Exactly what I was going to say! :-) I guess they could rephrase it: "an age-old invention particularly beloved by Americans"! For those who don't want to go look, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: "In the Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Michael Gaenzle writes: 'One of the oldest sourdough breads dates from 3700 BCE and was excavated in Switzerland, but the origin of sourdough fermentation likely relates to the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt several thousand years earlier', which was confirmed a few years later by archeological evidence.[3] ... 'Bread production relied on the use of sourdough as a leavening agent for most of human history; the use of baker's yeast as a leavening agent dates back less than 150 years.'[4] Sourdough remained the usual form of leavening down into the European Middle Ages[5] until being replaced by barm from the beer brewing process, and after 1871 by purpose-cultured yeast.'" THANK YOU FARMER'S ALMANAC FOR THE OTHERWISE GREAT ARTICLE ON SOURDOUGH, THOUGH!
Exactly what I was going to say! :-) I guess they could rephrase it: "an age-old invention particularly beloved by Americans"! For those who don't want to go look, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: "In the Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, Michael Gaenzle writes: 'One of the oldest sourdough breads dates from 3700 BCE and was excavated in Switzerland, but the origin of sourdough fermentation likely relates to the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt several thousand years earlier', which was confirmed a few years later by archeological evidence.[3] ... 'Bread production relied on the use of sourdough as a leavening agent for most of human history; the use of baker's yeast as a leavening agent dates back less than 150 years.'[4] Sourdough remained the usual form of leavening down into the European Middle Ages[5] until being replaced by barm from the beer brewing process, and after 1871 by purpose-cultured yeast.'" THANK YOU FARMER'S ALMANAC FOR THE OTHERWISE GREAT ARTICLE ON SOURDOUGH, THOUGH!