As someone who owns a sourdough pizza business, that is a weird thing to type. It’s true though. But I think it’s only true because sourdough is deeply misunderstood. It’s seen as something that’s inherently, at its core, seen as something better than the alternative – whatever that is. It’s seen as tastier, healthier and for some reason always looks rustic, like it would fit in at a medieval farmer’s breakfast. So let me tell you why it’s overrated, and why I love it anyway.
The term sourdough is really ambiguous but it comes down to yeast at the end of the day. Yeast is what gives bread and pizza its fluffy texture and volume. It’s actually alive. Yeast is fungus. It sounds gross, but I reckon that’s quite cool. Sourdough is when we capture wild yeast from the environment around us and use that to make food. You can even use it to make beer. So it’s not necessarily dough and to be honest it’s not even necessarily sour. Different yeast strains taste wildly different. I’ve bought yeast that tasted fruity, my sister’s tastes a little bit spicy and our resident sourdough, Cyril, is in fact quite sour. So they’re all vastly different.
So what’s the alternative to sourdough? That’s commercial yeast. It’s essentially the same thing, but you get it in a little sachet. It’s doing the exact same thing. The difference is that it’s easy to control and predict. Sourdough requires gathering the yeast, nurturing it and controlling its dose and temperature throughout the whole process. It’s like looking after a pet. It really is alive and its status deeply affects the end product of your pizza or bread. Packet yeast is a lot easier and in some cases it’s actually really tasty. For example, my best beers were always brewed with kveik. I swear by that yeast strain and it’s commonly available in a packet.
So sourdough is overrated. It’s not necessarily healthier. It’s not necessarily tastier. But guess what: I love it.
Cultivating a yeast strain that nobody else has? That is something special. Cyril is Venero’s little baby. Our little secret ingredient that you’ll never find anywhere else. And when we cold ferment a pizza base for 48 hours with Cyril, he’s basically a secret weapon. Sure, we could make our lives a lot easier by using commercial yeast, but then our pizza just wouldn’t be as unique. We could ferment it in a few hours like most do, but it just wouldn’t be as good.
Sourdough is a buzzword that’s been done to death, and so we’ve lost why it’s truly special. It’s a taste of how things used to be done, and when it’s done right, it’s delicious. So here’s to sourdough.
