Researchers Want to Know What Your Sourdough Starter Smells Like (Vice)

25 Apr 2020

Article via VICE

On the morning of the Turkish holiday, Hıdırellez, female bakers in the village of Ulubey wake up early to get an important ingredient for their sourdough starter, the same way their mothers and grandmothers did before them. Karl De Smedt, the world's only sourdough librarian, recorded the tale when he visited them.

"When the dew drops fall on the leaves before sunrise for the first time, these drops are collected in a cup like this and then it’s used to start [the bread],” one of the bakers told him. After tasting their bread, De Smedt concluded: "It's a dream."