicious, nutty ale that's perfectly drinkable but a little sharper than a regular bitter.

Not in the US though.

In the US that means ramping up hops to extreme levels: "We're going to early hop it, late hop it and then, while you're drinking it, someone is going to FLAY you with hops before finally giving you a HOP ENEMA"

[ FX a bald eagle caws in the distance ]

This is why you gets beers like "Hop Overdrive", "Hopmagedden" "Hop-pocalypse" and "Hop Monster".

(I just made those up and have no idea if those actually exist but would it surprise you if they did?)

(Update: I checked - those are all actual real beers)

San Francisco prides itself on its coffee - except it's mostly bad! It's burnt and bitter. It's the Pure Breed dog of pets - one particular facet of something lovely magnified to grotesque levels, beyond reasonableness just so that it can be "the most".

So, in conclusion, stop making sour dough - it's baking masturbation. Try making one of the many, many other styles of bread out there - ciabatta, the perfect baguette, Hokkaido milk bread, dark Eastern European rye.

You'll be shocked at how easy it is to make mind blowing Naan.

So, in conclusion, stop making sour dough - it's baking masturbation. Try making one of the many, many other styles of bread out there - ciabatta, the perfect baguette, Hokkaido milk bread, dark Eastern European rye.

You'll be shocked at how easy it is to make mind blowing Naan.