3 ms·
My big question with all this is, how does he know it is ancient yeast? Yeast mutates rapidly, so simply noting that it didn't taste like modern sourdough isn'
by hahamrfunnyguy 6y ago
My big question with all this is, how does he know it is ancient yeast? Yeast mutates rapidly, so simply noting that it didn't taste like modern sourdough isn't enough for me. There are a couple of scenarios, contamination of the starter and there seems to be no guarantee that the yeast he used for his initial culture were from ancient times.
As a homebrewer, I've done experiments collecting found yeast and the different strains vary...wildly.
- washadjeffmad 6y agoThis was the source of my bemusement, as well. In that light, it just reads like a branding gimmick. Friendship bread and other hereditary sourdoughs don't last more than a reculture against local wildtypes. Unless they're culturing and preparing the yeast and bacteria by strain and handling this industrially to prevent cross contamination, I don't have any hope they'll be able to do what they claim.
- thechao 6y agoThey actually discuss this at length in the Twitter 'thread'. Basically, they're pulling yeast spores from within the pottery, not from surface. Then they try to keep everything as sterile as possible after that (kitchen autoclaves, sterile handling with gloves, UV lights, etc.)
- washadjeffmad 6y agoAppreciated, Twitter is universally blocked for me.
- CydeWeys 6y agoIt seems like all of these questions are answered in the article? Hell, they've even got a geneticist working on sequencing the genome of the dormant yeast they extracted from the ancient pottery, so once that's finished I think we'll know pretty conclusively what we're looking at. But that the yeast would only grow when fed emmer flour, not modern wheat flour, already seems to suggest that something unusual is going on here that you wouldn't be seeing if it were truly modern bread yeast.